- Windows 11 Copilot app now has a ‘Settings Shortcut’ feature
- With questions about settings in Windows 11, this provides direct links to the relevant options in the Settings app.
- It also provides some useful additional tips, succinctly.
Microsoft is giving the Copilot app in Windows 11 some new powers to allow AI to be more useful in terms of adjusting settings in the operating system.
Thurrott.com highlighted that Microsoft revealed a new ‘Settings Shortcut’ feature for the Copilot app, which connects to Windows 11 settings in a pretty deep way.
In a blog post for the latest version of the Copilot app, Microsoft explains that if a person asks the app a query about their PC settings, the AI will now include a direct link to the relevant options in the Settings app.
Microsoft’s example shows a Windows 11 user complaining that their screen is too dark and then asking how to fix it.
In its response, the Copilot app provides a link to the part of the Settings app where the screen brightness can be adjusted, so the user can go directly to this section, which is very convenient.
The AI also imparts advice on how to change the brightness (by moving the slider) and yes, that’s a pretty basic clarification, but Copilot also provides some cleverly optimized nuggets of additional information (I’ll come back to expand on that in a moment).
If you are a Windows Insider (tester), this new trick for the Copilot app is present in software version 1.25095.161 or later; get the update from the Microsoft Store, but not everyone will get it yet. Microsoft says this is rolling out gradually, so the feature may still take a while to arrive for those testers running the latest Copilot app.
Analysis: A clear step towards a more useful Copilot app
I’m glad to see a really useful addition to the Copilot app here. It’s helpful to get a direct link to any relevant settings provided in the app in a similar (more or less) way to the AI agent in the Settings app with Windows 11, except it’s PC-only Copilot+ and this capability works for everyone. Or it will when the feature comes out of testing, anyway (unless Microsoft scraps the idea, but that doesn’t seem likely).
It’s also worth noting that in addition to the direct link, the Copilot app includes some additional tips that seem relevant and well-honed. In the case of this brightness query, as you can see in the screenshot above, the AI recommends checking that Windows 11 Battery Saver doesn’t limit screen brightness if you’re on a laptop, and also checking your night light settings (which Copilot will also tell you).
The current version of the Copilot app on my Windows 11 laptop provides a more confusing set of advice when asking the same question about brightness, and this new approach is more concise in terms of the nuances of expanding on the given query. Overall, this seems to be a clear step forward for the app.
However, I’ll need to see this in action (and how it reacts to various questions, including some more obscure configuration queries) to really judge it, but at first glance, it looks like a winning move from Microsoft.
Perhaps eventually, we’ll see a Copilot app that can not only recommend checking additional items like power saving or night light settings, but will also be able to check them itself and report back, and ask if the user wants those options changed as well.
Big changes are also coming to the Copilot app interface, in case you missed that recent development.
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