New Windows 11 Update brings Windows Copilot AI (Build 23493)

Finally wait is over now Microsoft releasing “Windows Copilot” in Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 23493 to the Dev Channel and let me tell you it is freaking awesome.

This update also has some other good sets of features and improvements and bug fixes we will see one by one.

Windows Copilot Preview

Windows Copilot is a new AI-powered assistant that is designed to help you be more productive on your PC.

It can help you with tasks such as writing, editing, and summarising text, as well as navigating and interacting with apps.

Windows Copilot is still in beta, but it has the potential to revolutionize the way we use our computers.

Microsoft limited this Copilot AI assistance to a small number of tasks because it is in testing mode so it can perform these the below actions

• “Change to dark mode.”
• “Turn on do not disturb.”
• “Take a screenshot”
• “Summarize this website” (Active tab in Microsoft Edge)
• “Write a story about a dog who lives on the moon.”
• “Make me a picture of a serene koi fishpond with lily pads.”

This first preview focuses on our integrated UI experience, with additional functionality coming in future Windows 11 updates.

To use Copilot in this flight you must have Windows Build 23493 or higher in the Dev Channel, and Microsoft Edge version 115.0.1901.150 or higher.

To get started, just click on the new button on the taskbar (or WIN + C) to launch Windows Copilot.

Windows Copilot will use the same Microsoft account (MSA) or Azure Active Directory (AAD) account used to sign in to Windows.

Copilot will appear as a sidebar docked to the right where it won’t overlap with your desktop content and will run unobstructed alongside your open app windows, allowing you to interact with Windows Copilot anytime you need.

Windows 11 introduces a new Settings homepage

Microsoft has introduced a new homepage in Settings that offers an Introducing the new Settings homepage for Windows 11 users.

The new homepage features interactive cards that represent various device and account-related settings, grouped by commonly accessed functions.

Each card is optimized to offer the most relevant information and controls at users’ fingertips.

In this release, the new homepage includes up to seven cards, with more coming soon. The cards include:

1. Recommended settings: This card adapts to users’ specific usage patterns, providing timely and relevant settings options. It’s designed to streamline settings management and save users time.
2. Cloud storage: Gives users an overview of their cloud storage use and lets them know when they’re nearing capacity.
3. Account recovery: Helps keep users’ Microsoft accounts more secure by helping them add additional recovery info so they never get locked out of their account, even if they forget their password.
4. Personalization: This brings customization to the forefront by offering one-click access to update users’ background themes or change their color mode.
5. Microsoft 365: Provides a quick glimpse of users’ subscription status and benefits, along with the ability to take some key actions right in Settings instead of going to the web.
6. Xbox: Similar to the Microsoft 365 card, users will be able to view their subscription status and manage the subscription from the Settings app.
7. Bluetooth devices: To simplify users’ Bluetooth device management experience, this card has been brought to the forefront so they can quickly access and connect to their favorite Bluetooth devices.

Users can take swift actions directly from the homepage with just a click, making device and account management seamless and efficient.

What sets the homepage apart even further is that it’s more than just a landing page—it evolves and learns with users.

As they use their device, the homepage will adjust to provide the most relevant and useful information based on their usage and preferences.

The new Settings homepage is only available on Windows 11 Home and Pro editions and not on devices managed by organizations.

Restore for more apps

Microsoft added the capabilities of the backup and restore improvements in this build extending support to even more types of apps.

Users will now see pins for their desktop app restored on the taskbar and Start Menu, including desktop apps that were not installed from the Microsoft Store.

Desktop apps that are available in the Microsoft Store can be restored by clicking on the app pin to get started.

For apps that aren’t available in the Microsoft Store, you’ll be directed to the web to download the installer.

The screenshot shows a dialog box to install an app from the web.

To try out this experience, both the backup and restore devices need to be updated to this build.

Once you’ve backed up either via the new Windows Backup app or by visiting Accounts/Windows Backup in settings.

you can try out the new restore during the out-of-box experience (OOBE) when setting up a new PC or by resetting an existing PC (Settings > System > Recovery > Reset this PC) with this build.

Native Support for Reading Additional Archive File Formats

This build adds native support for reading additional archive file formats using the libarchive open-source project such as

• .tar
• .tar.gz
• .tar.bz2
• .tar.zst
• .tar.xz
• .tgz
• .tbz2
• .tzst
• .txz
• .rar
• .7z
  And more!

New volume mixer experience in Quick Settings

New enhanced volume mixer into Quick Settings! The updated audio quick settings experience brings a modern volume mixer that allows for quick customization of audio on a per-app basis, with additional control to swap devices on the fly.

We’ve also added a new keyboard shortcut (WIN + CTRL + V) to bring you directly to the volume mixer for faster control of the experience.

With this change, you can now tailor your audio experience better with more control and fewer clicks to better manage your favorite apps.

In addition, we’ve made it easier for users to enable their Windows Sonic experience with a quick access list of installed spatial sound technology.

You can visit the Microsoft Store to find additional spatial sound technology to choose from such as Dolby and DTS.

Narrator natural voices in Japanese and English (Great British)

Natural voices in Japanese and English (Great British) allow Narrator users to comfortably browse the web, read, and write mail, and do more.

Natural Narrator voices use modern, on-device text-to-speech and once downloaded are supported without an internet connection.

To use one of the natural voices, add it to your PC by following these steps:

1. Open Narrator Settings by pressing the WIN + Ctrl + N hotkey.
2. Under Narrator’s voice, select the Add button next to Add natural voices.
3. Choose the language for which you want to install Natural Voices. A list of available voices will be displayed.
4. Select the voice you want to install. You can install all voices, but you must install them separately.
5. The new Japanese voices are Microsoft Nanami (Female) and Microsoft Keita (Male)
6. The new English (Great British) voices are Microsoft Sonia (Female) and Microsoft Ryan (Male)
7. To start the download of the selected voice, select Install. The new voice will download and be ready for use in a few minutes, depending on your Internet download speed.
8. When the new voice has downloaded, in Narrator settings select your preferred voice from the drop-down menu in Narrator’s voice > Choose a voice.

Note: If your display language is not set to Japanese and English (Great British), then in step 3 you will first need to select “Choose a different language” and select the appropriate language followed by the specific voice.

Changes and Improvements

[General]

• New functionality for mitigating unrequested modifications for app defaults as mentioned in this blog post is included in this build.

[Taskbar & System Tray]

• The updated API for pinning as mentioned here in this blog post is now included in this build for preview.

[Snap Layouts]

We are trying out suggestions in Snap Layouts that help you instantly snap multiple app windows together.

When hovering over the Minimize or Maximize button on an app (or WIN + Z) to launch the layout box, you will see app icons displayed in various layout options to help recommend the best layout option that works best.

This experience is beginning to roll out so not all Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel will see it right away.

[File Explorer]

• We’ve done some work to improve the performance of archive functionality during compression on Windows.

Fixes

[General]

• Fixed an underlying issue that was causing explorer.exe crashes when doing a variety of things in the last 2 builds, including when uninstalling apps.

[Dev Drive]

• Fixed an issue where symbolic links might not work correctly when using Dev Drive.

[File Explorer]

• Fixed an issue where the count shown for selected files in the details pane may have been extremely large.

We fixed the following issues for Insiders with the modernized details pane in File Explorer:

• Fixed an issue where the details pane was flashing white in dark mode when navigating or resizing the File Explorer window.

We fixed the following issues for Insiders with the modernized address bar in File Explorer:

• Fixed an issue where the delete key was sometimes not working in File Explorer (including when doing Shift + Delete).

We fixed the following issues for Insiders who have the modernized File Explorer Home:

• File Type icons were displayed in place of file thumbnails for the ‘Recommended’ section (applicable to Enterprise users).
• Insiders signed in with an AAD account and tried to navigate the Recommended section on File Explorer Home with the tab key on the keyboard may have experienced an explorer.exe crash.
• When navigating from another group to the Recommended section using a keyboard, the focus did not appear on the group header or files appropriately.

[Taskbar & System Tray]

• Fixed multiple explorer.exe crashes that were impacting taskbar reliability.
• Fixed an issue when using an uncombined taskbar that was causing focus to get lost when moving from the taskbar previews back to the taskbar icons.

[Search on the Taskbar]

• Fixed an issue impacting search reliability for some Insiders in the last 2 flights.

[Task Manager]

• Fixed an issue where it wasn’t possible to move the Task Manager window with touch or pen.

[Dynamic Lighting]

• Fixed an issue where device icons were missing from the device cards in Settings.

[Windows Ink]

• Fixed an issue where users were unable to use handwriting to erase text in Microsoft Edge.

Known issues

[Windows Copilot]

• You can use Alt + Tab to switch out of Windows Copilot, but not back into it. Windows + C will move to focus back on Windows Copilot
• When first launching or after refreshing Copilot while using Voice Access you’ll need to use “Show grid” commands to click in the “Ask me anything” box for the first time.

[Dev Drive]

• There might be variable performance on different hardware. If you notice slower performance on your machine, please file feedback!

[Search on the Taskbar]

• After changing your Windows display language, the search box on the taskbar may continue to display in the previous language for a short time before changing to the new language you selected.
• Text scaling may not work in the search flyout.

[File Explorer]

• [NEW] Copying files out of large archives or using “Extract All” might be slower than expected for “solid” .7Z or .rar archives.
• In some cases, the context menu background in File Explorer may appear transparent.
• Insiders may experience a File Explorer crash when dragging the scroll bar or attempting to close the window during an extended file-loading process.
• Thumbnail loading performance in Gallery for dehydrated cloud files and memory usage in large collections are known issues we are focused on improving.

Insiders who have the modernized File Explorer Home that began rolling out with Build 23475:

• File Type icons are displayed in place of file thumbnails for the ‘Recommended’ section (applicable to Enterprise users).
• Insiders signed in with an AAD account and try to navigate the Recommended section on File Explorer Home with the tab key on the keyboard may experience an explorer.exe crash.
• When navigating from another group to the Recommended section using a keyboard, focus does not appear on the group header or files appropriately.
• Files display file extensions with the Show file extensions setting disabled.

Insiders who have the modernized File Explorer address bar that began rolling out with Build 23475:

• Windows Insiders may notice missing craftmanship polish with the modernized address bar and search box.
• Users might experience lost keyboard focus and missing keyboard shortcuts. The team implemented improved tabbing with keyboard shortcuts that will be available soon.
• If “…” shows in the address bar path, selecting it will crash explorer.exe.

Insiders will have issues with the following commands on recommended files in File Explorer that began rolling out with Build 23403:

• Clicking on the Share command will currently bring up the Windows share sheet (non-OneDrive).

[Notifications]

• The copy button for quickly copying two-factor authentication (2FA) codes in notification toasts (first introduced in Build 23403) is currently not working in this build. A fix is coming in a future flight.

[Dynamic Lighting]

• Using Wave and Wheel effects can result in typing not working in certain apps.
• All-device settings changes are not propagating to per-device Settings.
• Switching user accounts can turn off device LEDs.

[Windows Ink]

• The address box in Microsoft Edge might not work correctly.
• Windows Ink does not convert handwriting to text into the main content (e.g., Word documents and Excel spreadsheets) in Microsoft 365 applications.
• Search boxes in Microsoft 365 applications (e.g., Microsoft Word) might not work correctly.
• Comment fields in Microsoft 365 applications (e.g., Microsoft Word) might not work correctly.