- Windows 11 just got a new test structure in the release Handscap
- It comes with a fair part of AI features but only one I actually want
- It’s the AI agent in settings that roll out to more people – but unfortunately I don’t get this as it is only for Copilot+ PCs
Windows 11 just got a new preview release, and there is a lot of work with AI here, including a new homepage for the recall and a broader implementation of the AI agent in the setting app.
This is Preview Build 26100.506.1, which has been pushed out to testers in the publishing principle channel, and as you might guess, is much of the fresh introductions on the AI front only to Copilot+ PCS.
One of the most important features is that the AI agent in settings – which acts as a natural language search to find the options you easily want – now roll out to Copilot+ laptops with AMD and Intel processors.
Previously, this ability was only available for Copilot+ PCS with Snapdragon X (ARM) CPUs, but it now works with all these devices (though the feature still only works when your primary language is set to English in Windows 11). Unfortunately, I don’t have a copilot+ device, so I’m more than a little jealous, as I feel like this is very much an AI feature worth having -and it’s a rarity.
When we talk about, as still in the Copilot+ PCS territory, the recall function – for those who have turned it on and it won’t be everyone, even if it’s a core column in Microsoft’s drive with AI – now has a new homepage based on your recent activity.
So this surfaces your most used apps and sites, and will also present you to the latest snapshots taken so you can quickly get back into tasks you were previously engaged in (provided you have snapshots set to be saved in recall, of course). Essentially, it is a bank with useful and personalized shortcuts to get back to what you did in a faster way.
Along with this, click to make (AI-driven context-sensitive suggestions) now comes with a short tutorial (apparently an interactive). This shows how it works to offer shortcuts with images or text, a useful touch for those new to the idea.
All this is for Copilot+ PCS, but there are some fresh AI addances that come to all Windows 11 systems. It includes AI actions in File Explorer, which are shortcuts in a similar vein to click on doing, based on editing images or summarizing documents.
With images (JPG and PNG formats) in File Explorer – which is the app that shows the folders on your desktop – there are now four AI -related actions. It includes a visual search (image search on the web) and deletion of objects ability, which is AI-driven object removal in the Photos-Plus app There is also the self-explanatory veil background option in this app. In addition, removing the background does just that with a picture in the paint app.
However, in the event of summarizing documents, this functionality is limited -you need a Microsoft 365 subscription to take advantage of AI actions here.
Away from AI, there are quite a few other changes with this new preview -Build and a whole series of minor adjustments everywhere – check Microsoft’s extensive blog posts for the full details.
Other NIFTY NON-IA changes worth noting include Windows 11 users outside Europe that will fully adjust which widgets appear on the lock screen (previously this was exclusive to the European economic area).
Windows Hello – The Secure Login System – now has a renewed interface and a mistake where face recognition failed has been fixed (plus fingerprint logging now works better when the PC wakes from sleep).
Analysis: The meaning of being artificially intelligent
The Agent for Changing Windows 11 settings is one of the more useful applications to AI that I have seen introduced by Microsoft, so while it is good to see it coming to Copilot+ PCs that do not have an arm processor, I am still jealous of me missing out on. Yes, I get it – you need the powerful NPU to make it work – but still it doesn’t feel good not to receive one of the really commendable AI concepts that Microsoft has on the boil.
In any case, as this is the release test, it means that the AI agent will hit the finished version of Windows 11 soon enough for those with the necessary hardware.
The rest of us may feel like we are missing out on, or maybe you don’t care about this – or the other steps forward Microsoft has taken with AI here. Okay, so it’s not that there was nothing else for normal (non-copilot+) Windows 11 machines in this preview, but a fair part of the big features had to do with AI.
And it is likely that the focus on AI features here can induce some moaning from quite a few people -but despite that and the relatively niche appeal to Copilot+ devices we can still expect much more of Microsoft pushing this kind of tech.
The latest visions of the future of the window from a few Microsoft leaders have emphasized the importance of AI (as well as the Sky and Voting Commanders for Input), so it is clear that this is a path of Microsoft will forge with even more power in the coming years. In short: You will best get used to this.
