News "Microsoft Steps Back from "AI Everywhere" in Windows 11 to Focus on Core Features"

[mikeymikec]

Microsoft Steps Back from "AI Everywhere" in Windows 11 to Focus on Core Features

If you're tired of seeing Microsoft's AI features like Copilot, agentic workloads, and Recall forced into their products, you're not alone. Microsoft has finally confirmed that it will be stepping back from its "AI everywhere" strategy. According to an exclusive report by Windows Central, the...

www.techpowerup.com

I wonder if this is a case of "we need to engage in damage limitation" or a genuine acknowledgement that they screwed up.

 

[SamMaster]

Why not both?

 

[balloonshark]

Too little too late. Microsoft has demonstrated repeatedly that they cannot be trusted. It's time to rip off the bandaid and try something different.

 

[mikeymikec]

Why not both?

Damage limitation is a PR exercise to make a problem seem like less than it is. One can either apologise for one's actions (and make good on that promise) or one can act like one's actions were less bad than the complainants believe.

Personally I think that MS will spin Win11 as an "unpopular" version of Windows and hope that people perceive it as an aberration, then slightly tone down AI stuff and call it Win12. As far as I'm concerned, the rot started when MS got rid of their QA department.

 

[quikah]

It is kind of weird. I built a new desktop last June (just dodged the big price increases) with a 9800x3D. Besides the copilot button in Edge (easily turned off), there is no copilot bloat anywhere that I found. Is the key just not buying a "copilot PC"? Same with my work laptop which is an older dell model without an NPU. /shrug

Honestly copilot is fine as a standalone app. Just the same as any other standalone "AI" app. Pretty useful for helping my son with math homework. OK to integrate into some other apps, nice to get some suggestions in email or vscode. No idea what I would need it for in my base OS.

 

[mikeymikec]

It is kind of weird. I built a new desktop last June (just dodged the big price increases) with a 9800x3D. Besides the copilot button in Edge (easily turned off), there is no copilot bloat anywhere that I found. Is the key just not buying a "copilot PC"? Same with my work laptop which is an older dell model without an NPU. /shrug

Honestly copilot is fine as a standalone app. Just the same as any other standalone "AI" app. Pretty useful for helping my son with math homework. OK to integrate into some other apps, nice to get some suggestions in email or vscode. No idea what I would need it for in my base OS.

I typically see a Copilot icon on every taskbar of every Win11 (Home?) install I encounter. I often see two Copilot icons on many Win11 installs: Microsoft 365 Copilot and just Copilot!

Then there's Copilot in Notepad and Paint on the default settings, and probably more that I can't think of right now.

 

[quikah]

I have Win 11 home (25H2), no copilot icon on taskbars, only search icon (which I hide, since it is pretty useless to have the icon on the task bar). Don't have Office installed. /shrug

 

[mikeymikec]

I've just done two installs of 24H2 (english international edition, official ISO), one Home, one Pro. They both have Copilot icons on the taskbar by default. I wonder if it varies by locale.

 

[Tachyonism]

I've just done two installs of 24H2 (english international edition, official ISO), one Home, one Pro. They both have Copilot icons on the taskbar by default. I wonder if it varies by locale.

Maybe EU-stuff. I heard that if you choose an EU country when you install, the CoPilot button wont be there.