Windows 11’s biggest AI feature gets recalled yet again as we approach Windows 10’s demise

The Windows Forecast is a look at the future of Windows that comments on the latest news for Windows Insiders, as well as other major announcements in the Windows space each and every week. My name is João Carrasqueira, and I’ve been covering the world of Windows professionally since 2018. If there’s something you’d like to see covered, you can reach me at joao@xda-developers.com.

Here we are for yet another edition of The Windows Forecast. This was yet another week with very little in the way of news for Windows Insiders. In fact, the biggest news of this week is the lack of news, since Microsoft has once again delayed the controversial Recall feature for Copilot+ PCs. But there’s more to dive into, so let’s get right on with it.

Recall gets re-recalled

In classic Microsoft fashion

Microsoft is no stranger to delaying features into infinity and outright cancelling features and products after being far too quiet about them. So when Microsoft cancelled the rollout of Recall for Copilot+ PCs mere days before it was set to become available to the general public, my friend (and boss) Rich Woods quickly stated that he didn’t believe Recall would ever ship. I was a bit more faithful, and eventually Microsoft revealed that Recall would roll out to Windows Insiders in October. Heck, Microsoft even re-announced the feature along with the second wave of Copilot+ features right at the start of the month.

Related

Microsoft details the second wave of Copilot+ — 5 new features that are coming

Recall is finally arriving, plus a lot more

But then the days kept passing. Microsoft was quiet about Recall for the entire month of October until, lo and behold, on October 31st, the company issued a statement confirming that the feature was, once again, delayed. It wasn’t by just 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. That feature became available to Insiders last week. Copilot+ was announced on May 20th, planned for release on June 18th alongside Copilot+ PCs, and it’s still nowhere to be seen.

I still don’t think Microsoft will cancel Recall before it launches, but it’s definitely not looking good. But the worst part is this isn’t actually that surprising. It was all too easy to guess that, even if it did make an appearance in October, Recall would probably show up towards the end of the month. And when we got to the end of last week, I knew for sure that the company was going to wait until the very last day of the month to either make it available or announce a delay. In fact, I wouldn’t even have said Microsoft would announce the delay at all until it was too late. And in reality, it kind of didn’t, since it was only known through a report from The Verge. You’ll find no mention of this delay on Microsoft’s blogs.

Microsoft always seems to do something like this. The coolest and most interesting features are always the ones that get delayed, and we get no clarity on it until the last possible moment. It’s honestly impressive how poorly this company communicates with its customers and fans sometimes. A good example is Android app support in Windows 11, which was announced alongside all the other features available at launch, only to get delayed for months (though at least that delay was announced ahead of time). Will we see Recall in December? I’m hopeful, but my expectations are fairly low. Development already tends to slow down ahead of the holidays, so I wouldn’t be surprised if this actually ends up happening in January.

Windows 10 is almost dead

But you can pay to keep using it

This week, Microsoft also reminded us that it really wants you to upgrade to Windows 11, but if you can’t fathom the update, you can pay $30 to keep receiving security updates for one more year. That is, if you’re a general consumer, since businesses have a much more expensive ESU program that can last up to three years.

Honestly, as snarky as I can be about this, I think Microsoft’s approach is totally fine. Businesses are still the customers who need the extended support the most, since the time cost of upgrading multiple PCs to Windows 11 is much more impactful on a large scale. So it makes sense for those customers to pay the most.

Some may argue that Microsoft could just have made the updates free for consumers, but I imagine that wouldn’t go down well with businesses who have to pay for it. Plus, that would just be extending the platform’s end of support date, which Microsoft has no obligation to do. It’s obvious the company wants everyone on Windows 11, and that’s fine, too. Overall, it is a better operating system in my opinion.

What I find weird is that consumers don’t get the option to also extend updates for up to three years. Even if that cost increased each year like it does for businesses, having that option could only really be lucrative for Microsoft, and it would give those who refuse to update a longer lifeline.

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, completely worth it. And if it doesn’t… Well, yes, buying a new laptop kind of sucks, but you’re probably holding on to something that is not very fast anymore. Buying a new laptop will be pricy, but you’re going to see some huge improvements on that new machine. And hey, maybe you can repurpose that old laptop as a Home Assistant computer or something.

Windows Hello gets… better?

Well, at least it looks nice

Source: Microsoft

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

I love the Windows 11 Fluent Design System, and any updates to unify the UI and make it prettier are an upgrade in my book, so I’m totally on board with this. That being said, if Microsoft is going to improve Windows Hello, I wish the company focused on making it function better rather than look nicer. Signing in with Windows Hello often takes longer than typing a PIN simply because the Windows Hello camera takes too long to boot on most computers, so while it’s trying to start, you can just enter the PIN instead. I still use Windows Hello, but I know people who have just given up on it because it wastes more time than it saves.

On the bright side, at least it’s also getting easier to manage passkeys, so if you need to use multiple passkeys, this is a pretty good upgrade. Passkeys just don’t work super well for me because I’m frequently switching devices and then I have to create different passkeys and it seems kind of confusing. I’d rather use standard two-factor authentication and Windows Hello most of the time.

Wrapping up

That’s all the major news that happened this week, and overall, it was a pretty slow week. The Recall delay was frustrating but unsurprising, and now I’m not 100% confident the feature will ever ship. Microsoft has yet to really prove the worth of Copilot+ PCs in my opinion, so these Recall delays are not helping whatsoever.

Hopefully next week will bring some more positive news for Windows fans, though I expect a good part of it to be the new Windows Hello design rolling out to more Insider channels since those channels don’t mean much anymore. Whatever it may be, I’ll be here to talk about it next Saturday.