- Microsoft has added a new icon to the Windows 11 taskbar
- It allows you to use the effects of Windows Studio on compatible applications
- Windows Studio Effects is exclusive to co -pilot+ pcs
If you have downloaded the last Windows 11 update, which was launched as part of the monthly corrections ‘Patch Tuesday’ corrections, it is possible that you have noticed a new icon in the taskbar and wondered what it is. Well, I don’t ask myself anymore: it is a shortcut for the Windows Study effects function with IA.
Windows Studio Effects is a set of effects that use artificial intelligence to improve the quality of their video calls. You can blur the background, make it look like looking directly at the camera (instead of looking at the screen), improving lighting and making sure you are always in the frame (as well as applying more creative filters).
It is possible that it has not used the effects of Windows Studio before: they are a relatively new lot of effects introduced as part of Microsoft’s artificial intelligence impulse, and this change seems to be an attempt to present them to a broader audience. The icon will appear when you use an application that uses the effects of Windows Studio, which will include almost any tool used by your device’s website.
By clicking on the icon, it raises the effects to be easily activated, and if you pass the passage on the icon, you will tell you what application you are using the webcam. This is a practical privacy function, since it means that applications should not access your webcam without you knowing it.
However, there are many Windows 11 users (including myself) who are waiting for Microsoft The application in the taskbar to open them in the application. Microsoft, on the other hand, adding icons for the characteristics that many people do not use is disappointing, to say at least.
Easier access, but is enough?
As I mentioned, Windows Studio Effects was introduced as part of the Microsoft campaign so that more people use AI characteristics, something that the company has invested a lot. It was announced as one of the great points of sale of co -ilot+ PCs, a new Windows race. 11 devices that meet certain hardware requirements (16 GB of RAM and a CPU with an NPU) to execute the device locally in the device, instead of the Internet.
Because of this, Windows Studio Effects is exclusive to co -pilot+ PCs, so if you do not see the new icon, then its PC does not meet the requirements.
There lies part of the problem for Microsoft if you want more people to use the effects of Windows Studio. Making the function more easily accessible by putting an icon in the taskbar is a good first step, but by limiting the function to certain PCs it will reduce its scope.
Of course, what Microsoft would like in that case is for people who are desperate to use the effects of Windows Studio to go out and buy a new co -pilot+ laptop. But that is the other problem: is this a characteristic that will excite people with AI? And excited enough to buy a new laptop?
I just don’t think so. Other applications can make some features, such as the background and automatic approach to the camera, without the need for an NPU (neural processing unit), while other characteristics, such as creative effects, are fun, but barely essential. If you use your device to make video calls as part of your work, you want to enable them. Worse, the visual contact characteristic ends up being a bit creepy, with visual contact with an antinatural appearance that causes a strange valley effect.
Until now, the Co -Plot+ PC we have tested have been some of the best laptops that you can buy thanks to your battery performance and duration, but the characteristics of AI are the least impressive bits about them, which is a problem, and That Microsoft imagines them as key points of sale, especially as other key co -ilot+ PC features, such as the controversial recovery function, do not work so well or have not yet been released.
So, it doesn’t matter how easy Microsoft is to launch these new characteristics of AI, people will continue to ignore them until the company gives us a good reason for, and so far, it has not done that.
