Microsoft Copilot is a new AI-powered feature that will be released with the Windows 11 23H2 update. It is a digital assistant that can answer your questions in natural language, summarize content, customize settings, troubleshoot issues, connect across your preferred apps, and take action.

Copilot uses Bing Chat, OpenAI plugins, and other third-party plugins to create a smart personal assistant that helps you be more productive and get things done more easily on Windows.

It uses advanced machine learning to learn about your preferences, habits, and needs and then uses this information to give you personalized recommendations and solutions.

How to Enable Copilot in Windows 11 Settings

In Windows 11, the Copilot feature is turned on by default and is represented by a permanent icon on the taskbar. If you can't find it on your Taskbar, here's how to enable it on your PC.

  1. Open the 'Settings' app on your Windows 11 PC.
  2. Select the 'Personalization' section from the sidebar in the left.
  3. Scroll down a bit and select 'Taskbar'.
  4. To enable Copilot, turn 'On' the toggle switch next to the Copilot option.

Once Copilot is enabled, you'll see the Copilot icon on the Taskbar.

How to Use Copilot in Windows 11

You can launch Copilot on Windows 11 by either clicking the 'Copilot' icon on the taskbar or using the Windows + C shortcut.

When you open Copilot, it will appear as a sidebar on the right edge of your screen. It won't overlap with your desktop content and will run alongside your open app windows, so you can interact with it anytime you need.

Once launched, Copilot will show you three conversion modes to choose from:

  • More Creative: The output will be more imaginative and inventive, but might lack in accuracy.
  • More Precise: The output will be highly accurate and detailed, but may not be as creative.
  • More Balanced: The output will be a blend of both creativity and accuracy, balancing the two aspects.

Choose the option that best suits your requirements.

Copilot may show you a sample task from its list of capabilities. Click the task to try it out. For example, it shows 'Turn on dark mode' for us.

When you click on it, it will ask you for confirmation whether you want to turn on dark mode, click 'Yes' to confirm, or just deny with 'No thanks'.

If you select 'Yes', Copilot will turn on the dark mode for you.

Copilot AI is a powerful tool that uses natural language processing to understand your requests and provide helpful information.

You can interact with Copilot through voice commands or text inputs, and it can help you with a wide range of tasks, such as navigating the operating system, troubleshooting technical issues, finding documents or files, and performing productivity actions.

Starting a new conversation in Copilot. To start a new chat, click the 'New topic' (blue button) button near the text field or click the three dots at the top and select 'Refresh'.

Integrate Copilot with Microsoft Edge. Since Bing powers Copilot, it has the option to allow it to use content from your active Edge browser tabs to provide you with results. This setting is disabled by default.

To enable or disable Microsoft Edge integration in Copilot, click the three dots in the Copilot menu and select 'Settings'.

Then, turn on or off the 'Let Copilot in Windows use Microsoft Edge content' option as per your choice.

Getting your questions answered with Copilot

Like Bing Chat and other large language models, Copilot can answer a wide range of questions, from simple to complex. You can ask questions in natural language, and the technology is smart enough to understand and answer them in your preferred language.

When I asked the question 'Is water older than the Sun?', this is how the copilot responded:

It summarizes the answer in simple, easy-to-understand words. When you scroll down to the bottom of the results, you'll notice it even includes resources for further understanding the topic and some related questions.

Depending on your questions, Copilot may also include links to sources and suggestions. For example, when we asked it to check some flights between two cities, it showed us the availability and suggested some websites to book the flights.

Customizing the Windows Experience

Copilot can help you customize the Windows experience by using natural language commands or queries. You can ask Copilot to change Windows settings, open apps, troubleshoot common issues, find files, take screenshots, and perform various other actions.

For example, let's ask Copilot to 'Set a focus session for an hour'. It'll understand your request and ask for confirmation. Click 'Yes' to confirm.

When you select 'Yes', Copilot will automatically execute the desired action. This eliminates the need for you to manually navigate through Windows to find and adjust the Focus session settings.

Summarizing Content using Copilot

Copilot can help you generate personalized content, summarize content, and perform other automated tasks using natural language conversation. For example, you can ask it to summarize an article, document, or even a website.

Let's say you want to summarize an article on a website. Copilot can help you do this with just a few clicks.

Another cool feature of Copilot is that when you select and copy text, it will show a prompt in the Copilot sidebar asking if you want to send the copied text to Copilot. Click 'Send' to send the text to Copilot. You can also drag and drop text directly into the Copilot text field.

Once you click Send, it will ask you what you want to do with the text - summarize, explain, revise, etc.

When you click 'Summarize', it will quickly summarize the text for you.

Creating AI Images using Copilot

Powered by the DALL-E model, it can even create stunning images using generative AI (Bing Image Creator) from your text prompts.

For example, I prompted it to 'Draw me a dragon', and this was the result.

Copilot is a tool designed to enhance productivity by assisting with a variety of tasks. These include generating and visualizing new ideas, organizing thoughts, comprehending user intent, establishing workflows, setting up connections, applying parameters, and answering questions, among other functionalities.