The big picture: Microsoft launched a dedicated Copilot app for Android last December that offers chatbot-like capabilities, similar to what you would get from ChatGPT. While the company has yet to launch an official Copilot app for Windows, latest developments suggest that Redmond is working on bringing its AI software to the desktop sooner rather than later.
As spotted by German tech site DeskModder, Microsoft has begun automatically installing a Copilot app on Windows 11. The new application doesn't seem to have any functionality, and further investigation revealed that it has 0 bytes of data, suggesting that it's actually a placeholder shell for the most part. Thankfully, users can uninstall the app by simply using the built-in 'Uninstall' option in Windows.
In case you're wondering whether your Windows 11 PC has the new Copilot app surreptitiously installed, you can check by going over to Settings, clicking on Apps, and then selecting Installed Apps. If it's already on your device, it will be listed as "Microsoft Copilot." You can click on the three-dots menu button to the right and select 'Advanced options' to check out more details about it.
It's unclear how the Copilot app is getting installed on systems that have automatic updates turned off, but according to Ghacks, it showed up on their test PC after the Edge browser was updated to the latest version. Interestingly, the application's AppxManifest.xml lists Windows 10 as the minimum compatible version, while the maximum version is listed as Windows 12.0.0.0.
It remains to be seen if this suggests that Microsoft is working on Windows 12 after all, or if it's a legacy entry from a time when the company was actually considering launching a successor to Windows 11 this year. For those unaware, Microsoft recently confirmed that it doesn't plan to launch Windows 12 in 2024, and will instead release Windows 11 version 24H2 (codenamed Hudson Valley) later this year.
Microsoft recently started rolling out Copilot to more Windows 10/11 devices, enabling users to experience the AI features on their desktop. According to the company, users can access up to ten Copilot requests before needing to sign-in with a Microsoft ID. The feature is still in preview as of now, but is enabled by default in Windows 11 version 23H2. It is, however, disabled by default in Windows 11 version 22H2.