- Windows 11 gets more copilot -functionality
- A setting ‘Ask Copilot’ arrives at right -click on the menu on the desktop
- Copilot is also implemented in Microsoft Store to provide purchase advice (in test)
If you expect to see more AI in Windows 11, yes, you would be bang on the money there as it seems that copilot is crawling into another couple of places on Microsoft’s Desktop OS.
Neowin noted that the latest version of the Copilot app (1,25044.93.0) has planted a new choice to invoke copilot when working with certain files on your Windows 11 -Desktop.
So if you right -click a compatible file, it will offer an ‘ASK Copilot’ option in the context menu (which contains ordinary actions you might want to pursue with a given file).
If you choose the copilot choice, it will shoot the app up to the AI assistant with relevant available options (for example, if it is a document, you will have the opportunity to summarize it there and then).
You may have seen that Microsoft recently revealed that it is set to introduce AI actions to archive Explorer (the app showing the contents of the folders on your PC). So this step seems to happen now.
Elsewhere, Microsoft also plans to bring Copilot into the Microsoft store to advise those who browsing through their various items.
The move – which is still in testing, according to Windows latest – consists of adding a copilot button to product pages in the store.
Click on that button appears a small dialog box so you can ‘ask Copilot about this product’ with suggested questions you might want to use and a ‘compare’ button that allows you to see how the app (or game) stacks up to a rival piece of software.
However, the catch is that this integration in the Microsoft store is hardly seamless, as all the store does is just throw your inquiry to the Copilot app.
Analysis: Smart or Rod?
With the latter change, the idea is to help spur sales in the Microsoft store with copilot, although integration is so fundamentally not going to help there.
It does not feel very advanced to ask for a comparison of two apps and then simply presented with a query about the differences between those in the Copilot app. Yes, it’s still a convenience, but it feels clunker than the way it works now – but maybe Microsoft is considering improving it down the line. Remember that this is still in testing for now.
Furthermore, not so many people ever draw the virtual walks in the Microsoft store anyway, and the larger feature here is the wider insertion of copilot as a right-click, context-sensitive option in Windows 11.
With this concept – which was not unexpected, considering Microsoft, who was previously announced, that this is the course it takes – is the problem that it becomes a love or hate thing.
The people who use Copilot will appreciate the convenience of added ways to easily access AI directly from files on the desktop. However, those who are not interested in Copilot will not have an extra space recorded in their right -click in the menu and will just consider this as further mess.
That said, these haters have choices. Neowin points out that you can perform a register editing to remove this new functionality from right -click the menu, but I really wouldn’t recommend that. Not unless you are a technical expert and you will keep the Copilot app but not this extra option. (And even then I should warn that root with the registry can cause problems with your system, if not right away, then potentially down the line).
Rather, if you get tired of the different copilot that stretch you too far into the interface of Windows 11, just uninstall the Copilot app completely. It removes AI from your context -sensitive menus (and taskbar and everywhere else). Just find the app in the start menu, right -click it and select the uninstall option to banish copilot. Of course, you can’t use the app at all, so it is not a good way to travel for those who may occasionally fire AI.
Not everything is bad at AI in Windows 11 in any way, and I should note that there is a smart ability in -depth, namely further power to be able to find and change settings in us (something promised from the start of Microsoft but never delivered so far). I say delivered now, but this has not gone in test yet and it is only for Copilot+ PCS unfortunately (as is the case for another really useful AI-related fine-tuning, better Windows search).
So it is another rather unfortunate theme for some people, as well as AI, which spreads over several of Windows 11 – all the best functionality is reserved for Copilot+ PCs. This is because some features require the NPU they have on board the treatment of AI working loading on the actual device, rather than via the cloud.
