We are excited to extend the Microsoft Copilot stack to Windows with Windows Copilot Runtime. We have infused AI into every layer of Windows, including a fundamental transformation of the OS itself to enable developers to accelerate AI development on Windows.
I sure hope not. I don't want Windows to just decide to delete my hard drive because it feels like it.
We are introducing Windows Semantic Index, a new OS capability which redefines search on Windows and powers new experiences like Recall.
You could also improve Windows search by contracting with voidtools and integrating Everything. While you're at it, maybe ditch the bing searches, and other useless search results?
Anyway, the rest of the article seems to go into actual dev-oriented details, and there's some interesting bits like enabling certain AI acceleration features on the web (probably only in Edge though...), for what that's worth.
Thanks for mentioning Everything, do you have other must-haves to recommend? My company uses Windows and I hate spending so much of my time waiting for Windows to unfreeze and whatnot
If you want to use it in your start menu, there are some options. I know Start11 can use Everything, for example (but isn't free - there may be free options out there, but I haven't looked).
Otherwise, most of what I've seen are CLI applications. Is there anything specific about Windows you're hoping to see a replacement for? For me, search and settings (why the f are you advertising to me in the f-ing settings?) are the worst offenders, but settings is kinda locked in for the most part unfortunately.
So Copilot Runtime is... Windows bundling a bunch of models like an OCR model and an image generation model, and then giving your program an API to call them.
Now all they have to do is convince game developers to use this then it's back to every AAA game being impossible to run in Linux again. Patching out a shitty driver subroutine is one thing but patching out an entire api that complicated is another. Net framework was the achilles heel of Linux compatibility for a long time and I'm sure one of their low-key goals is to find the next monkey wrench to throw into things.
It shouldn't be hard to implement the APIs, the problem would be sourcing the models to sit behind them. You can't just steal them off Windows or you will have Copyright Problems presumably. I guess you could try and train clones on Windows against the Windows model results?
I copied the sub-headings from the document, serving as an overview:
Introducing Windows Copilot Runtime to provide a powerful AI platform for developers
New experiences built using the Windows Copilot Runtime
Windows Copilot Library offers a set of APIs helping developers to accelerate local AI development
Introducing Windows Semantic Index that redefines search on Windows. Vector Embeddings API offers the capability for developers to build their own vector store with their app data
Windows is the first platform to have a state-of-the-art SLM shipping inbox and Phi Silica is custom built for the NPUs in Copilot+ PCs
Developers can bring their own models and scale across breadth of Windows hardware powered by DirectML
PyTorch is now natively supported on Windows with DirectML
DirectML now supports web apps that can take advantage of silicon to deliver AI experiences powered by WebNN
High-performance inferencing on Windows with ONNX Runtime and DirectML
New experiences designed to help every developer become more productive on Windows 11
Environments in Dev Home help centralize your interactions with all remote environments. Create, manage, launch and configure dev environments in a snap from Dev Home
Windows Customization in Dev Home allows developers to customize their device to an ideal state with fewest clicks
New Export feature in Dev Home Machine Configuration allows you to quickly create configuration files to share with your teammates, boosting productivity
Dev Drive introduces block cloning that will allow developers to perform large file copy operations, instantaneously
Sudo for Windows allows developers to run elevated commands right in Terminal
New Source code integration in File Explorer allows tracking commit messages and file status directly in File Explorer
Continuing to innovate and accelerating development for Windows on Arm
Continuing investments in WinUI3 and WPF to help developers build rich, modern Windows applications
WinUI 3 and Windows App SDK now support native Maps control and .NET 8
Windows 11 theme support makes it easy to modernize the look and feel of your WPF applications
The Windows integration will surely be awful for users. Windows 11 seems to be getting continuously messier, more convoluted, less focused, less accessible, less approachable, and less understandable. Adding AI and more online service integration won't make those pain points better. It'll make them worse.
The investments into technology and APIs like DirectML and "native" PyTorch will likely have a positive impact for developers making use of AI models.
Many of the other changes mentioned are unrelated to AI.
I supposed Dev Home is useful for big companies that need the setup, setting and workflow sharing, and the specialized features.
sudo seems like it could be a neat utility and addition. Git in File Explorer too - although it probably won't be useful to me personally. (TortoiseGit is already a great shell/File Explorer integration.)
Btw, choco (and maybe even winget?) already has a gsudo tool, which implements sudo. It is super handy, and having a native version is definitely better, but before its available, I recommend gsudo.