- Microsoft has added a new icon to the Windows 11 process line
- It allows you to use Windows Studio effects in compatible apps
- Windows Studio Effects are exclusive for Copilot+ PCS
If you have downloaded the latest Windows 11 update that was released as part of the monthly ‘Patch Tuesday’ batch of corrections, you may have noticed a new icon on the taskbar and wondered what it is. Well, no longer wonder: It’s a shortcut to the AI-powered Windows Studio Effects feature.
Windows Studio Effects is a package of effects using artificial intelligence to improve the quality of your video calls. It can blur the background, make it look like you are looking directly at the camera (rather than watching the screen), improving the lighting and making sure you are always in the frame (as well as using more creative filters).
You may not have used Windows Studio effects before -they are a relatively new batch of effects introduced as part of Microsoft’s AI Push, and this change seems to be an attempt to introduce them to a wider audience. The icon appears when using an app that uses Windows Studio effects – which will include virtually any tool that uses your device’s webcam.
Click on the icon brings up the effects for you to easily turn on – and if you hover over the icon, it will tell you which app is using webcam. This is a practical privacy feature as it means apps should not access your webcam without you knowing it.
However, there are plenty of Windows 11 users (including myself) waiting for Microsoft to make changes to the taskbar that brings some of the functionality that previous versions of Windows had – especially the opportunity to draw files on app icons in the taskbar to open them in the app. Instead, Microsoft adds icons to features that many people do not use is to say the least.
Easier access, but is that enough?
As I mentioned, Windows Studio effects were introduced as part of Microsoft’s campaign to get more people to use AI features -something that the company has invested a lot in. It was announced as one of the major sales points for Copilot+ PCS – A new breed of windows 11 devices that meet certain hardware requirements (16 GB of RAM and a CPU with an NPU) to run AI tasks locally on the device, rather than via the Internet.
Because of this, Windows Studio effects are exclusive to Copilot+ PCS, so if you don’t see the new icon, it’s probably because your PC does not meet the requirements.
Therein lies part of the problem for Microsoft if it wants more people to use Windows Studio effects. Making the feature more easily accessible by putting an icon in the taskbar is a good first step, but by limiting the feature to certain PCs will reduce the range.
What Microsoft would like in this case, of course, is for people who are desperate to use Windows Studio effects to go out and buy a new copilot+ laptop. But that’s the second problem – is this a feature that gets people excited about AI? And excited enough to buy a new laptop?
I just don’t think so. Some features, such as blurring the background and automatically focusing on the camera, may be performed by other apps without the need for an NPU (neural treatment device), while other features such as the creative effects are fun, but hardly important. If you are using your device to make video call as part of your work, you are unlikely to enable them. Worse is that the eye contact feature ends up getting a little creepy, with unnatural looking eye contact that causes an eerie valley effect.
So far, the Copilot+ PCs we’ve tested have been some of the best laptops you can buy thanks to their performance and battery life, but the AI features are the least impressive bits about them – which is a problem as Microsoft Imagine these as a key sale of points – especially like other key copilot+ PC features, such as the controversial recall function, either does not work so well or has not yet been released.
So no matter how easy Microsoft makes it to launch these new AI features, people will continue to ignore them until the company gives us a good reason – and so far it has not.
