- There is a new preview version for Windows 11
- Smartly develop the powers of the AI agent in Settings
- This is only for Copilot+ PCs and there’s not much here for those with a traditional (non-AI) Windows 11 PC.
Microsoft is beefing up the powers of its AI agent in Windows 11 (for PC Copilot+) with the latest preview build for the operating system.
You may remember that the first Windows Agent is the AI introduced in the Settings app a few months ago, designed to help you easily find and change the options you want in Windows 11, and worked on in preview build 26120.6780 in the Beta channel.
There are two major changes here, the first of which is an increase in the number of suggestions that appear when you search for a setting using the AI agent.
This means that the AI not only shows you the settings it thinks you want (and possible recommendations for what to choose with that option), but also provides more results for related settings you may need (see example below).
Additionally, if your query to the AI cannot be performed (say you want to increase the brightness of the monitor, but it is already at the maximum level), you will be informed about this (and also provided with the necessary slider if you want to change the settings). Microsoft also shows us an example screenshot for this, when the volume is at maximum.
The second big change here is that the AI displays recently used options in the Settings app’s home panel so you can quickly access them again.
Remember, the agent in Settings is a Copilot+ PC feature, so traditional (non-AI) Windows 11 computers don’t get this because they don’t have the NPU needed to speed up the performance of the feature (which happens on the device).
Another change for Copilot+ PCs is that Windows 11 will now highlight key capabilities when launching Click to Do, such as emails or tables where you can use AI-related actions.
In addition to these increases on the AI front in this preview, Microsoft is also making the dialog for the Run command fit with dark mode; It didn’t before, it’s still white, but now it has a dark background, like it should have.
Analysis: Really useful AI
These are welcome changes to make the AI agent more useful in Settings. Having recently used settings on the Start screen is great for quickly modifying (or reversing) a decision you recently made with the various options in Windows 11. And it’s also nice to see the improved search functionality – all of this makes it a really useful AI feature, especially for computer beginners who may not understand the various nuances of different settings.
For me, this is the highlight of Windows 11 on Copilot+ PCs, as is the AI-powered search feature elsewhere in the operating system. It seems like much of the important progress with AI in Windows 11 so far is around making search smarter.
Of course, we can expect more AI features in Windows 11, and Microsoft recently launched a new Windows AI Labs program to help with the development of such functionality. Presumably, we’ll eventually get more AI agents outside of the Settings app, although it’s unclear where Microsoft might look to expand this concept. The Start menu could perhaps be the next target.
Unfortunately, there’s not much in this new preview for those who don’t have a Copilot+ PC, although the additional dark mode functionality doesn’t hurt. This is part of an ongoing campaign to bring more interface elements to dark mode, although Microsoft has lagged behind in this work. It’s unclear why it’s taking so long to ensure that dark mode covers the entire Windows 11 interface.
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