Microsoft is backing away from putting Copilot everywhere in Windows 11

[DragonSlayer101]

The big picture: Facing major pushback from users, Microsoft has reportedly canceled plans to add more AI features to Windows 11. According to a new report, the company has halted efforts to integrate Copilot into Windows notifications and the Settings app, despite spending much of the past two years developing these features.

Microsoft previewed Copilot Suggestions in notifications as far back as 2024, but the feature was never rolled out, even in preview builds for Windows Insiders. According to Windows Central, the company decided to scrap the AI-powered feature following severe backlash over the Windows Recall tool, which many cybersecurity experts viewed as a significant threat to user privacy.

Alongside Copilot Suggestions, Microsoft also previewed Copilot-branded AI features in Settings and File Explorer on Windows 11. These features have since been released through Windows updates, but only as independent tools without the Copilot branding – a strategy that helped avoid further community protests. The final versions also removed the agentic capabilities that had been showcased in the 2024 previews.

It is worth noting that despite the uproar, Microsoft rolled out Windows Recall to compatible PCs last April after claiming to have addressed the privacy concerns raised by users and cybersecurity experts. While Copilot Suggestions has reportedly been abandoned entirely, it remains to be seen whether the company might resurrect it in some form in the future.

Despite strong anti-AI sentiment among many Windows users, the Settings app in Windows 11 was updated with an AI agent capable of understanding natural language queries and suggesting configuration changes. File Explorer has also recently received AI enhancements, allowing it to connect with third-party apps to edit or summarize content using artificial intelligence.

Microsoft has invested heavily in AI and is unlikely to abandon it entirely. Windows will very likely continue to receive more AI integrations, whether power users embrace them or not. However, customer feedback appears to have influenced the company's decision to reduce AI clutter across the OS.

The company is also pivoting its Windows 11 strategy to focus on improving system stability and addressing longstanding bugs rather than rolling out half-baked features. AI remains an integral part of the Windows roadmap, so users can only hope that new AI features will be genuinely useful, rather than contributing to interface clutter or hindering productivity.

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Microsoft is backing away from putting Copilot everywhere in Windows 11

 

[ArmorJr]

Well if they want that AI still remains as an integral part of Windows, then I will finally just switch to Linux for everything except gaming...Playing on windows since Win95 or maybe earlier I think...

 

[NumberNine]

Good luck with that, Microslop. Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC IoT games like a dream and has extended support until 2032. Every time I see the woes of Windows 11 are published, I will repeat the immutable fact.

For everything else? Linux.

 

[Kirby1]

So people hated recall and they still rolled it out but canceled AI summaries of user notifications, which would have actually been somewhat useful.

Really on a roll here.

 

[ScottSoapbox]

Microslop promised to stop adding AI bloat and focus on stability about a month ago and then released more AI the following week.

So I don't believe this latest promise either.

 

[scoffer]

Good luck with that, Microslop. Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC IoT games like a dream and has extended support until 2032. Every time I see the woes of Windows 11 are published, I will repeat the immutable fact.

For everything else? Linux.

Even WIn 11 LTSC IOT does Ok also....However, I have also been experimenting with one or two Linux distros, using dual-boot on separate drives. (Having already had a slight disaster dual-booting on a single drive -definitely NOT recommended).

 

[Watzupken]

Microsoft should really start to fix what is broken and stop adding what is unnecessary at this point. The OS is buggy and basic things like sleep don't work reliably for example. If AI is a feature people want, let it be an opt in feature instead of forcing on all. These are features running in the background and wasting limited resources for those who don't use it.

 

[IMABEARLOL]

Doubt it

 

[dangh]

Well if they want that AI still remains as an integral part of Windows, then I will finally just switch to Linux for everything except gaming...Playing on windows since Win95 or maybe earlier I think...

I switched to Linux for everything including gaming. And I was using windows from 95 to 3 years ago.
Best decision ever.

 

[wiyosaya]

M$, once again, figures out "Just because you can doesn't mean you should."

 

[Rumiku]

Press X to doubt.

 

[DrSuess]

They need to make it easy to globally turn off all CoPilot features, and allow CoPilot to be enabled or disabled on on a per app basis. I have 0 interest in having CoPilot or any other AI accessing my emails or text messages, tax returns or other personally identifiable information.

I currently have CoPilot and web search disabled via a group policy.

 

[Tantor]

Microsoft has forgotten the old dictum: the customer is always right. They make products to meet their own needs, not the customer's needs. If there's a difference, they use marketing to redefine the customer needs.

Here's where China excels. If you need something, the Chinese will build it for you according to your specs. For example, most people want a cheap EV that charges in 5 minutes. Voila! the Chinese step up to the plate and deliver.

 

[Suisam]

Well if they want that AI still remains as an integral part of Windows, then I will finally just switch to Linux for everything except gaming...Playing on windows since Win95 or maybe earlier I think...

I mentioned that I changed my daily driver to CashyOS and have been gaming happily on that with next to no issue on another article. I highly recommend it.

As for dual booting, just pull the drive and put another one in to install to when you're testing it out. Claude AI and Gemini AI are good sources of information for CachyOS. Give it a good hot go. I dont think you'll be disappointed.

 

[MarkHughes]

I just did the unthinkable (to me) and bought a Mac to try out... So it seems I am backing away from Windows and moving to Mac and Linux. I can of course use Linux now but I am curios about macs too, Either way I am working on moving even if it means using 2 different operating systems to do all I need.

 

[OortCloud]

Maybe they could spend some time on the god-awful new Start Menu categories so that:
1) I can remove categories I don't want
2) The programs actually go in the right categories rather than 90% in other
3) Items can be moved between categories
4) Categories can be renamed
As it stands it borderline unusable and I can't believe they released it in this state.

Oh and while you are at it, maybe write a search that actually works. If (as it seems from the last 2 decades) that is beyond your clearly very limited capabilities, just buy a search from a third party as every other dev on the internet seems capable of writing an algorithm that actually shows what you asked for.

And finally try and sort out settings. It's pathetic that after all these years we still have about 4 different OS look and feels for the settings once you drill beneath the surface.

I know this is a dream given the terrible quality (and quantity) output by the OS team over the last decade but one can dream.

 

[OortCloud]

I just did the unthinkable (to me) and bought a Mac to try out... So it seems I am backing away from Windows and moving to Mac and Linux. I can of course use Linux now but I am curios about macs too, Either way I am working on moving even if it means using 2 different operating systems to do all I need.

I've been using a lot of Linux too of late. As an MS user and developer for 40 years, if you'd told me a decade ago I would be daily-ing Linux on my home PC I wouldn't have believed you.

 

[MarkHughes]

I've been using a lot of Linux too of late. As an MS user and developer for 40 years, if you'd told me a decade ago I would be daily-ing Linux on my home PC I wouldn't have believed you.

I'm the same with the Mac, It was until recently unimaginable for me to even consider it, But they bought that Neo out and I was like, Why not have a go ? get a taste, Might be that my next laptop is a big mac without fries... Otherwise it will definitely be a Linux friendly laptop.

 

[MarkHughes]

Oh and while you are at it, maybe write a search that actually works. If (as it seems from the last 2 decades) that is beyond your clearly very limited capabilities, just buy a search from a third party as every other dev on the internet seems capable of writing an algorithm that actually shows what you asked for.

Why is Everything so totally awesome and fast at search and windows so utterly useless... My theory has to do with windows search wanting to advertise to you as its primary function while Everything wants to find your actual files.

 

[OortCloud]

I'm the same with the Mac, It was until recently unimaginable for me to even consider it, But they bought that Neo out and I was like, Why not have a go ? get a taste, Might be that my next laptop is a big mac without fries... Otherwise it will definitely be a Linux friendly laptop.

Let us know how it goes in about a month. Genuinely curious as I was looking at them too.
My main concern is getting dragged into Apple's walled-garden ecosystem.

As an aside... You know the world has gone utterly off-axis when the budget offering is from Apple.

 

[wiyosaya]

Why is Everything so totally awesome and fast at search and windows so utterly useless... My theory has to do with windows search wanting to advertise to you as its primary function while Everything wants to find your actual files.

You could be right.

My theory, as a long-time Windoz programmer, is that Windows search integrates far too much with the UI and M$ made a decision that Windoz has to entertain you while searching. Thus, there's all kinds of cutesie crap that Windoz has to show you to keep you entertained when in reality, people just want to find files and do not appreciate the "entertainment." Everything dispenses with the entertainment, and just does a search exceptionally well without taking up expensive, single-threaded, UI time, and also does not show cutesie crap.

Actually, even though I use Everything, I have found that if I open a command prompt, either the old command prompt or power shell, and do something like a "dir/s *.pdf|more" I get results far faster than doing the equivalent in Windoz Explorer.

Another thing that, IMO, takes a crazy amount of time is deleting a bunch of files in Windoz Explorer. It seems that for some reason, M$ has decided that it has to locate all the files you want deleted first, then it can go and delete them while showing cutesie crap no one, IMO, needs to see. As before, I have found that if I do the same delete using the old command prompt or power shell, without that find all the files to be deleted first step, the deletion happens almost instantly. Perhaps the cutesie crap can be justified in that it might give a user time to cancel the deletion just in case they decide "Oh crap, I didn't want to do that!"

I have no idea what M$ was thinking with these things, but as I see it, M$ has enshitified the Windoz experience with these "improvements." And I think that is what they see these as is user experience improvements.

 

[MarkHughes]

Let us know how it goes in about a month. Genuinely curious as I was looking at them too.
My main concern is getting dragged into Apple's walled-garden ecosystem.

As an aside... You know the world has gone utterly off-axis when the budget offering is from Apple.

I also have ecosystem concerns, However I have so far avoided getting trapped in any and I am always ready to move things, So hopefully it should be ok, It's the reason I bought one of the cheap laptops first instead of going all in like usual. Lessons learned.

 

[acrossthestars]

They can say how they are "listening to customer feedback" all they want, but 2 years of making Windows 11 suck as* doesn't get erased by not adding more AI right now. The damage is already done. The trust is broken. Forget about all of the telemetry that is baked into Windows 11, for a moment. People begrudingly use Windows now. It is tolerated, not desired. It is with hesitancy and trepidation that we engage with Microsoft's ecosystem, not enthusiasm.

Even business are probably weary of Windows by now; every update coming down the pipeline, a proverbial ransom disguised as a gift, about all of the newly-added "features" that have been added, with caveat that there "may possibly be a bug or three" that have the potential to destroy their entire workflow and cost them millions in lost revenue...all because Microsoft needs to recoup their investment with OpenAI. Nothing short of completely overhaulling the system, undoing all of Microsoft's "improvements", removing ALL of the AI nonsense―no excuses, no exceptions―is going to make people want to use Windows again.

 

[MarkHughes]

Let us know how it goes in about a month. Genuinely curious as I was looking at them too.
My main concern is getting dragged into Apple's walled-garden ecosystem.

As an aside... You know the world has gone utterly off-axis when the budget offering is from Apple.

So far it's going great, I actually really like this little mac, The 8gb of ram is absolutely no issue so far, I'm coding, playing vids, browsing etc without issue. I think my next big laptop will be a Mac.

The ecosystem isn't pushed half as aggressively as Microsoft, It's not to hard to ignore/disable stuff, Lots of customisation etc, The only thing I didn't like was the mousewheel scrolling which was fixed with a small app.

I went into this with a sceptical mindset but have been very pleasantly surprised. Apple knew what they where doing here, I would never have considered an expensive Mac without trying it out on this little laptop first.

 

[OortCloud]

So far it's going great, I actually really like this little mac, The 8gb of ram is absolutely no issue so far, I'm coding, playing vids, browsing etc without issue. I think my next big laptop will be a Mac.

The ecosystem isn't pushed half as aggressively as Microsoft, It's not to hard to ignore/disable stuff, Lots of customisation etc, The only thing I didn't like was the mousewheel scrolling which was fixed with a small app.

I went into this with a sceptical mindset but have been very pleasantly surprised. Apple knew what they where doing here, I would never have considered an expensive Mac without trying it out on this little laptop first.

Interesting. Thanks for the update.