Microsoft wants Copilot on Windows 11 to succeed, and it’s planning on adding a few new features. In our tests, we observed that Microsoft is experimenting with three new additions for Windows 11’s Copilot – auto start on boot, the ability to unpin the AI and change the sidebar size.
In Windows 11 23H2 or Moment 4, Copilot isn’t designed to start as soon as you boot your system, but this could change. A new optional feature is being tested in Windows 11 preview builds that lets you configure Microsoft Copilot to open when the system starts automatically.
This new Copilot settings is located inside the Personalization page, but it’s unclear if Microsoft will automatically start AI on PCs whether you use it or not. Currently, the toggle “Open Copilot when Windows starts” is turned off by default, but it is designed with wider screens in mind.
Once enabled, Copilot opens automatically whenever you boot up your Windows PC. This change by Microsoft acknowledges the company’s efforts to raise awareness about Copilot, ensuring that those who do not know this feature can come across it on larger screens.
Unpin Windows Copilot, allow other apps to collapse it
Microsoft is testing another feature that gives you greater control over Windows Copilot. As shown in the above screenshot, you can soon unpin the pane, allowing other apps to open on top of the AI pane.
At the moment, Copilot cannot be resized or unpinned, which means it is always placed at the side of the Windows 11 desktop once opened. Copilot doesn’t go away unless you manually close the window by clicking the ‘x’ or its icon, but this could change soon as the tech giant is making the Bing Chat-powered AI modular.
Like the rest of the Windows apps, when the ‘unpin’ mode is toggled on, Windows Copilot pane will automatically collapse when you maximize another app.
Similarly, you can soon adjust the size of the Copilot pane, which features a responsive design. The “recent” and plugins tab will automatically appear on the right side of Copilot when you change its size, similar to Bing Chat for the web.
We spotted these features in the public preview builds, but Microsoft appears to be A/B testing them with select groups.
We don’t know if these features will ever come to release. It’s a long road from internal testing features to public test builds and production releases.
