Windows 11 will have a significant update to the Copilot interface, or at least this is what is being tested.
Microsoft has included the option to liberate Copilot from the shackles that tether the AI assistant to the right-hand side of the screen in Windows 11 preview build 26080 (available in both Canary and Dev channels).
The Copilot panel shows on the right by default, and you can’t change that.
With this feature, you can now undock Copilot and have the AI in a standard app window that can be moved and resized as needed on the desktop. In other words, you get a lot more control over where Copilot appears.
In this preview build, more users will gain access to Copilot’s new ability to change Windows 11 settings. That functionality was previously offered to Canary testers, but it is now being extended to more of them, as well as Windows Insiders in the Dev channel.
The additional capabilities include having the AI assistant empty the Recycle Bin, enabling Live Captions, and Voice Access.
Analysis: Under the hood tinkering
Not all testers in the aforementioned channels will be able to fully liberate Copilot and allow the AI to roam the desktop for the time being. Microsoft says it is just getting started with the distribution, which will first be limited to users in the Canary channel. A wider deployment will follow, with Microsoft soliciting feedback as it goes and tweaking things based on what it learns from Windows 11 testers, no doubt.
As indicated in the blog post, certain ‘under-the-hood enhancements’ are also on the way for Copilot, but Microsoft has yet to reveal what. We can only presume that this is about performance, given it appears to be the most obvious way that fiddling in the background could enhance things with Copilot. (Perhaps to to provide a smooth rotation of the undocked panel for the AI, even).
