Copilot+ PCs are here. But one of the biggest touted features – Windows Recall – won’t be part of these AI-powered PCs just yet. After major backlash from the tech industry, Microsoft has been forced to delay the release of Windows Recall until privacy concerns surrounding the controversial AI feature can be addressed. But given how integral Recall would become, is there really a point to Copilot+ PCs without it?

Recall was touted as a major selling point for Copilot+ PCs like Microsoft Surface laptops and those from Lenovo, Dell and HP. But the feature, the idea of which was always going to raise suspicion, was mishandled from the start.

The idea behind Recall is simple: it takes a snapshot of what you’re doing every few seconds and stores it in a database on your computer. Then, whenever you want to go back, the built-in NPU-driven AI will comb through the data and find what you’re looking for.

But most people didn’t like the nightmarish idea of software taking snapshots of how they were using their PCs. Things got worse when it became clear how poorly protected these snapshots were—that is, not at all. There was no encryption whatsoever for the files stored in a SQLite database, either at rest or in transit. Anyone with the slightest inclination to find them could.