- A new preview build is out with additional work on AI agents
- It shows how they will work on the taskbar, although Microsoft is still experimenting with the details
- There is an ongoing negative reaction to Microsoft’s current focus on artificial intelligence
Windows 11’s latest preview build has provided a clearer look at some of the nuts and bolts of how AI agents will work in the operating system, and it also introduces a number of other changes.
Microsoft’s blog post explains what’s new in preview build 26220.7523 in the Dev and Beta channels. There are several notable additions, including the aforementioned AI introductions, which have again sparked quite a bit of controversy.
For starters, this new preview brings the Ask Copilot box to the taskbar for business customers – this has already arrived for consumer testing – and Microsoft reminds us that you can call AI agents directly from there.
Microsoft is also moving forward with testing how AI agents will actually work on the taskbar. Here we get an example focused on Researcher, one of the originally planned agents for Windows 11 that, as the name suggests, independently performs research for you (with access to certain files granted for that purpose). It can “dig into a topic and build a detailed report” and you can track the agent’s progress on the taskbar.
Microsoft is testing a feature where hovering over the Copilot or Researcher icon on the taskbar will give you real-time agent reasoning updates, so you can check up on the AI’s progress at a glance. Microsoft is also experimenting with whether Research (or other agents) should be a separate icon on the taskbar or rolled into the Copilot icon.
Those who want to keep the taskbar bloated down may well lean towards the latter idea, although avid users of agents who have multiple AIs working on tasks may prefer these icons to be separate.
Microsoft further notes that with this preview build it is introducing Agent Launchers to Windows 11, which is a “new framework that enables Windows apps to detect AI agents and make them visible across the system”.
Essentially, this is the basis for allowing third-party agents (other than Microsoft’s own agents like Researcher, Copilot or Analyst) to work in Windows 11 and integrate with the Ask Copilot box (and Microsoft 365 Copilot).
Elsewhere in this preview release, there is a change for File Explorer where regular users will now see person icons on the File Explorer home page. These will appear in the ‘Activity’ column and in the Recent or Featured sections, meaning that when you hover over a person icon, you’ll get that person’s key details on a pop-up card (allowing you to send them a message or start a call, and so on).
It’s a potentially handy change, but one that only applies to consumers signed in with their Microsoft account in Windows 11.
Another step forward here is that Microsoft has fixed the ‘flashbang’ bug with File Explorer, which has resolved the remaining issues where people will still see white flashes when switching tabs in File Explorer.
Voice Access also benefits from an improved setup process to make it easier to get started with this feature, and voice typing with the touch keyboard has been revamped to make it more intuitive.
Analysis: AI continues to rub some people up the wrong way
This represents a big step forward with AI agents, and it should be interesting to see how these entities are presented in the taskbar in the end. As mentioned, whether you want agents to have their own separate taskbar icons or integrate with the Ask Copilot box will largely be a subjective matter. So perhaps the best approach, as always, is for Microsoft to present options along those lines so that people can choose their own preferences.
Many people would prefer that Microsoft not work on AI agents at all, and there is still a negative reaction to this (as you can see in the official Reddit thread introducing the new preview build). Yes, you don’t have to turn on AI agents if you don’t want them—either in testing now or in release when they’re eventually released to all of us—but people are still unhappy that Microsoft is prioritizing their development over more fundamental problems with Windows 11.
As we see from the comment floating to the top of that Reddit thread, it again repeats the line that Microsoft should not be forced to work on AI ‘things’ (language moderated) instead of solving ‘UX problems’ (problems with the user experience – the interface and performance therein) instead.
And it has to be said that there’s definitely a case to be made here – and while I don’t expect Microsoft to pause development of AI features (it honestly never will), there’s definitely a better balance to be found between progressing and refining what already exists in Windows 11.
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