Earlier this week, Microsoft dropped its latest Windows Insider Preview build to Insiders in the Dev Channel with a major noticeable change to where Copilot is placed in the operating system.
While Microsoft hasn’t updated its functionality to match the concept version it demoed back in March of this year which offered more localized engagement, the company did manage to move the icon to a more intuitive area.
Dev Insiders with build 23595 will now be greeted with a Microsoft Copilot icon that is nestled in the far-right corner of the screen instead of the right of the center of the search icon/bar.
With the Copilot pane appearing in the same area as the Action Center in Windows 10 and 11, placing the icon just below the Action Center and Quick Settings prompts makes much more sense than having it halfway across the screen.
Unfortunately, the more intuitive placement of the pre-generative AI assistant also passes over a 28-year-old piece of functionality that’s been embedded in that area.
The Windows “Show Desktop” feature that hid the extreme right corner of the OS, and allowed users to minimize or reopen all available apps on the desktop is now being turned off by default. Insiders on the latest Dev Channel will no longer be able to drift their cursors over to the far-right of the task bar to bring up a barely visible divider that in turn minimizes or maximizes all their available apps.
Instead, Insiders will now need to manually toggle the feature on in the Task Bar Settings menu.
[Copilot in Windows*]
- We are making a change where the Copilot icon is shown on the right side of the system tray on the taskbar to make the entry point to Copilot more clear and easily accessible by being closer to where the Copilot pane opens. As part of this change, we have defaulted the “show the desktop” behavior for the far-right corner of the taskbar to off and this can be re-enabled in the taskbar behaviors section under Settings > Personalization > Taskbar (you can simply right-click on the taskbar to get to this). [UPDATE 11/30] This is just beginning to roll out to Insiders in the Dev Channel so not every will see this change right away.
With Microsoft set on delivering Copilot to Windows 10 users who have made the Action Center home with no other options yet available for Windows 11-level task bar rearrangement, the shift in placement starts to make a lot more sense to test out now.
Moving the Copilot icon around wasn’t the only thing in build 23570 that’s being adjusted.
Insiders will also be able to use Copilot across monitors with build 23570. Up until this week, Copilot was arbitrarily locked to use on the main monitor of a multiple monitor set up.
[Copilot on Multiple monitors]
- We are beginning to re-rollout the change previously documented with Build 23570 that introduces support for Copilot in Windows to be used across multiple monitors. Simply press the Copilot button on the taskbar on whichever monitor you want Copilot to show on or use the WIN + C shortcut to show Copilot on the last monitor that it was visible on. If you are using a keyboard, you can use the WIN + T keyboard shortcut to put the keyboard focus on the taskbar and navigate to the Copilot taskbar button to show Copilot on any monitor.
[And the rest…]
Other updates coming with build 23570 include Windows Share for users signed in with a Microsoft EntraID, Windows Ink getting expanded abilities in edit boxes for additional languages, Nearby Sharing rolling out to support Android devices, new groupings in the Task Bar, and Settings improvements for account-related notifications, the Xbox Game Bar, updated references to Azure Active Directory (AA) and Installed Apps page getting its own System Components section.
To test these new features as well as a list of fixes for the newest Insider build, Dev Channel testers should head to the Update Settings Page to get started.