Windows 11 update brings Copilot and built-in AI tools to PC

Microsoft just started rolling out its massive September update for Windows 11, officially bringing the new Copilot preview directly to your taskbar.

With a simple Win + C or a click on the taskbar, Copilot slides out to handle everyday PC chores. It can summarize web pages, draft emails, switch your PC to dark mode, pair Bluetooth devices, or snap screenshots for you.

Built-in apps get an AI facelift

Beyond the headline Copilot assistant, Microsoft gave its oldest inbox utilities their biggest upgrades in years.

Paint finally gets layer support and one-click background removal. Insiders are also getting Paint Cocreator, which generates images directly on the canvas using text prompts and style presets.

Snipping Tool now records audio alongside screen video and introduces optical character recognition to extract text directly from captures. It also adds quick redaction to black out sensitive data like email addresses before sharing.

Photos now supports background blur and enhanced search for objects across OneDrive backups. Meanwhile, video editor Clipchamp introduced an Auto Compose feature to stitch together footage based on a few basic prompts.

Windows Backup was also refreshed to let you restore apps and settings across PCs, alongside expanded Passkey support to replace passwords across Edge, Chrome, and Firefox.

Why it matters

Microsoft is moving fast to prove that operating systems can be more than just launchers for web browsers. By baking generative AI into daily shortcuts, it lowers the barrier for regular users who never visit dedicated chat sites.

Features like OCR in Snipping Tool and layers in Paint are tiny quality-of-life wins that solve real friction without requiring technical know-how. You no longer need third-party utilities just to redact an email or copy text from a video call.

However, there is an obvious tension between an OS-level assistant and what is essentially a web wrapper. Copilot can feel slightly slow when doing basic system tasks that used to take one manual click.

Still, with over a billion Windows machines out there, Microsoft is forcing Apple and Google to rethink their desktop roadmaps. The race is no longer about who has the smartest model on the web, but who can integrate it seamlessly into the hardware you already touch all day.