The artificial intelligence that Microsoft has been preparing for months for Windows 11 is finally available as of October 1. In theory, that is.
On October 1, Microsoft rolled out its major 24H2 update for Windows 11 and, with it, the Copilot artificial intelligence that should boost the creativity and productivity of users of the firm's flagship operating system. Microsoft took advantage of the update's roll-out to announce a number of interesting Copilot-related features. For example, Windows Search will be boosted by AI, enabling it to find files, documents, settings and photos, based on, as Clubic explains, " keywords formulated... in natural language ". To do this, Copilot will index the content stored on the PC.
On another note, Microsoft presented its Click to Do function, which uses AI to suggest actions almost automatically. One of Microsoft's examples is the deletion of objects and other elements in Photos. There's also talk of blurring backgrounds in Paint, or getting help with visual search in Bing. In an almost "classic" way, Copilot can also come to our aid with generative content for retouching images and photos. Other projects have also been launched, such as Think Deeper, which will enable Copilot to solve complete problems, and Copilot Vision, which will enable analysis of the Web page currently being consulted to answer any questions we may have.
Microsoft Copilot here integrated with Microsoft Office © Microsoft
The problem is that these services are simply not available in France. By the way, you can always search for Copilot on your Windows PC... it's a waste of time. Copilot is not deployed in France, nor in the European Union as a whole. As you'd expect, the EU has a lot to do with this. Indeed, Microsoft has finally decided to comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA), European rules designed to limit the anti-competitive practices of players like Microsoft. In order not to give Bing or Edge an advantage, for example, Microsoft has been forced to make them uninstallable. It is also for this reason that Copilot is not directly integrated into Windows in the European Union, as it may be elsewhere in the world.
To take advantage of the new Windows AI, European users have to go to the Microsoft Store to "manually" download Copilot. As Clubic explains, you then need to " pin it to the taskbar ", which " is the same as if it had been installed via a Windows Update ". Phew! Phew?
