- Windows 11 may get a new Copilot feature for File Explorer
- There is a hidden button that can invoke the AI in the latest preview builds
- Furthermore, clues in these preview releases indicate that Copilot might even appear in its own sidebar for folders on the desktop
Windows 11 may get a Copilot button in File Explorer that can be used to invoke a sort of side panel for the AI assistant, in a move that won’t sit well in some areas.
Windows Central noted that a well-known leaker (PhantomOfEarth) discovered that in the latest Windows 11 preview builds, there is a hidden button in the navigation bar of File Explorer (the app that manages the folders on your desktop).
This button is actually invisible unless you hover over the bar, but it looks like Microsoft is planning some kind of addition here. But what does this have to do with Copilot? Well, other clues, namely strings of code in the same preview builds of Windows 11, mention a ‘Chat with Copilot’ feature – and functionality that allows Copilot to be disconnected from File Explorer.
So the theory is that there will be some sort of Copilot sidebar inside File Explorer that is invoked by clicking the yet-to-be-visible (or functional) button. The idea would probably be to provide direct in-line feedback on your files, whether it’s a summary of a document, e.g. or possible edits to an image.
Windows Central has also flagged that the latest preview build of Windows 11 – which arrived late last week – has some additional changes for Copilot.
One of these is bringing a new feature to Narrator, the operating system’s screen reader, which enables it to provide AI-generated descriptions of images (or graphs and the like) to visually impaired Windows 11 users. This is a neat idea that was previously only available to those with Copilot+ PCs, but is now coming to all Windows 11 users (once these features in testing are realised).
The ability to remove the Copilot app on managed devices is also implemented for IT administrators, but only if Microsoft 365 Copilot is present on the device. Daily Windows 11 users can already uninstall the Copilot app (note though that this doesn’t remove Copilot AI from your PC as such – it has hooks in Windows 11 everywhere – but the app of course represents a large part of it that you can ditch).
There are tools out there that can remove much of the AI from Windows 11, but I’d be wary of using anything like the ones I’ve discussed before.
Analysis: Don’t get tested yet – it’s still in testing
Of course, Copilot is already in File Explorer, in the context menu that appears when you right-click on a file, which offers various shortcuts to AI powers. It’s a pretty subtle implementation though, and the new method of having a dedicated Copilot button – and possibly a (detachable) side panel – would be to put the AI much more in your face, so to speak, in your desktop folders.
It wouldn’t be a surprising move given Microsoft’s renewed push for AI, which has been in the works for a few months now – ever since AI agents became the next big thing in Windows 11. However, it also wouldn’t be a popular move at all unless it was purely an opt-in experience (and you could get rid of the button).
I’m guessing that Microsoft would only put this in as an opt-in (or at least have an easy way to turn it off) given the sensitivity around Copilot and the company cramming too much AI into Windows 11, which is a sore spot at the moment (witness the whole ‘Microslop’ affair).
Of course, we don’t know if this will materialize yet, as the button isn’t even live in testing – and there are just hints in the background of Windows 11 of what this functionality might be. That said, some kind of Edge-like Copilot sidebar for File Explorer hardly seems impossible, but we’ll just have to see how this pans out.
All we can do is keep seeing these preview builds for the near future, and keep an eye out for the leakers who make it their job to dig into the inner workings of said test releases.
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