- Microsoft is testing AI-powered search for Windows 11 on Copilot+ PCs.
- The new feature allows users to find local files using a casual language.
- Microsoft is also testing AI-powered ‘Click to Do’ rewriting tools.
Microsoft is testing an AI-powered search feature for Windows 11 that promises to end the days of organizing and naming your files well to find them later. This new search tool, currently only available to testers with Copilot+ PCs, uses semantic indexing to find files with a conversational twist.
So instead of wracking your brain for exact file names, you can now type in random queries like, “Where’s that presentation I made last week?” With any luck, the AI will find it.
The feature works across Settings, File Explorer and the taskbar and covers standard file formats for images, documents and spreadsheets. As it relies on built-in AI models, there is no need for an internet connection. That said, the search will only work on sites you’ve chosen to index. You can index everything by switching to the new “enhanced” mode, but that might require more trust in Microsoft than is comfortable.
Still, for those who feel like their digital lives are scattered across desktops, downloads and who-knows-where, the feature will certainly come in handy, even if it’s limited to the computer for now. That means you can’t search your cloud-stored OneDrive files yet, even though Microsoft says the capability is coming. Still, if you’re not on a Copilot Plus machine, you’re out of luck for now.
Copilot+
The feature is a logical extension of Microsoft’s AI agenda, which aims to merge AI tools across the company’s products. On Copilot+ PCs, these tools include other features that are undergoing testing, such as Click to Do, which lets users perform AI-powered tasks with a simple keyboard-and-mouse shortcut. Just highlight a section of text, hold down the Windows key, and click to access a menu of options, including “Rewrite” and the grammar-correcting “Refine.”
Microsoft’s AI ambitions are clearly about making life easier for humans, provided you’ve invested in the right hardware. Shifting from rigid commands to a more human approach has an obvious appeal. The days of entering exact file names or endless keywords could be numbered. And it’s a relatively small step from helping you find your PowerPoint map to helping you write it.
Whether this is the killer app that will get people to buy a Copilot+ PC that Microsoft wants is still debatable. But if it can save you from renaming files with “final_final_v2” for the millionth time, it might just be worth it.
