Eww, Copilot AI might auto-launch with Windows 11 soon – PCWorld

Did you know that Windows has a built-in generative AI tool called Copilot? If you didn’t, then you’ve made someone at Microsoft very sad, because they’ve been pushing that message like it’s the new pyramid scheme on the block. The company’s latest move to push the AI service is to launch it when you boot up Windows 11, just like every annoying third-party program ever.

So sayeth a report from MSPowerUser, which has spotted complaints from Windows 11 Insider testers. Apparently Microsoft experimented with the idea in a previous build, scaled back the auto-launch function (which may or may not have been due to user feedback), and then turned it on for the latest Insider Build 26100 last week. The change has been confirmed by Microsoft’s Insider Program senior manager.

The new push appears to be at least somewhat hardware limited. It won’t appear on an external monitor that’s smaller than 27 inches or 1920 pixels wide, at least according to the parameters in the original Insider blog post. That would seem to exclude more or less every modern laptop, but if they see more success Microsoft would surely like them included at some point, especially since the company is also hoping you’ll subscribe to it for $20 a month.

Windows Insider users who aren’t interested in Copilot can disable it at launch via the Startup Apps section in the Task Manager, just like every other annoying auto-launch program.