Windows 11's biggest AI feature is recalled once again as we approach Windows 10's demise

The Windows Forecast is a look at the future of Windows, commenting each week on the latest news for Windows Insiders as well as other important announcements in the Windows space. My name is João Carrasqueira and I have been working professionally in the world of Windows since 2018. If you would like to see anything covered, you can reach me at joao@xda-developers.com.

Here we are for another edition of The Windows Forecast. This was another week with very little news for Windows Insiders. In fact, the biggest news this week is the lack of news, as Microsoft has once again delayed the controversial recall feature for Copilot+ PCs. But there's more to discover, so let's get started.

The callback is called back again

In classic Microsoft style

Microsoft is no stranger to delaying features ad infinitum and eliminating features and products altogether after saying far too little about them. When Microsoft canceled Recall's rollout for Copilot+ PCs just days before it was scheduled to be released to the general public, my friend (and boss) Rich Woods quickly explained that he didn't think Recall would ever ship. I was a little more loyal and eventually Microsoft announced that Recall would be available to Windows Insiders in October. Heck, Microsoft even re-announced the feature right at the beginning of the month alongside the second wave of Copilot+ features.

But then the days continued to pass. Throughout October, Microsoft remained silent about the recall until the company issued a statement on October 31 confirming that the feature had been delayed again. It didn't just last a few days or a week either. Recall is now expected to come to the Insider program in December.

To put it in perspective, on October 1st, Microsoft announced the Super Resolution feature for the Photos app on Copilot+ PCs. This feature was made available to Insiders last week. Copilot+ was announced on May 20th, scheduled for release on June 18th alongside Copilot+ PCs, and it is Despite it nowhere to be seen.

I still don't think Microsoft will cancel Recall before launch, but it's definitely not looking good. But the worst part is that it's actually not that surprising. It was all too easy to guess that even if Recall was released in October, it would probably show up towards the end of the month. And as we reached the end of last week, I knew for certain that the company would wait until the very last day of the month to either make it available or announce a delay. In fact, I wouldn't have even said that Microsoft would even announce the delay until it was too late. And in reality, that somehow wasn't the case, as it was only known through a report from The edge. You won't find any mention of this delay in Microsoft's blogs.

Microsoft always seems to do this sort of thing. The coolest and most interesting features are always the ones that are delayed, and we only get clarity about them at the very last moment. It's honestly impressive how poorly this company sometimes communicates with its customers and fans. A good example is Android app support in Windows 11, which was announced at launch along with all the other available features, but was then delayed for months (although this delay was at least announced in advance). Will we see Recall in December? I'm hopeful, but my expectations are pretty low. Development tends to slow down even before the holidays, so I wouldn't be surprised if this actually happened in January.

Windows 10 is almost dead

However, you can pay for continued use

This week Microsoft also reminded us of this Really wants you to update to Windows 11, but if you can't handle the update, you can pay $30 to continue receiving security updates for another year. That is, if you are a regular consumer, as companies have a much more expensive ESU program that can last up to three years.

Honestly, as snarky as I may be, I think Microsoft's approach is completely fine. Enterprises are still the customers who need the extended support the most, as the time commitment of upgrading multiple PCs to Windows 11 at scale is much more severe. So it makes sense that these customers pay the most.

Some might argue that Microsoft could have simply made the updates free to consumers, but I imagine that wouldn't go over well with companies that have to pay for them. Additionally, this would only mean an extension of the platform's end of support date, which Microsoft is not obligated to do. It's obvious that the company wants everyone to use Windows 11, and that's fine. Overall it is a better operating system in my opinion.

What I find strange is that consumers don't have the option to extend updates for up to three years either. Even if these costs increased every year, as they do for businesses, this option could only be truly lucrative for Microsoft and provide a longer lifeline for those who refuse to update.

Ultimately, though, it's time to move on from Windows 10. If your PC supports Windows 11, the upgrade is free and, in my opinion, totally worth it. And if you don't… Well, buying a new laptop kind of sucks, but you're probably holding on to something that's no longer very fast. Buying a new laptop will be expensive, but you will notice some huge improvements in this new device. And hey, maybe you can repurpose that old laptop as a home assistant computer or something.

Is Windows Hello… getting better?

Well, at least it looks good

Microsoft closed out the week with a unique build for Windows Insiders in the Beta Channel, the only one released all week. The only news is a redesigned Windows Hello experience that introduces new icons and an overall sleeker design that better fits the Windows 11 design language.

I love the Windows 11 Fluent Design System and any updates that unify the interface and make it more beautiful are an upgrade in my opinion, so I'm totally on board with it. However, if Microsoft wants to improve Windows Hello, I would like to see the company focus on that function to look better instead of prettier. Signing in with Windows Hello often takes longer than entering a PIN because the Windows Hello camera takes too long to start on most computers. So you can simply enter the PIN when trying to start. I still use Windows Hello, but I know people who have simply given up on it because it wastes more time than it saves.

The positive thing is that it will at least be easier to manage passkeys. So if you need to use multiple passkeys, this is a pretty good upgrade. Passkeys just don't work that well for me because I often switch devices and then have to create different passkeys, which seems kind of confusing. Most of the time I prefer to use the standard two-factor authentication and Windows Hello.

Wrap up

That's all the big news that happened this week, and overall it was a pretty slow week. The delay in the recall was frustrating but not surprising, and now I'm not 100% sure the feature will ever be available. In my opinion, Microsoft has yet to truly prove the value of the Copilot+ PCs, so these recall delays don't help at all.

Hopefully next week brings more positive news for Windows fans, although I expect a big part of that will be the new Windows Hello design rolling out to more Insider channels, since those channels don't mean much anymore. Whatever it is, I'll be here next Saturday to talk about it.