From the article: "Additionally, AI features in Notepad settings has been renamed to Advanced features and it allows users to toggle off AI capabilities within the app."
I honestly don't mind this, as long as it's not being forced. And I believe this feature exists only within their npu PCs.
> At the start of the year, Microsoft generated a lot of goodwill among Windows 11 fans when it announced its big plan to fix the operating system in 2026
The only thing generated was boatloads of incredulity and some laughs.
No surprise for large companies, one company even renamed itself but its approval ratings still stayed in the basement.
A fortune 500 company I worked for renamed internal projects many times when the original failed. But they continued dumping money into those black holes. One dollar eating project was renamed 3 times and was on its way for a 4th rename when I left. That project was started between 2005 and 2010. I was not involved with it, but everyone knew it would fail.
So M/S renaming copilot ? I expect a few more renames as time goes on :)
> At the start of the year, Microsoft generated a lot of goodwill among Windows 11 fans when it announced its big plan to fix the operating system in 2026.
Interesting, I can't recall a single voice "Oh I'm so happy they changed their corporate strategy" but many of "I'll believe it when I see it".
Didn't Microsoft say it will listen to the community, some
weeks ago? And now it looks as if Microsoft did not tell the
truth. To be fair: I think Microsoft actually has no alternative
option. They sold out to AI and all Win11 users will have to
support the hype train. I am so glad to have switched to Linux
a long time ago.
Seems like what Apple does with Writing Assistant. At least in this case, it’s opt-in. You have to click. I don’t run Windows so I don’t know if this implementation is vastly superior or not.
I have windows on my desktop pc because it's easier to get executable mods (downgraders, engine fixes, etc) working on windows than linux. There's also the matter of 'kernel level anti-cheat' games not working.
But if I just judge windows vs linux, on even ground, W11 is painful. I've main'd linux on my laptop for ~ 25 years. There was a time when it was a jank experience that I put up with for better devex, but that ended in the late 00's. From that point forward, unless you were trying to get bleeding edge hardware to work, linux has been hands down better.
It's enough that I've considered giving up online play all together just to have a nicer computing experience.
The multiplayer stuff with kernel level anti-cheat - it’s mostly the kind of thing that’s also on console. I bought a PS5 for that and called it a day.
Desktop rig runs Bazzite and I’ve a Steam Deck. They play most everything in my Steam library with Proton (ymmv, of course). One of the last ones that didn’t work was Assetto Corsa - some kind soul here on hn helped me get it working recently.
I used to dual-boot Win 10 with Bazzite (separate drives), but finally ditched Windows 6 months ago. It can be done; a lot’s changed in the past couple of years.
I switched to Fedora on my laptop and it has been mostly stable and stays out of my way. I kept Win11 on a separate SSD to test my windows game builds before updates. I bought a PS5 solely for kernel level anti-cheat games.
The copilot executable and the edge executable are actually the same! It looks at argv[0] to decide which to show you. You can move mscopilot.exe to msedge.exe, it still opens edge. And vice versa.
I honestly don't understand Microsoft's AI strategy. It seems to be built around automating the writing process. If you ask MS 365 Copilot (as opposed to the many other Copilots) what it can do, it's deeply disappointing:
"Can you edit the Word document so the format is in line with these requirements?"
"No, but I can help you draft an implementation consistent with the requirements."
"Can you add this section to the 35 individual copies of this document in this OneDrive folder?"
"No, but I can help you draft [something]."
This is NOT the AI revolution anyone was waiting for.
When implementing an AI feature in a product recently, I noticed a tendency of management to steer towards a limited, well-behaved feature set that straight jackets the underlying model. This resulted in similar experience to what you describe. Maybe this is control and accountability thing? If I were to do this, I'd just slap a bunch of product specific tools (MCP, CLIs, HTTP API wrappers, etc) and skills (how to use those, best practices) with an agent and call it a day - if it can do more but also can fail, that's fine by me. That's why I like the idea of WebMCP more than custom built, limited AI chat interfaces that pop up everywhere nowadays. Just let Claude access everything and dump knowledge into it.
Sorry if your a windows user, but you have no escape, only Linux. Until you get the time and courage to do the move, you will continually be abused by microslop.
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[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 51.0 ms ] threadI honestly don't mind this, as long as it's not being forced. And I believe this feature exists only within their npu PCs.
The only thing generated was boatloads of incredulity and some laughs.
A fortune 500 company I worked for renamed internal projects many times when the original failed. But they continued dumping money into those black holes. One dollar eating project was renamed 3 times and was on its way for a 4th rename when I left. That project was started between 2005 and 2010. I was not involved with it, but everyone knew it would fail.
So M/S renaming copilot ? I expect a few more renames as time goes on :)
Interesting, I can't recall a single voice "Oh I'm so happy they changed their corporate strategy" but many of "I'll believe it when I see it".
But if I just judge windows vs linux, on even ground, W11 is painful. I've main'd linux on my laptop for ~ 25 years. There was a time when it was a jank experience that I put up with for better devex, but that ended in the late 00's. From that point forward, unless you were trying to get bleeding edge hardware to work, linux has been hands down better.
It's enough that I've considered giving up online play all together just to have a nicer computing experience.
Desktop rig runs Bazzite and I’ve a Steam Deck. They play most everything in my Steam library with Proton (ymmv, of course). One of the last ones that didn’t work was Assetto Corsa - some kind soul here on hn helped me get it working recently.
I used to dual-boot Win 10 with Bazzite (separate drives), but finally ditched Windows 6 months ago. It can be done; a lot’s changed in the past couple of years.
I'm tired of being a victim.
The real question is this: While the floppy disk became the standard "Save" icon, what will eventually become the standard "AI functionality" icon?
"Can you edit the Word document so the format is in line with these requirements?"
"No, but I can help you draft an implementation consistent with the requirements."
"Can you add this section to the 35 individual copies of this document in this OneDrive folder?"
"No, but I can help you draft [something]."
This is NOT the AI revolution anyone was waiting for.