Search the Community

If you were among the Windows Server 2022 users who recently spotted a new Microsoft Copilot app added to the list of installed programs, don’t fret - it’s not an actual app, and it doesn’t work. It's just a mistake on Microsoft’s part, a tail left behind the tests Microsoft ran for Windows Server 2025, recently. As reported by BleepingComputer, Microsoft acknowledged the error earlier this week, and added that it affected systems running Windows 10 22H2 and Windows 11 21H2, or newer. Shouldn't be visible "Updates to Edge browser version 123.0.2420.65, released on March 28, 2024 and later, might incorrectly install a new package (MSIX) called 'Microsoft chat provider for Copilot in Windows' on Windows devices. Resulting from this, the Microsoft Copilot app might appear in the Installed apps in Settings menu," the company said in a statement. So, it was an update for the Edge browser that triggered the error - and furthermore, Microsoft says the “app” doesn’t collect data, or exfiltrate it to company servers. "It is important to note that the Microsoft chat provider for Copilot in Windows does not execute any code or process, and does not acquire, analyze, or transmit device or environment data in any capacity," Microsoft added. The package will make it to the OS eventually, BleepingComputer added, but so far, it shouldn’t be visible on all Windows devices. "As part of the upcoming resolution of this issue, the chat provider for Copilot in Windows component will be removed from devices where Microsoft Copilot is not intended to be enabled or installed. This includes most Windows Server devices," Microsoft said. "We are working on a resolution and will provide an update in an upcoming release of Microsoft Edge." The company started testing Microsoft Copilot in WIndows Server 2025 preview builds earlier this year, but removed it after a backlash from the community. More from TechRadar Pro Microsoft’s Copilot AI can now read your files directly, but it's not the privacy nightmare it sounds likeHere's a list of the best firewalls around todayThese are the best endpoint security tools right now View the full article

Microsoft Copilot can write basic SQL code, which could help your employees be more efficient and productive.View the full article

Trying to decide which version of Microsoft Copilot is right for you? This guide will help you compare and choose the one that best suits your needs.View the full article

Microsoft has made a relatively minor but pretty useful tweak for Copilot in testing, as part of the ongoing effort to bring the AI assistant into play more often with Windows 11. This is part of the new Windows 11 preview build 22635 deployed in the Beta channel, and the change to Copilot is rolling out gradually, so not all testers in that channel will have it just yet. The idea is a ‘new experience’ for Copilot that aims to boost your productivity in Windows 11. How exactly? Well, when you copy a text or image file, the AI’s icon in the taskbar has an animation that’s triggered to let you know the assistant can help with that file. If you hover the mouse over the Copilot icon, you’ll then get some new options – for example with an image file, you’ll be presented with choices including creating an image like the current one, or getting Copilot to analyze the picture. (Image credit: Microsoft) Build 22635 doesn’t do an awful lot more than these Copilot tweaks, but there is another change here for Windows Share. Microsoft is making it so you can use this functionality to share directly to a specific Microsoft Teams channel or group chat. (This is an ability that had been in testing previously, but was temporarily removed due to bugs – and it’s now reinstated). As ever check out Microsoft’s blog post for the build to find out the full details and known issues in this preview release. Analysis: Treading a fine line The fresh tweaks for Copilot are simple but quick ways of interacting with files using the AI. Microsoft is putting these various abilities at the fingertips of the user, and highlighting that the AI can help with said animation on the icon. Clearly, the hope is that having brought Copilot to the attention of the person sat at the Windows 11 PC, this will result in more usage of the AI. With this change being in the Beta testing channel – the step before Release Preview, where things are finalized for the stable builds of Windows 11 for everyday users – we’ll likely see this introduced with the 24H2 update later this year. As to the overall concept of having Copilot pointed out actively, if Microsoft is planning to do more along these lines, it’ll have to tread a thin line between helping the user, and perhaps getting on the annoying side with too many little calls for attention. There’s a fine balance with some aspects of OS development – such as, for example, when recommendations or suggestions in menus become more like adverts – and sometimes Microsoft has strayed beyond the acceptable boundaries, at least in our humble opinion. We’re hopeful this won’t be the case here, and there’s certainly nothing wrong with the current Copilot rejigging in testing. You might also like... Watch out: soon some older PCs will lose Windows 11 supportWindows 11 is getting a voice-powered ability many users have been longing forDon’t make these 5 big mistakes when using Windows 11 View the full article

Microsoft uses Copilot as a product name, but more and more often the word sums up a generic class of generative AI bots.View the full article

Microsoft keeps trying to make Copilot happen, but it just isn’t useful. View the full article

Get ready, suckers, because the AI PC train is building up to full speed, engines burning - all aboard! Yes, Intel and Microsoft have revealed a new set of requirements for so-called ‘AI PCs’, those AI-powered laptops and desktops that Microsoft in particular has been pushing as of late, with its Copilot AI assistant rolling out to more Windows users whether they like it or not. These requirements are fairly straightforward, outlining the three most basic tenets of what an AI PC should be: Capable of running Microsoft CopilotEquipped with a dedicated NPU (and a modern CPU and GPU)Features a dedicated Copilot button The first two make perfect sense to me. A Windows ‘AI laptop’ that doesn’t have Copilot would just be a regular laptop, and the current prevalence of Neural Processing Units (NPUs) for AI workloads makes those a near-mandatory inclusion for running local AI processes too. It’s that third point that irritates me, though. (Image credit: Intel) I’m not the only one: while Intel has largely acquiesced to Microsoft’s list of demands, there are already laptops out there that meet the first two requirements, lacking only the dedicated Copilot button. Under Microsoft’s rules, these laptops - like the rather excellent new Samsung Galaxy Book4 Pro - don’t technically meet the bar. But Intel reckons they should still be eligible for the ‘AI PC’ label. “From an Intel perspective, our AI PC has Core Ultra and it has an integrated NPU”, said Intel’s PC ecosystem head Todd Lewellen, going on to say that Intel has “great alignment with Microsoft, but there are going to be some systems out there that may not have the physical key on it but it does have our integrated NPU.” Opinion: Forcing hardware design shifts like this is a bad look I’ll be honest: I’m not very happy about this. I look at my laptop keyboard (the compact 13-inch HP Spectre x360) and my first thought is ‘Where the hell are they going to fit a Copilot key?’ Besides, I don’t personally use - or even want to use - Copilot. This isn’t me poo-pooing the merits of Microsoft’s AI assistant; I’m sure some people love using it, and it definitely offers some useful features. But I simply don’t want any space on my physical laptop dedicated to a feature I won’t use. Summoning Copilot in Windows 11 only takes a single mouse click - so why do we need a dedicated hardware key for it? (Image credit: Microsoft) Microsoft’s rules don’t specify anything about the Copilot button itself, such as whether it needs to be a certain size or if it can be implemented separately from the main keyboard layout (such as being on the side of the laptop, or perhaps taking over one of the Function keys along the top row). Some of Microsoft’s OEM partners might find interesting solutions to the physical button requirement, but I fear most will just cram it haphazardly on the bottom row by shrinking the Ctrl and Alt keys. You can’t stop progress Either way, it looks like this is happening, and we’re all just going to have to accept it. You could say ‘Just don’t buy an AI laptop’, but that’s going to quickly become unavoidable: according to market research by the International Data Corporation, AI PCs will account for nearly 60% of all computer sales by 2027, a meteoric market takeover. Since I’m primarily a Windows user, Microsoft’s firm push for AI-compliant hardware isn’t something I’ll be able to outrun. The Google Pixelbook Go featured a dedicated Assistant key way back in 2019, long before the generative AI boom. (Image credit: Future) Microsoft isn’t alone in mandating changes like this, either. While Google hasn’t officially stated that Chromebooks will need a dedicated button for Google Gemini, it looks like there’s already at least one Chromebook with an ‘AI key’ in the works - and of course, Google’s own Pixelbook Go featured a Google Assistant button on the keyboard. As for macOS devices, it looks like the M4 chip will be arriving next year with Apple’s own NPU, so perhaps the next wave of MacBooks will feature their own AI key? So my protests will likely fall on deaf ears. I suppose it’s far from the worst thing to happen; I just don’t see the point. Windows 11 already features a Copilot button in the bottom-right of the taskbar by default, and on a touchscreen device (like my own laptop) that’s just as easy to use as a physical Copilot key would be. Still, I don’t really approve of anything that OS makers try to force on laptop manufacturers: it’s a practice that stymies innovation and experimentation, and I worry that Microsoft’s AI PC rules will become a slippery slope leading to further demands of OEMs. You might also like... Sam Altman hints at the future of AI and GPT-5 - and big things are comingHere’s more proof Apple is going big with AI this yearOpenAI just gave artists access to Sora and proved the AI video tool is weirder and more powerful than we thought View the full article

Intel executives confirmed today that Microsoft's Copilot AI service will soon run locally on PCs and have a requirement for a minimum of 40 TOPS of NPU performance. View the full article

Microsoft just announced that Copilot is rolling out to more Windows 11 users right now, and also it’ll be inbound to more Windows 10 users soon enough. Neowin spotted the revelation in the Windows message center where Microsoft let us know that Copilot is coming to a wider audience – so, if you haven’t seen the AI assistant yet, you may well do soon enough. Microsoft also let us know that from this week, it’s possible to use up to 10 queries with Copilot before you have to sign in to your Microsoft account. So, you can give the AI a bit of a try even if you don’t have an active Microsoft account on your Windows installation. The ‘new wave’ of Copilot additions is happening now with Windows 11 (23H2 and 22H2), at least for consumers (with businesses, it will depend on admin policies). And eligible Windows 10 devices on Home or Pro versions (22H2) will start to get Copilot in this broader rollout later in March – so within the next week. Microsoft tells us: “This current rollout phase will reach most of its targeted Windows 11 and 10 devices by the end of May.” Meanwhile, Microsoft is also busy expanding Copilot’s repertoire of tricks regarding changing Windows settings, though it’s very slow going on that front thus far. Analysis: AI for everyone It sounds like most folks will have Copilot by the end of May, then. We’ve already seen it arrive on our Windows 10 PC, so that rollout is definitely already underway – it’s just about to step up to another level. How will you know if you get Copilot? You can’t miss the colorful icon which will appear in the taskbar, on the far right (in the system tray). It’s marked with a ‘Pre’ on the icon to denote that the AI is still in preview, so it’s still possible to experience wonky or odd behavior when running queries with Copilot. While you can turn off the Copilot icon if you don’t want to see it, you can’t actually remove the AI from Windows as such (not yet) – it’ll still be lurking in the background, even if you never access it. That said, there are ways to extract Copilot from your Windows installation, such as using third-party apps (though we wouldn’t recommend doing so, as previously discussed). You might also like... Watch out: soon some older PCs will lose Windows 11 supportWindows 11 is getting a voice-powered ability many users have been longing forDon’t make these 5 big mistakes when using Windows 11 View the full article

Microsoft has begun rolling out a new feature for its Copilot AI assistant in Windows that will allow the bot to directly read files on your PC, then provide a summary, locate specific data, or search the internet for additional information. Copilot has already been aggressively integrated into Microsoft 365 and Windows 11 as a whole, and this latest feature sounds – at least on paper – like a serious privacy issue. After all, who would want an AI peeking at all their files and uploading that information directly to Microsoft? Well, fortunately, Copilot isn’t just going to be snooping around at random. As spotted by @Leopeva64 on X (formerly Twitter), you have to manually drag and drop the file into the Copilot chat box (or select the ‘Add a file’ option). Once the file is in place, you can proceed to make a request of the AI; the suggestion provided by Leopeva64 is simply ‘summarize’, which Copilot proceeds to do. Another step towards Copilot being genuinely useful I’ll admit it, I’m a Copilot critic. Perhaps it’s just because I’m a jaded career journalist with a lifetime of tech know-how and a neurodivergent tilt towards unhealthy perfectionism, but I’ve never seen the value of an AI assistant built into my operating system of choice; however, this is the sort of Copilot feature I actually might use. The option to summarize alone seems quite useful: more than once, I’ve been handed a chunky PDF with embargoed details about a new tech product, and it would be rather nice not to have to sift through pages and pages of dense legalese and tech jargon just to find the scraps of information that are actually relevant to TechRadar’s readership. Summarizing documents is already something that ChatGPT and Adobe Acrobat AI can do, so it makes sense for Copilot – an AI tool that's specifically positioned as an on-system helper – to be able to do it. While I personally prefer to be the master of my own Googling, I can see the web-search capabilities being very helpful to a lot of users, too. If you’ve got a file containing partial information, asking Copilot to ‘fill in the blanks’ could save you a lot of time. Copilot appears capable of reading a variety of different file types, from simple text documents to PDFs and spreadsheets. Given the flexible nature of modern AI chatbots, there are potentially many different things you could ask Copilot to do with your files – though apparently, it isn’t able to scan files for viruses (at least, not yet). If you’re keen to get your hands on this feature yourself, you hopefully won’t have to wait long. While it doesn’t seem to be widely available just yet, Leopeva64 notes that it appears Copilot’s latest new skill “is being rolled out gradually”, so it’ll likely start showing up for more Windows 11 users as time goes on. The Edge version of Copilot will apparently be getting this feature too, as Leopeva points out that it’s currently available in the Canary prototype build of the browser – if you want to check that out, you just have to sign up for the Edge Insider Program. You might also like Windows Copilot will soon allow you to edit photos, shop instantly, and moreMicrosoft’s Windows 11 nagging is set to hit new heights - so Windows 10 Pro users prepare yourselvesSnapdragon X could finally deliver Windows 11 ARM laptops that can rival MacBooks View the full article