Microsoft’s testing a new way to make Copilot unavoidable

By Judy Sanhz Published February 27, 2025

A graphic showing screens of Copilot. — Microsoft

Microsoft is at it again, trying to “encourage” users to use Copilot by testing an option that automatically opens the Copilot pane in Edge, as @Leopeva64 spotted (via MSPowerUser). The Copilot pane hides when you switch tabs or open favorites, but it signals Microsoft’s push to integrate AI deeply into Edge. The software giant is also introducing a new “share” button for Copilot to transmit an AI chat link and a machine-learning-powered autofill option for Android users.

Microsoft is testing the auto-open feature for Copilot in Edge Canary new tabs, but you can also turn it off in settings. Earlier this month, the feature was not fully functional. Now, nothing happens if you hover over the Copilot button, so you must click it instead.

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Microsoft’s insistence on you using Copilot continues. The software giant plans to make Copilot start as soon as you start your PC, a recent v.1.25014.121.0 update confirms, as spotted by @phantomofearth on X earlier this month. However, since the feature is being tested, anything can change if and when it reaches the stable version. But for now, there are various other features you can take advantage of when using Copilot, such as Copilot Vision, a feature that looks at what you’re doing online to answer your questions.

In what also looks like an attempt to get you to use Copilot, Microsoft also removed Smart Lookup in Word, a feature that gave your definitions, synonyms, and relevant links. We’ll have to wait and see what the stable version of the Edge browser has in store.

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Judy Sanhz is a Digital Trends computing writer covering all computing news. Loves all operating systems and devices.

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Microsoft finally adds missing Copilot+ AI tools to Intel and AMD PCs

Copilot+ PCs being announced from the stage.

If you bought into the promise of a new AI-charged Copilot+ PC with the latest-gen Intel or AMD processor, and found a few tricks missing, the long wait is over. A handful of those Copilot+ features are finally expanding beyond machines with a Snapdragon X series processor inside.

It’s roughly been a year since Microsoft introduced the Copilot+ PC label, a new breed of computing machines that put AI performance at the forefront. For months, Qualcomm was the sole silicon supplier for such machines.

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Microsoft 365 Copilot gets an AI Researcher that everyone will love

Researcher agent in action inside Microsoft 365 Copilot app.

Microsoft is late to the party, but it is finally bringing a deep research tool of its own to the Microsoft 365 Copilot platform across the web, mobile, and desktop. Unlike competitors such as Google Gemini, Perplexity, or OpenAI’s ChatGPT, all of which use the Deep Research name, Microsoft is going with the Researcher agent branding.
The overarching idea, however, isn’t too different. You tell the Copilot AI to come up with thoroughly researched material on a certain topic or create an action plan, and it will oblige by producing a detailed document that would otherwise take hours of human research and compilation. It’s all about performing complex, multi-step research on your behalf as an autonomous AI agent.
Just to avoid any confusion early on, Microsoft 365 Copilot is essentially the rebranded version of the erstwhile Microsoft 365 (Office) app. It is different from the standalone Copilot app, which is more like a general purpose AI chatbot application.
Researcher: A reasoning agent in Microsoft 365 Copilot
How Researcher agent works?
Underneath the Researcher agent, however, is OpenAI’s Deep Research model. But this is not a simple rip-off. Instead, the feature’s implementation in Microsoft 365 Copilot runs far deeper than the competition. That’s primarily because it can look at your own material, or a business’ internal data, as well.
Instead of pulling information solely from the internet, the Researcher agent can also take a look at internal documents such as emails, chats, internal meeting logs, calendars, transcripts, and shared documents. It can also reference data from external sources such as Salesforce, as well as other custom agents that are in use at a company.
“Researcher’s intelligence to reason and connect the dots leads to magical moments,” claims Microsoft. Researcher agent can be configured by users to reference data from the web, local files, meeting recordings, emails, chats, and sales agent, on an individual basis — all of them, or just a select few.

Why it stands out?

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Microsoft will soon use AI to help you find your photos and files on Copilot+ PCs

The Surface Laptop shown in front of a Copilot+ sign.

In a Windows Insider blog post, Microsoft announced an AI upgrade to Windows Search to make finding photos, documents, and settings easier. However, the enhanced feature is restricted to Copilot+ PCs with Snapdragon processors; AMD and Intel support is coming soon.

The update has all the same fixes and improvements from build 26100.3613; nonetheless, some of the best Copilot+ PCs will be left out simply because they use AMD or Intel processors. Microsoft will release the update gradually, and you can also take advantage of both semantic and lexical indexing to search for your photos and documents more efficiently. Because of this improvement, you don't have to remember the exact file name you're looking for, which is a huge time-saver.

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