At Microsoft’s Surface and Windows event today, I’m hoping to learn more details about the Surface Laptop Ultra and get a better handle on the company’s long-term Windows strategy. I’ll be live-blogging about all the announcements as they happen alongside my colleague Brian Westover, who is reporting live from the event.
Meanwhile, Microsoft’s new head of Copilot says it is a business productivity tool first and foremost, which is a stark departure from how the previous lead argued it was an intimate life companion. (Yes, seriously!) But that doesn’t interest me so much as the company’s continued memory optimization work on Windows 11.
Read on for everything you need to know about Microsoft’s fall event, Copilot’s new business focus, and the Windows team’s most recent memory efficiency promises.
Microsoft’s AI Problem, Explained by Someone Who Loves Windows
Follow Our Live Coverage of Microsoft’s Big Windows Event
PCMag’s principal hardware writer Brian Westover will be on the ground in San Francisco to cover Microsoft’s Surface and Windows event today. The event starts at 10 a.m. PT (1 p.m. EST), and he and I will be posting news, impressions, and analysis to a live blog throughout the week. If you want to watch the presentation yourself, you can always tune into Microsoft’s live video stream.
At the event, we’re expecting an hour-long conversation followed by demonstrations for attendees. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Microsoft head of Windows and Devices Pavan Davuluri, and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang will all be in attendance, so it’s a good bet that the RTX Spark-powered Surface Laptop Ultra will be a major topic of conversation. I shared my predictions for Windows a few weeks ago, and here’s what Brian expects.
Microsoft recently merged the business and consumer versions of its Copilot app, removing a variety of consumer-focused features in the process, including the animated Copilot Mico avatar and the ability to change Windows settings. Moreover, Satya Nadella called Copilot an “OS for work,” further cementing its identity as a productivity-focused business tool. In a report from The Verge, the new head of Copilot, Jacob Andreou, even described Copilot (and the Microsoft 365 suite) as a business-focused productivity tool that some people choose to use at home rather than something meant for home use.
This represents a massive shift in the company’s vision for Copilot. Mustafa Suleyman, Microsoft’s previous head of Copilot, envisioned it as an AI companion that would know you “so intimately and so personally that it will come to live life alongside you.” He also said that “Copilot will certainly have a kind of permanent identity” and that “it will have a room that it lives in, and it will age.” Suleyman is now in charge of Microsoft AI, where he works on underlying Microsoft AI models rather than Copilot itself, so his vision appears to have fallen out of favor internally.
I don’t think either approach is correct. I’d still much rather Microsoft focus on making it into as useful an assistant as Apple’s Siri in macOS rather than a business tool or life companion.
Microsoft removed the Copilot Mico animated avatar in August (Credit: Microsoft)
Windows 11 Memory Usage Remains a Top Priority
Microsoft’s Pavan Davaluri claims that memory usage is “top of mind” for the industry. He says the Windows team has work to do, and that engineers are trying to improve the memory efficiency of both apps and the OS itself. Windows Latest reported the statement from a recent episode of Microsoft’s Inside Windows podcast in which Davaluri sat down with Microsoft design and research lead Marcus Ash. Specifically, Ash describes “hidden but deep performance and reliability work” on Widgets and other aspects of the OS, detailing that most of Microsoft’s engineers are working on low-level improvements to the OS.
The RAM crisis is unsurprisingly forcing Microsoft to rethink its OS priorities across the board. Windows 11’s 26H2 update brings relatively minor memory-efficiency improvements, so I hope more are on the way.
Ask Our Expert: Where’s the Print Option in File Explorer?
Do you have a question about Windows? I’m here to share my knowledge! You can submit your question here, and I may answer it in an upcoming Windows Guide newsletter. If you’re not subscribed to the newsletter, head here to sign up, and check your inbox each week for the latest Windows updates from me. Now, on to this week’s question!
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Girard B. asks: “Will Microsoft add Print to the File Explorer context menu? I never understood why it went missing in the first place. Also, will Microsoft speed up File Explorer search? It’s always been painfully slow.”
Hi Girard, thanks for your question! Windows 11’s shiny new context menus don’t include a Print option, but the classic context menus still do. To find it, hold the Shift key when you right-click a file in File Explorer, or right-click a file normally and select Show More Options.
Microsoft likely removed this option to streamline its menus. However, after five years, Windows 11 is finally getting customizable context menus, which means you can add the Print option back. I’ve tried the new customizable menus, and they’re a huge improvement. This feature is already available in Insider builds, and it might arrive in stable builds in the coming months. Stay tuned!
As far as File Explorer’s search feature, you can make it faster by heading to Settings > Privacy & Security > Search. Under Find my files, activate an Enhanced index, and Windows will search everything on your PC faster. If you’re not satisfied with the file search speed after enabling this setting, I recommend trying the free Everything app, which is my lightning-fast file search tool of choice.
About Our Expert
Chris Hoffman
Senior Writer, Software
Experience
I’ve been writing about technology for more than 15 years and using it in earnest for over twice as long. As a member of PCMag’s software team, I focus on Windows coverage, but also write about other key desktop operating systems and system apps. (I used Windows 3.1 upon its release and have followed every subsequent release closely).
Prior to joining PCMag, I wrote for How-To Geek starting in 2011, and my articles amassed over a billion page views. I went on to run the publication as editor-in-chief for four and a half years. I have also contributed to Computerworld, Fast Company, PCWorld, Reader’s Digest, The New York Times, and many other outlets about everything from AI to PC hardware to Windows. I founded and ran my own direct-to-reader Windows-focused newsletters, Windows Intelligence and The Windows ReadMe, working in partnership with Thurrott.com.
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