Windows Copilot AI Failure to Launch

Did you know Windows had a new built-in AI feature? Neither did I.

With so much going on in the AI world, it’s hard to keep up. Microsoft is apparently unable to keep up with their own AI projects. Their new “Copilot” AI integration with Windows is so far a bust for many users. It was supposed to be in the most recent update for people in North America and select other countries, but it never showed up on my systems…and for many others.

I then wasted a bunch of time trying to get the darn thing loaded. Here’s the TD:LR (Too Long: Didn’t Read) - don’t bother.

The taskbar Copilot is basically Bing AI chat in a Window you can’t move or resize. You are better off using Bing in Skype for the same functionality.

In order to get this damn thing working in the taskbar, I went a long, circuitous route, installing a Windows dev build, which I later found out was unnecessary - don’t do this, it’s not going to help much. But that was just the beginning of the hair pulling.

I installed some sort of ViVeTool thingamabob to enable features manually. I messed with my Windows Registry. I tried signing up for the 365 Insider builds for Word because I mostly wanted to use this in Word. Nope, no AI in word.

The best I got going, was to set up a desktop shortcut that points to this:

microsoft-edge:///?ux=copilot&tcp=1&source=taskbar

That works for the sidebar but it doesn’t integrate with your 365 apps, so don’t bother.

Supposedly people using dev versions used to be able to access Copilot in Word but then that got removed, or something. I’m not sure. Microsoft support doesn’t seem to know either.

Bottom line, this launch is lame at best and Microsoft’s own websites are terrible in providing any up-to-date information on what exactly we can expect and when.

Oh PS if you don’t want AI in your OS then get Linux. This will be integrated fully soon enough.