New Windows 11 audio and video search feature scans and scrapes your system's media files

Although not directly mentioned in the release notes, Microsoft's new 'intelligent media search' for Windows 11 is referenced in the latest Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27695 (Canary Channel). What does it do? Well, once confirmation is given, media files on your device will be scanned and scraped (and transcribed with AI) and then indexed for spoken word search.

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In some ways, Microsoft's new 'Intelligent media search' for Windows 11 is reminiscent of the controversial Recall feature that was quietly put on hold before the launch of Microsoft's new Copilot+ AI PCs. Recall was a system that would have your PC take screenshots of everything you do and then use an AI model to index and make your PC history searchable.

This sounds much more practical, especially if you can set and select which audio and video files to scrape, scan, and transcribe with AI. For those who record meetings or work with video used as a reference, it sounds like a great addition to Windows 11 and a great use of local AI. Searching a long video for specific words or topics sounds extremely useful.

Unfortunately, 'Intelligent media search' isn't currently available to test or use, even in the latest Windows 11 Insider Preview Build. @XenoPanther on X spotted references to the tool in the build, pointing to the feature arriving at some point in the future. Here's the full description.

"Search by spoken words in your indexed video or audio files. By clicking 'I agree,' you consent to scanning the media files on your device. If needed, the required model will be downloaded and installed in the background. Once the AI model is set up, it needs to transcribe your media files and index them before enabling content-based search. We'll inform you once the process is complete."

Microsft has yet to introduce the new tool formally, so it's unclear if it will be limited to Windows Copilot+ compatible PCs with an NPU of at least 45 TOPS.