- Microsoft has revealed some smart new features for Copilot+ PCs
- Windows 11 gets an AI agent to help you easily adjust settings
- There are a lot of other features (in testing) including to turn on tells, the photos app and snipping tool
Copilot+ PC owners get some very useful introductions to Windows 11, including functionality that Microsoft has been promising for a long time now – the ability to AI to change settings for you in the operating system.
Microsoft covers all the introductions it makes in a blog post – note that these additions will only be in testing (for now) – as well as recovering a lot of other features already seen in testing.
The most important introduction for many (coming to the back of the full release of recall, finally – and more in addition) will be the change of the setting app that brings in an AI agent.
This takes the form of a beam at the top of the setting panel where you can write natural language queries. The idea is to take all the pain out of financing the different settings in Windows 11, of which there is a ton (and a half).
So as an example, if you wanted to make the mouse cursor bigger, rather than searching for ‘Mouse’ in the normal setting -search bar, you can ask AI instead and just write a query: “How do I make my mouse marker bigger?”
You can put it on as you will (within reason) and AI must surface the option you need so you can click to activate it. Or it can go even further and come up with suggestions on what setting you might choose (as a recommended size to the cursor in the example above). When it comes to such recommendations, the obvious warning that AI may be incorrect is included.
AI’s ability to make sweeping changes in Windows 11 has been something Microsoft has been talking about since it first introduced copilot to us. And while these are minor adjustments, rather than large cuts of options that are adjusted, it is still a very neat trait – and probably a safer way of working (for now, determined) considering AI’s propensity to make mistakes at times.
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Check the YouTube video above to see the feature in action. Note, however, that this functionality comes to Copilot+ PCs with Snapdragon X -Chips only to begin with (in testing, as mentioned), but it should not be long before it arrives in units with AMD or Intel processors.
There are a few other remarkable features that are brought into copilot+ PCS here (also in testing) and I will look at them next.
1. Lying your photos
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The photos app in Windows 11 gets dynamic lighting controls facilitated by AI (and NPU on your Copilot+ PC).
This allows you to correct poor lighting in an image or just play with different (or even oddball) light effects using up to three light sources.
Check the example tweaking displayed in the video above (where another feature, Object Select in Paint, also appears).
2. Lightweight screenshots with AI making the heavy lifting
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The SNIP tool gets a new ‘Perfect Screenshot’ feature. Invite this, and you can roughly hit an on -screen area that you want to catch, and AI will prune it down to the most important part that (it assumes) you want to screenshot.
Check it in the above trial video clip – this can be another significant time saving. If AI gets it wrong, there are also handles to adjust the wrong crop.
3. Tells get turned on
Windows 11’s screen reading tool gets a boost as Microsoft explains: “The narrator now offers rich image descriptions that provide detailed context for visuals including charts, photos and UI elements.”
What this means is that where web content does not have alternative text delivered – words that can be read to describe an image to those who can’t see it – telling can do this yourself.
This should be a big step forward with accessibility for blind (or low-vision) Windows 11 users. As with the AI Agent settings, this functionality (in testing) comes to Copilot+ PCS with Snapdragon X -Chips before other models.
