Windows 11 AI Features Explained: Copilot, Recall, Designer and Copilot+ PC Requirements

Below is each feature from that list, checked against Microsoft's own documentation, with what it actually needs and how to use it.

Search and research: Copilot in Edge​

Mashable starts with AI search. Its advice is sensible: Copilot can be wrong and still sound sure of itself, so check anything important. Follow-up questions also beat running five separate searches.

According to Microsoft's support documentation, Copilot in Edge is a built-in assistant. It can research topics and summarize web pages, videos and PDFs without you leaving the browser. To use it:

1. Sign in to Edge with your personal Microsoft account. Microsoft says this is required.
2. Open the web page, video or PDF you want to ask about.
3. Select the Copilot icon in the upper-right corner of Edge.
4. Type a question, pick a suggested prompt, or select Create a Summary to get a plain analysis of the page.

Privacy note: Depending on what you ask, Microsoft says Copilot may use the current page, its title, your open tabs and your browser history to answer. To stop that, go to More (…) > Copilot and AI and turn off Allow Copilot to read context clues on the web. Microsoft also tells users not to share sensitive information they wouldn't want used as browsing context. Closing tabs and clearing history removes material from that context.

Mashable says Copilot "provides sources for its information." Treat that as true for some answers, not all of them. Whether or not a citation appears, check the original source when accuracy matters.

Section summary: Copilot in Edge saves time on research and summaries. It needs a Microsoft account sign-in, and you should know what browsing data it can see.

Summarizing documents: Edge, Word and OneDrive​

Mashable names Edge and Word as places to get summaries. Microsoft documents a third option that suits File Explorer users: Copilot in OneDrive.

Microsoft's OneDrive support page says you can summarize files stored in OneDrive without opening them. That includes Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint decks and PDFs, plus files shared with you. Images and videos aren't supported.

From File Explorer:

• One file: Right-click a supported file, choose OneDrive, then Summarize.
• Several files: Select up to five files, right-click, choose OneDrive, then Summarize.

From the OneDrive website: Select a file (or up to five), click the Copilot button at the bottom right, and choose Summarize this file.

Once a summary appears, you can choose Ask a question to dig further or to focus the summary on one topic. Microsoft's advice is to be specific: the more detail in your prompt, the better the result. The page lists OneDrive for Business, Microsoft 365 Personal, Family and business plans as applicable. In other words, this depends on your account, not just on having Windows 11.

In Word, Microsoft's guidance for Word for Microsoft 365 works like this:

1. Select the text you want to change.
2. Choose Copilot from the mini toolbar, or open Copilot in the document.
3. Pick an option such as Auto Rewrite, or describe what you want (rewritten, summarized, reformatted, turned into a table).
4. Review the result, then choose Replace, Insert below or Regenerate.

Common failure point: If Copilot doesn't show up in Word, Microsoft says your Microsoft 365 subscription may not include it, or your organization's settings may block it. Updating Windows won't fix either of those.

Generating text: it's "Copilot Pages," not a Pages app​

Mashable describes asking Copilot to write text in "the Pages app" and then pressing "Add to page." Microsoft's documentation calls the feature Copilot Pages. It's a workspace that sits next to Copilot Chat, not a separate app.

How it works, according to Microsoft:

1. Type a prompt into Copilot Chat. Asking it to "Create a page…" can make it generate a page directly.
2. Select the pencil button under Copilot's reply to turn it into a page that opens alongside the chat.
3. Keep prompting to add or revise content, or edit the page yourself. To rework a specific passage, highlight it and choose Ask Copilot.
4. To bring in an older conversation, open your chat history, select the Pages icon under that response, then Add to recent page.

Requirements:

• Personal accounts: Copilot Pages needs a Microsoft 365 Personal, Family, Premium or Pro subscription.
• Work or school (Entra ID) accounts: It's available to users with SharePoint or OneDrive storage, even without a Microsoft 365 Copilot license.

Watch out: Microsoft warns that when Copilot Chat updates a page, some content from earlier in the conversation may be removed. Check the page after every AI edit. Version history lets you view or restore earlier versions if something important disappears.

Image creation: Designer, the Copilot app and Photos​

Mashable points to Microsoft Designer: type a prompt, get an image, then refine it. That's accurate, but there are conditions.

• Designer (web app): Microsoft's getting-started page says you need a Microsoft 365 Personal or Family account, and Designer isn't currently available to enterprise users. Under Create with AI, you describe the image, select Generate, pick a result, then choose Edit to adjust it. The Edit with AI tab can restyle an image, remove or blur its background, and crop or rotate it. Microsoft also notes that the legacy editor was retired on October 20, 2025, and brand kits and stock videos went with it.
• Copilot app: Copilot can create images from text prompts. You can also upload a picture through the + menu and ask it to change something, such as removing people in the background. Microsoft says generated and uploaded images are kept for no longer than 18 months. You can delete them from your conversation history and opt out of having your activity used for model training.
• Photos > Edit with Designer: Open a single image in Photos and select the Designer icon in the title bar. You get quick edits such as crop, filters, background removal and generative erase. This is an online, cloud-based feature. It needs an internet connection and a Microsoft account to use the AI tools, and Microsoft Entra accounts can't sign in to it.

Troubleshooting a missing Designer button in Photos: Microsoft says it only appears when all of these are true:

• You have a single image open.
• The PC is online.
• You're using a supported language: English, Spanish, French, Portuguese (Brazil), German or Italian.

Microsoft also adds C2PA content credentials to images edited with generative AI, which marks them as AI-edited.

Recall: no longer "upcoming," but still a preview​

This is where Mashable's list is most out of date. It labels Recall "upcoming." Microsoft's current support documentation describes Recall (preview) as an experience exclusive to Copilot+ PCs that will help you easily find and remember things you've seen using natural language. Mashable's recipe example is a good one. In Microsoft's words, you can search for content you've seen in apps, websites, images, and documents. Recall doesn't record audio or save continuous video.

It is opt-in. Microsoft says you can opt in to saving snapshots of your screen periodically.

How to control it:

• Turn snapshots on or off: Settings > Privacy & security > Recall & snapshots.
• Pause temporarily: select the Recall icon in the system tray on your PC and select the pause option.
• Filter and delete: You can disable saving snapshots, pause temporarily, filter apps and websites, and delete your snapshots at any time.
• Authentication: Every time you launch Recall or change Recall settings, you'll be asked to confirm that it's you using Windows Hello. You'll need Windows Hello set up with at least one biometric sign-in option.

Where the data lives: Mashable says snapshots stay local, and Microsoft's IT documentation backs that up in more detail. No internet or cloud connections are required or used to save and analyze snapshots. Snapshots aren't sent to Microsoft. Microsoft also states that Recall doesn't share snapshots with other users that are signed into Windows on the same device and IT admins can't access or view the snapshots on end-user devices.

Security context: The 2024 rebuild of Recall followed heavy criticism of the first version. Microsoft's architecture post from that time says sensitive content filtering is on by default and helps reduce passwords, national ID numbers and credit card numbers from being stored in Recall. Note the word "reduce." The filter is a safety net, not a guarantee. The same post says Recall only operates on Copilot+ PCs that meet the Secured-core standard, with BitLocker or Device Encryption, TPM 2.0 and virtualization-based security and hypervisor enforced code integrity.

Common failure point: If you can't find "Recall & snapshots" in Settings, the usual reason is the hardware. A standard Windows 11 PC isn't a Copilot+ PC, and no update will add Recall to it.

Cocreator: also available, with different names in Photos​

Mashable also calls Cocreate "upcoming." Microsoft's Paint support page documents Cocreator as available now on Copilot+ PCs running an up-to-date Paint app:

1. Type a text prompt describing what you want.
2. Draw on the Paint canvas.
3. Watch the generated artwork appear in the side pane, and adjust creativity and style before applying it.

Microsoft says Cocreator works best with English prompts and with drawings made directly on the Paint canvas.

Mashable also says Cocreate will come to Photos. Microsoft doesn't describe it that way. Its documentation lists two separate Copilot+ PC features in Photos: Image Creator, which makes an image from a text prompt, and Restyle Image, which applies a text-guided style to an existing photo. They overlap with Cocreator in spirit, but they aren't the same feature.

Quick reference: what each feature needs​

The verdict: real time savings, if you know the rules​

Do these tools save time? Often, yes. Summarizing five OneDrive files from a right-click beats opening each one, and Recall really is faster than digging through browser history. But Mashable's line that AI tools are "excellent at helping users save time" deserves some caution. A summary you have to fact-check, or a page edit that quietly drops a paragraph, can cost you the time it was supposed to save.

My advice:

• Treat AI output as a first draft. That goes for summaries, search answers and generated text.
• Know whether a feature runs locally or in the cloud. Recall and Cocreator run on Copilot+ PC hardware. Designer and Copilot image generation are cloud services with their own data-retention rules.
• Check your account type before blaming Windows. Several of these features aren't available to Entra or enterprise accounts, or are tied to specific Microsoft 365 plans.
• IT admins: Recall on managed and bring-your-own-device Copilot+ PCs has its own management guidance from Microsoft. Read it before users start asking why their Settings page looks different.

For more, see our forum threads on Copilot+ PC hardware, managing Recall with policy, and Microsoft 365 Copilot licensing.