Microsoft tests option to make Copilot AI appear as soon as Windows 11 loads

Copilot logo with Clippy looking angry
(Image credit: Microsoft)

Microsoft could be giving its Copilot AI some new powers in Windows 11 (and maybe Windows 10 eventually), or at least this functionality has been spotted in test builds – including the ability to fire up the AI as soon as the operating system boots.

Windows Latest reported on some fresh options recently brought into testing for Copilot, and as mentioned one is a toggle to ‘Open Copilot when Windows starts’ (tucked away in the Personalization area of Settings).

Another move in testing for Copilot is unpinning the AI’s side-panel. This is a button present on the actual side-bar for the AI, and when clicked, Copilot collapses when you maximize another window.


Analysis: Some useful changes for tailoring the AI

If you’re a Windows 11 tester and you haven’t seen any of these options for Copilot, that’s not too surprising, as Microsoft is only trialing them with a limited set of Windows Insiders at the moment.

As ever with features in preview, they may or may not be carried forward, but if they are, all testers will get them eventually – and then they’ll debut in the release version of Windows 11.

The functionality to unpin, resize, and have Copilot appear by default after boot – if you want to, and perhaps have an ultra-wide monitor – are all choices that will prove useful and add versatility to the way Copilot’s interface works. And given that, we can’t see why they wouldn’t make the cut for inclusion in Windows 11 ultimately.

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Darren is a freelancer writing news and features for TechRadar (and occasionally T3) across a broad range of computing topics including CPUs, GPUs, various other hardware, VPNs, antivirus and more. He has written about tech for the best part of three decades, and writes books in his spare time (his debut novel - 'I Know What You Did Last Supper' - was published by Hachette UK in 2013).