Microsoft just announced that Copilot is currently rolling out to more Windows 11 users, and will soon be coming to more Windows 10 users as well.
New saw the reveal in the Windows Notification Center, where Microsoft informed us that Copilot is coming to a wider audience – so if you haven’t seen the AI assistant yet, you might do so soon enough.
Microsoft also informed us that starting this week it will be possible to use up to 10 queries with Copilot before having to log into your Microsoft account. So you can try out the AI a bit even if you don’t have an active Microsoft account on your Windows installation.
The ‘new wave’ of Copilot additions is happening now with Windows 11 (23H2 and 22H2), at least for consumers (for enterprises this will depend on admin policies). And eligible Windows 10 devices running Home or Pro versions (22H2) will get Copilot in this wider rollout later in March, i.e. within next week.
Microsoft tells us: “This current rollout phase will reach most of the targeted Windows 11 and 10 devices by the end of May.”
Meanwhile, Microsoft is also busy expanding Copilot’s repertoire of tricks when it comes to changing Windows settings, although things are going very slowly on that front so far.
Analysis: AI for everyone
It looks like most people will have Copilot by the end of May. We’ve already seen it coming on our Windows 10 PC, so the rollout is definitely already underway – it’s about to take it a step further to another level.
How do you know if you’re getting Copilot? You can’t miss the colorful icon that appears on the far right of the taskbar (in the system tray). It’s marked with a ‘Pre’ on the icon to indicate that the AI is still in preview, so it’s still possible to experience shaky or strange behavior when running queries with Copilot.
While you can disable the Copilot icon if you don’t want to see it, you can’t actually remove the AI as such from Windows (yet) – it will still lurk in the background even if you never access it have it. That said, there are ways to extract Copilot from your Windows installation, such as using third-party apps (although we don’t recommend this, as discussed earlier).