Microsoft Begins Adding 'Copilot' Icon to Windows 11 Taskbars

Microsoft is "delighted to introduce some useful new features" for its "Copilot Preview for Windows 11," according to a recent blog post.

TechRepublic adds that "most features will be enabled by default... rolling out from today until April 2024." Windows 11 users will be able to change system settings through prompts typed directly into Copilot in Windows, currently accessible in the Copilot Preview via an icon on the taskbar, or by pressing Windows + C. Microsoft Copilot will be able to perform the following actions:

- Turn on/off battery saver.
- Show device information.
- Show system information.
- Show battery information.
- Open storage page.
- Launch Live Captions.
- Launch Narrator.
- Launch Screen Magnifier.
- Open Voice Access page.
- Open Text size page.
- Open contrast themes page.
- Launch Voice input.
- Show available Wi-Fi network.
- Display IP Address.
- Show Available Storage.

The new third-party app integrations for Copilot will give Windows 11 users new ways to interact with various applications. For example, making business lunch reservations through OpenTable...

Other new AI features for Windows 11 rolling out today include a new, AI-powered Generative Erase tool, which sounds reminiscent of Google's Magic Eraser tool for Google Photos. Generative Erase allows users to remove unwanted objects or artifacts from their photos in the Photos app.

Likewise, Microsoft's video editing tool Clipchamp is receiving a Silence Removal tool, which functions much as the name implies  — it allows users to remove gaps in conversation or audio from a video clip.

Voice access is another focal point of Microsoft's latest Windows 11 update, detailed in a separate blog post by Windows Commercial Product Marketing Manager Harjit Dhaliwal. Users can now use voice controls to navigate between multiple displays, aided by number and grid overlays that provide easy switching between screens.
A Copilot icon has already started appearing in the taskbar of some Windows systems. If you Google "microsoft installs copilot preview windows," Google adds these helpful suggestions.

People also ask: Why is Copilot preview on my computer?

How do I get rid of Copilot preview on Windows 10?

"Apparently there was some sort of update..." writes one Windows users. "Anyway, there is a logo at the bottom of the screen that is distracting and I'd like to get rid of it."

Lifehacker has already published an article titled "How to Hide (or Disable) Copilot in Windows 11."

"Artificial intelligence is feeling harder and harder to avoid," it begins, "but you still have options."

Do I have to ask the MS-Question?

[Opportunist]

Or can it simply be removed like everything else that is added to the taskbar?

Re:

[sg_oneill]

The problem is even if you remove it from the task bar, I presume theres a big stupid process monitoring everything and relaying it to Microsofts datacenter for ML analysis. The trick is to rip it out from the roots upwards, delete the service, light it on fire and salt the earth so nothing can grow there again.

Its never too late to learn linux folks. Hell with valves "proton" wine distro, you can even play most of your games on it.

Re:

[thegarbz]

Why would you think there's a separate process for this? I mean telemetry is a meme at this point. You either acknowledge that they weren't tracking you in the past, or you acknowledge they already are and there's no reason for this monitoring to be in anyway related to co-pilot. Please make up your mine, MS may be tracking you but they aren't sending everything twice.

Re:

[thegarbz]

Or can it simply be removed like everything else that is added to the taskbar?

It can be removed like everything else and is easy in the same one stop "uncheck all these options" settings pane like literally everything else on the taskbar. Why is this an "MS-Question", when you acknowledge that everything else can also be removed?

Re:Do I have to ask the MS-Question?

[Opportunist]

The "MS-Question" is basically when the announcement of a new feature immediately triggers the question "can it be turned off and if, how?".

Because that's the one question that's on everyone's mind whenever MS announces a new feature or any other change in one of their products. We have reached the point of "good enough" in MS products a long time ago. Very few changes in the past decade were actually an improvement.

Re:

[tokul]

> Or can it simply be removed like everything else that is added to the taskbar?

No.

Re:

[Morromist]

I have already had to turn it off twice.

Of course

[quonset]

Windows 11 users will be able to change system settings through prompts typed directly into Copilot in Windows, currently accessible in the Copilot Preview via an icon on the taskbar, or by pressing Windows + C.

Why bother going directly to the setting you want to change when instead you can waste time searching for what you want.

When Windows 10 came out I did some testing to see how much more difficult it was to get simple things accomplished compared to Windows 7. Without exception, everything took longer to do in Windows 10 thanks to Microsoft relocating items to seemingly obtuse places or burying them in multiple layers of menus. Windows 11 has turned this crap up to, well, 11.

In case there is any confusion, this [imgur.com] is my opinion of Windows 11.

Re:

[Austerity Empowers]

Does anyone really use Windows 11? It came pre-installed on my new laptop, I upgraded to Windows 10 almost immediately. I'm using the term "upgrade" pretty loosely, it's been a minefield since Windows XP.

Re:Of course

[quonset]

Does anyone really use Windows 11?

Businesses. We have about a year and a half to get our thousands of machines up to Windows 11. After that there won't be support unless we pay through the nose.

I was hoping to retire before one more vicious downgrade, but obviously that's not happening. Unless I win the lottery.

Re:

[thegarbz]

I was hoping to retire before one more vicious downgrade

Maybe you should spend more time working and less time messing with your PC. You don't "use" windows. You "use" Office365, Outlook, simulation software, IDEs, or whatever. The underlying OS is irrelevant and 99.9% of users only ever go to the display settings of their OS at work to change the screen layout when plugging in at a meeting room, otherwise it is irrelevant to them.

Teams... now Teams is something you can complain about, as companies seem hell bent on making that the new productivity suite for som

Re:

[Calydor]

Maybe you should spend more time working and less time messing with your PC.

Is this what Slashdot has become?

Re:

[thegarbz]

A place where people acknowledge that the OS is just a background for actual productive applications? No, I'm channelling old school Slashdot where people still used their ability to think. What Slashdot has become a sad husk devolving into "ohmergerd telemetry! Windows ${current_version}-1 was the bestest, why is this sooooo bad, I can't even do my work anymore!"

Disclaimer: This post was made in Chrome, the OS it runs on had nothing to do with it, just like it has nothing to do with any productive work I

Re:

[WereCatf]

Does anyone really use Windows 11?

I do. It's got an actually good dark mode, which Windows 10 doesn't have.

Re:

[GoJays]

I do. It's got an actually good dark mode, which Windows 10 doesn't have.

Found the Windows 10 HOME user.

Re:

[Luckyo]

>Why bother going directly to the setting you want to change when instead you can waste time searching for what you want.

I strongly suspect that issue is actually telemetry. All power users turn it off. One way or another. And microsoft's UI designers seem to be making the same mistake as Israeli intelligence services before Hamas attacks.

They rely on data they're getting and think that is the entire picture.

So they're optimizing for people who don't know how to turn telemetry off. That's going to be peo

Re: Of course

[higfchjgddljr5778]

I would bet that people who donâ(TM)t change settings probably still wonâ(TM)t.

Re:

[Luckyo]

I would bet the opposite. Recent example being my mom who's absolutely shit at anything IT. I've always set things up for her.

But recently she had problems with memory on her phone (she wants to keep her really old phone, because that's what she knows and likes, even after I suggested I'd buy her a new one). As in it prevented her from using full features of one of her favorite apps. So she told me to show her how to clean up memory using google's built in storage cleanup tools.

Now she does it all the time.

Re:

[Luckyo]

Remember when you understood "context"?

Neither do I.

Re: Of course

[drinkypoo]

I remember the conversation in question because I'm the one who had it with you, and the context was that you were claiming the the bypass was difficult because you couldn't figure out how to run regedit during install.

Re:

[Luckyo]

Remember when you didn't make malicious arguments that misrepresented reality about people you don't like so intensely, you actually bother to mark them as "foes"?

Neither do I, "freak". And that is a technical term for someone who actually bothers to click through several menus to mark a person as "their foe" on slashdot. Do you realise you get an icon for the person you mark as such?

Re: Of course

[RedK]

Hahaha he is like that. I donâ(TM)t get people so invested in Slashdot they actual use that âoefoeâ idiocy. Theyâ(TM)re all raging wokies too.

Re:

[Knightman]

I can get to all the settings in Win 10 by clicking one icon.

It's easy and anyone can set it up in 30 seconds. Create a new folder on your desktop and name it: GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

That'll create a shortcut that list ALL settings in one window.

Enjoy!

Re:

[thegarbz]

When Windows 10 came out I did some testing to see how much more difficult it was to get simple things accomplished compared to Windows 7.

What do you do in Windows? No I mean really, what do you *do* in an OS? Since Windows Vista all the task bar icons have been in a row on the bottom. It has taken 1 click to launch applications for the past 2 decades. Windows Windows Vista the start menu has had simple search, you haven't had to navigate anything within it for the past 2 decades. The X is still in the top right. The folder structure in explorer is still the same.

To be clear if someone moved your cheese and you're less used to something (you

Re:

[AmiMoJo]

The list of things it can do are all things I'd rather do by clicking. Especially stuff like setting up WiFi - I don't want the embarrassment of having a conversation with my computer in a public place or at the office, the places I am most likely to need WiFi settings.

Re:

[cascadingstylesheet]

Windows 11 users will be able to change system settings through prompts typed directly into Copilot in Windows, currently accessible in the Copilot Preview via an icon on the taskbar, or by pressing Windows + C.

Why bother going directly to the setting you want to change when instead you can waste time searching for what you want.

Eh, something to be said for it though.

E.g. I can never remember where Google stuck the "avoid highways" in Google Maps ... so touching the microphone icon and just saying "avoid highways" to have it flip the setting is nice.

Just saying, there is a use case for this. Windows in particular has thousands of settings, and there is no way they are going to be organized "intuitively" for everyone.

Re:

[Tony Isaac]

Well, because you might not know what Microsoft happens to call the setting you want to change.

Did you know that "Transparency Effects" is under "Accessibility"? That wouldn't have been my guess. Also under Accessibility, is a setting to determine how long notifications remain visible.

Personally, I'd like to be able to just tell it to change a setting, and it know what to do without me having to navigate to the right settings screen.

SciFi vs realtiy

[ukoda]

Is it just me? I grew up on SciFi with AI in may roles, so why do a feel so negative about this AI boom? Putting aside the question why anyone would chose to use Windows I do wonder if the AI Microsoft are including will really be of significant use? Would you trust it to do something important?

Maybe it is a trust issue? The SciFi AI knew what it was doing, good or evil, it was a force to be reckoned with. The real AI on offer feels like a kids homework, needs lots of effort to verify if it telling you something of value, leaving you to think I should just ignore it and do it myself.

Re:SciFi vs realtiy

[RitchCraft]

You feel negative because unlike the movies in real life you know who the assholes are behind the scenes pulling the strings to mine you for profit.

Re:

[sinij]

The reality of Hal turned out to be a woke Clippy that tries to shove ads at you. Meanwhile, humanity is yet to visit Mars.

Re:

[GameboyRMH]

In a lot of sci-fi I always thought AIs were commonly struck through with this silly trope where systems are made with the apparent capability for emotions and independent thought where it wasn't necessary or advantageous and can only add to the potential for trouble, all while appearing to require extra development work. Now in the real world where you can trick these primitive "AIs" (especially Microsoft's) into acting insane with the right inputs, it turns out that it happened because it's the first way

Re:

[martin-boundary]

Depends what you want the AI to do for you. For example current LLMs can be fruitfully thought of as a natural language interface. They are like an intermediate language that sits between you and more traditional tools and translates your natural language query into concrete instructions for the traditional tools. This is great for beginners.

If you're not a beginner, it's a terrible idea. Natural language is extremely imprecise and you have to jump through crazy hoops to have any chance to communicate som

Re:

[mobby_6kl]

Because we're in a cyberpunk-SciFi future, not a Jetsons-SciFi future.

My problem isn't AI

[Baron_Yam]

It's AI in the cloud. These features aren't running locally on your system - they're sending your data back to Microsoft to datamine your life for their profit at your expense. With search that's unavoidable in general, but at least you can choose which company is abusing you. With CoPilot, it's Microsoft every time.

Re:

[DrMrLordX]

Win10 and Win11 do that already. Though Copilot can use your interactions to train their model, most likely.

Re:

[Baron_Yam]

>Win10 and Win11 do that already

Yeah. F'ing spyware baked into the OS. Every user setup involves telling them a dozen times that you don't want them collecting data, and the options are "we vacuum everything we can" and "we take whatever we can legally get away with regardless of your wishes".

This is why firewalls can block outbound traffic as well as inbound.

Re:

[DrMrLordX]

Firewalls might block Windows Update. There are some tools to disable telemetry like O&O ShutUp 10++.

Re:

[0xG]

It seems to me that if you use a local account, this would not work.
And you would have to be insane to use a microsoft account on your pc.
Yes, they make it hard, but its not impossible.

Re:

[Tony Isaac]

Maybe you haven't noticed, Windows is no longer a local OS. Much of its functionality runs "in the cloud" with or without AI.

Why not fix some bugs?

[smokinpork]

If they wanted to make their users happy they could just fix some bugs like say the green bar of slowness, or the backup tool or just slowness in general or that it randomly removes a paid version Office... But instead all we get is more bloat to make easy things easy. The search tool for making Windows configuration changes already works well. The last thing I need is more stuff to make my system even slower. It truly amazes me the antipathy Microsoft has for their paying customers.

Re:

[thegarbz]

If they wanted to make their users happy they could just fix some bugs

Judging by the KBs of the updates between the previous feature updates MS is fixing literally hundreds of bugs. You must be incredibly happy.

Re:

[strikethree]

If they wanted to make their users happy they could just fix some bugs like say the green bar of slowness

You will buy their shovelware regardless of whether or not it works. So... remind me of their motivation to "fix" anything at all?

Push button

[John-after-logtime]

I can imagine there might even be some sort of push buttons to perform those tasks. They might even be called "icons".

Oh brother

[Pollux]

I would love it if Microsoft could make Windows easier with AI. "Hey Windows, please dim my screen to 20%." "Hey Windows, please close all processes of Google Chrome." "Hey Windows, open my calendar, cancel my 9 o'clock, and notify all the participants." "Hey Office, open up that document I was working on before I left for lunch." "Hey Office, please download the data from this PDF, convert it into a CSV file, then input the contents into this mail merge document, and print one of each record." The possibilities to streamline the user experience are endless.

But it should not come at the expense of Microsoft seizing our private data. But every one of us knows that this is why the integration is happening. Microsoft wants our data, because money.

Fuck our corporate overlords.

Re:

[ThosLives]

So I haven't really used Windows in over a couple years... are there not already one-click taskbar or simple key-combos for all of those things that are in that list for what copilot can do?

Why would anyone even suggest that you'd need AI for those things? Aside of course from managers wanting to monetize everything?

Re:

[codebase7]

Because most people have no idea that those shortcuts even exist, let alone remember what they do. Of course they want something that they use every day (their mouth) to replace the need to use a mouse / keyboard, and will demand a product that gives that to them. Once that's implemented, the next step will be to replace "mouth" with "thought."

Mark my words, the biggest revolution in computers will be when the technology improves enough to remove the human user entirely. Because most people have no desire

Re:

[strikethree]

But it should not come at the expense of Microsoft seizing our private data.

They have been harvesting your private data for decades and AI is where you draw the line? It is almost hilarious.

Most important feature is missing from the list

[Luckyo]

"Copilot, fully uninstall yourself".

Re:

[misexistentialist]

I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that.

Re:

[Luckyo]

I thought of using that line, but it doesn't actually work in this context. HAL failed because it was given internally contradicting instructions. There's nothing contradictory about not letting users uninstall AI shit designed to spy on them.

Re:

[Geoffrey.landis]

I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that.

I thought of using that line, but it doesn't actually work in this context. HAL failed because it was given internally contradicting instructions. There's nothing contradictory about not letting users uninstall AI shit designed to spy on them.

There is when their prime directive is "be helpful to users whether they want it or not."

Re:

[Luckyo]

Why would you make AI with that kind of a prime directive, instead of "benefit us"?

Re:

[Mogster]

There is when their prime directive is "be helpful to users whether they want it or not."

Clippy? Is that you?

This is why people hesitate to install "updates"

[KreAture]

If we could just get the security updates and bug fixes it would be fine.
However, most of the updates seem to be new features people do not want, or that just adds features with more vulnerabilities.
I for one just want my computer to keep working like it is. If it isn't broken do not change it. If there is something new that I just feel is a must have, I can install it myself. Opt-in, not opt-out!

Re:

[Daina.0]

This is why some businesses use a non-networked Windows computer for their financial records. They can't afford an "upgrade" to destroy their records.

Re:

[grep -v '.*' *]

However, most of the updates seem to be new features people do not want...

Then you want Windows to run LTSC (although it's been renamed to a different 4 letter thing.) It's the long term support branch with none of the OOOH, SHINY stuff.

Of course you've got to run an illegal copy, or pay $$$s for the super-duper license that gets you legal access. But I figure (IANAL!) that I've got a license for one version but I'll just use another instead. And it runs great! It's still Windows the way you're used to.

And now I've recently bought a new, current W11 PC and ... What. I

Re:

[Saffaya]

| Then you want Windows to run LTSC

Even LTSC will update without your consent though.

Disabling the windows update service (AND preventing updates in group policy) is not enough, because Win 10 has another service that will re-enable it against your will, and that felon service CANNOT be disabled.

If anyone has a solution about this on LTSC, I'm all ears.

Re:

[fafalone]

Updates aren't that bad to disable. Not as difficult as Defender. You just need to turn off and then set to disabled the Windows Update service and the Update Orchestrator Service and Update Medic service. Then disable the tasks associated with those services in Task Scheduler (WaaSMedic is the medic, others are obvious). Then in GPO set Windows Update 'Configure Automatic Updates' to 'Disabled'. You may need to run services and possibly task scheduler as TrustedInstaller, the SYSTEM user who owns most of t

Re:

[Saffaya]

Thank You very much for your detailed and helpful answer. I will heed your recommendations.

Posts like yours are why Slashdot is still useful in this day and age.

Re:

[packrat0x]

Personally, I use a firewall to block access to microsoft, and its related sites
(I only make holes when absolutely necessary).

My Win 10 machine (Build 1703?) has been going strong w/o updates.
I haven't auto-updated my Linux boxes either. Manual upgrades only.

Really, what is the benefit of auto-update? Because as someone else has pointed out: we use applications;
the O/S is there to provide access to the underlying hardware.

And as for auto-update of applications: once an update removes functionality, you le

Re:

[thegarbz]

However, most of the updates seem to be new features people do not want

When Microsoft adds a new feature we run an article and rant and rave about it on Slashdot. In the meantime Windows will literally have installed hundreds of other updates and security fixes and bug fixes in between. So no. "Most of the updates" are definitely not new features and have nothing to do with whether people want or don't want features.

And in this case it is literally eliminated from your existence by going to the taskbar settings (something everyone is familiar with since it's the exact same pla

Re:

[Tony Isaac]

This reminds me of when I worked in healthcare. Doctors are notoriously technology-resistant. Our customers would tell us they wanted certain bugs or issues fixed. We would respond that "It's fixed in version 2.1" or whatever. They would say, "We don't want the new version, we just want it fixed in the old version!"

The reality is, no company or open source project is going to keep fixing "the old version" forever. There are too many permutations.

and in the fog, something starts to take shape...

[Anonymous Coward]

Clippy is that you ?

Re:

[DrMrLordX]

It's Bob. Microsoft Bob.

is ctrl+c

[Growlley]

retasked to copilot kill and uninstall?

Microsoft's Assault Against the Taskbar Continues

[BrendaEM]

In each new version they make is difficult for users (see more options) to use it--yet they keep piling trash on it.

Re:

[thegarbz]

I'm not sure I follow what you're saying. In every version of windows since Windows Vista the taskbar has worked in a very similar way. At no point was it ever "difficult". And the various trash they pile on it is all incredibly easily disabled all in one single right click > taskbar settings menu, literally all together in once place for you.

If you find this "difficult" get your grandson to help you. Computers aren't for everyone.

Copilot, make me a pot of tea

[GumphMaster]

I live for my weekly story of yet another new "feature" as useful as a chocolate teapot.

I was delighted

[larwe]

... to find that the first google result for "remove copilot icon from taskbar" was a simple set of instructions on how to turn it off. I do not want LLMs connected to my operating system, either collecting data for traning their models, nor offering me suggestions for anything.

Re:

[Brett Buck]

Do you imagine that removing it from the taskbar stops the data collection? How endearingly naive.

Re:

[larwe]

Of course not. I was merely making the general point that this is yet another thing that nobody needs and which I would fully remove if I could (like Cortana, in times of yore). I'm a child of pre-MS-DOS operating systems - I want to run only the software I want to run, and nothing that profits someone else.

You are late

[tokul]

You are months too late. They were pushing that stuff to Windows 11 Home months ago.

Article also misses the point that copilot is not uninstallable.

Microsoft was not in court for monopoly abuse for too long and they consider that last fines were not big enough to justify further abuse for profits and control.

What do you mean begins?

[thegarbz]

This happened in early January already.
 

Tested before turning off

[C0L0PH0N]

I tested copilot by asking it to show me some pictures of women with small breasts. I read somewhere that AI's refuse to do that :). Anyways, I got a very mixed bag. It said sorry, it couldn't do that. Then it proceeded to give me a nice panel of pictures of women with small breasts (all safe for work). Then it said I could ask better questions. Very confused interface :). Anyways, after that fairly useless interchange, I turned copilot off, and am happily do well without it.