Microsoft Plans to Add Windows 11 AI Requirement Watermark — It is abundantly clear that ever since the Windows 11 Update Version 24H2 Microsoft has gone full gear towards AI integration into its operating system. Recent developments, however, showed that Microsoft is planning to add a warning watermark for PCs that fall short of its system requirements.
he findings were first put to light by Twitter user Albacore highlighting the Windows 11 insider build 26200 contains strings of code for upcoming features such as the AI Explorer (AIX) and Advanced Copilot AI; a seemingly successor to Bing Copilot which also checks and shows warning overlays if the requirements aren’t met.
Their investigation shows that users who run their PCs with less than 16GB of RAM, under 225 GB system drive and are not running with ARM64 CPUs may potentially be flagged as one that doesn’t meet the requirement. They also pointed out that with the current RTM build the checks can simply be skipped by disabling ID 48476440.
Everything is not yet final
But before you start grabbing your pitchfork, do note that this change is still only present in the insider build; which means all this can still change before it finally goes public. This also includes the spec requirement as it doesn’t make much sense to push the ARM64 requirement architecture where most if not all PCs run in x64.
As of writing, there’s also an update from Albacore pointing out that AI Explorer is not AI File Explorer and is actually a separate app. Another good news— sorta, is that the watermark nagging is limited only within the AIX and not OS-wide like the “Activate Windows” watermark.
Bottom line
Windows is yet again caught in controversies by allegedly planning on introducing a watermark to PCs that are not within its requirement spec to run AI Explorer. The findings were found by Twitter user Albacore showing that there are strings of checks that can currently easily be skipped by disabling ID48476440.
Fortunately, as this finding is found in insider build it means that Microsoft can still change many things before the updates go live. In addition, the nagging watermark is currently known to be only contained within the AI Explorer and not OS-wide.