Microsoft has announced a major update coming soon to Windows 11 that will replace the Windows Search box on the Taskbar with a Copilot chat box. The company describes the move one that's designed "to make the taskbar a dynamic hub that helps you accomplish more with less effort, transforming everyday interactions into moments of productivity and delight."
For now, the new Copilot integration in the Taskbar search box will be an opt-in experience, and when enabled will replace the Windows Search pane entirely with a new Copilot UI that can do both AI chat and local file and app search. Microsoft says this new experience doesn't automatically grant Copilot access to your apps or files, and utilizes existing Windows Search APIs to surface results.
The new Taskbar integration is designed to make accessing Copilot quicker and universal across the OS. No matter where you are in Windows, you'll always have instant access to Copilot, with shortcuts to Copilot Vision and chat right on the Taskbar and always accessible to you.
These new Copilot integrations on the Taskbar will be coming to all Windows 11 users, meaning it's not exclusive to Copilot+ PCs like some may have assumed. In fact, Microsoft just announced a whole bunch of new Copilot features that are available for everyone, regardless of NPU compute power.
It's introducing a new agentic AI assistant built into Copilot, which utilizes Copilot Actions and an agentic AI framework coming soon to Windows that lets Copilot interact with apps and files on your PC on your behalf, enabling Copilot to complete tasks or actions for you.
Microsoft says the new Copilot integration on the Taskbar will be coming in preview to Windows Insiders in the coming weeks, meaning it likely won't begin rolling out to all Windows 11 users until sometime in 2026.
