Windows Copilot: Windows 11 has a built-in chatbot, Cortana voice assistant is disabled

Microsoft has released a new build of Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22621.2129, which introduces a new smart assistant called Windows Copilot. The company is also ending support for the Cortana voice assistant: It is no longer found in the new Windows 11 Insider build.

Windows Copilot: The smart AI assistant

Based on the Bing chatbot, the assistant is integrated into the Windows 11 taskbar and provides a number of useful features based on artificial intelligence, according to a company blog post. For example, Windows Copilot can customize your computer and perform creative tasks. It can turn on a dark theme on the computer, activate Do Not Disturb mode, take screenshots, extract page snippets from the Edge browser, and generate texts and images.

However, it should be noted that Windows Copilot is in beta testing and will be available on a limited basis for now.

In addition to Windows Copilot, the updated Windows 11 pleases users with the appearance of Dev Drive. This is a special hard disk partition in ReFS format that provides improved performance when working with development files such as source code, package caches, and others.

A farewell to Cortana

Microsoft is ending support for the Cortana voice assistant in Windows 11. In the new Windows 11 Insider build distributed through the Dev Channels, the voice assistant is already disabled.

Some users who have received Microsoft Store app updates to stable versions of Windows 11 have also reported that Cortana does not work after the update.

Now, when trying to run the Cortana app on a new build of Windows 11, users will see a warning message: "Cortana on Windows as a standalone app is deprecated." The message also contains links that provide additional information.

Back in June, Microsoft announced plans to stop supporting Cortana as a separate application for Windows 11. This decision is due to the departure from the voice assistant in favor of new intelligent features of the operating system.

Instead of Cortana, Microsoft is actively promoting the use of a new artificial intelligence - Windows Copilot, which is already built into Windows 11.

Tntegrated into Windows 10 in 2014, Cortana served as a voice assistant. Its functionality included creating emails, reminders, searching for information on the web, and more. Some of these features aren't currently available in the new Windows Copilot, but Microsoft promises to add more features to it in future updates.

In the Windows 10 operating system, which will receive updates until October 2025, Cortana still works. However, according to Windows Latest, the Cortana app will disappear from Windows 10 in the coming weeks.