The Windows 11 Insider Experimental Preview build adds a more detailed AI Components page to the Settings app that displays information about local AI models and allows users to uninstall some of them.
The feature was revealed in build 26300.8553 by researchers at PureInfotech. This is primarily relevant for CoPilot+ PCs, which run native AI models.
The page is not officially available yet. PureInfotech had to manually enable it on the test PC to access the uninstall option, indicating that it is still in development.
What the AI components page shows and limited uninstall support
(Source: TechSpot)
Windows 11’s Settings app now includes a dedicated AI components page where users can view details about local AI models.
The latest version of this feature provides more comprehensive information for each installed model, including publisher, version, installation date, size, and total usage. This detailed view aims to increase transparency around the AI models integrated into Windows 11.
The new interface reportedly allows users to uninstall some AI models. Currently, the only AI component that can be removed is Phi Silica, an on-device language model designed to handle native AI workloads on Copilot+ PCs.
It’s unclear whether Microsoft plans to expand uninstall options to other AI components or whether some models will remain non-removable due to system dependencies.
Other changes in build 26300.8553 and why it matters
The build released last week includes several new features and fixes, such as expanded customization options for the Start menu, improved search with substring matching, and support for touch swipe gestures to reveal the taskbar when docked in an alternate position.
Microsoft has faced criticism for rolling out AI features through automatic Windows updates without giving users a clear choice, including the silent installation of local AI models on Copilot+ PCs.
A management page that displays details of these models such as purpose, size, data usage, and installation date helps address some of those concerns by improving transparency.
The option to uninstall AI components, which is currently limited to Phi Silica, responds to a common user complaint that some bundled AI models are unnecessary and users want to free up storage and system resources.
The AI model management page that includes uninstall support is not yet officially enabled in the current Insider build and requires manual activation to access.
Its presence suggests that Microsoft may plan to introduce it more widely in a future update, but the company has not officially announced the feature nor provided any timeline for when it will become generally available.
