Windows 11 preview provides more details on how AI agents will work – but this remains a controversial path for Microsoft

• A new preview build is out with further work on AI agents
• It shows how they’ll function in the taskbar, though Microsoft is still experimenting with the details
• There’s an ongoing negative reaction to Microsoft’s current focus on AI

Windows 11’s latest preview build has provided a clearer look at some of the nuts and bolts of how AI agents will work in the OS, and it introduces a number of other changes as well.

Microsoft’s blog post explains what’s new in preview build 26220.7523 in the Dev and Beta channels. There are several notable additions, including the mentioned AI introductions, which have once again sparked some controversy.

For starters, this new preview brings the Ask Copilot box to the taskbar for business customers – this has already arrived in testing for consumers – and Microsoft reminds us that you can invoke AI agents directly from there.

Microsoft is also moving forward with testing how AI agents will actually work in the taskbar. We get an example here that’s focused on Researcher, one of the initial planned agents for Windows 11, which, as the name suggests, autonomously conducts research for you (with access to certain files granted for that purpose). It can “dig into a topic and build a detailed report,” and you can track the agent’s progress in the taskbar.

Microsoft is testing a feature whereby hovering the mouse cursor over the Copilot or Researcher icon in the taskbar will give you the agent’s reasoning updates in real-time, so you can check up with the AI’s progress at a glance. Microsoft is also experimenting with whether Research (or other agents) should be a separate icon on the taskbar, or be rolled into the Copilot icon.

Those who want to keep taskbar bloat down may well lean towards the latter idea, though keen users of agents who have multiple AIs working on tasks could perhaps prefer those icons to be separate.

Microsoft further notes that with this preview build it’s introducing Agent Launchers for Windows 11, which is a “new framework that enables Windows apps to register AI agents and make them discoverable across the system”.

Essentially, this is the groundwork to allow for third-party agents (aside from Microsoft’s own agents like Researcher, Copilot, or Analyst) to work within Windows 11 and be integrated with the Ask Copilot box (and Microsoft 365 Copilot).

Elsewhere in this preview release, there’s a change for File Explorer, whereby everyday users will now see people icons on the File Explorer home page. These will appear in the ‘Activity’ column and in the Recent or Recommended sections, meaning that when you mouse over a people icon, you’ll get that person’s key details on a pop-up card (allowing you to message them, or fire up a call, and so forth).

It’s a potentially handy change, but one that’ll only apply to consumers who are signed in with their Microsoft account in Windows 11.

Another step forward here is that Microsoft has fixed the ‘flashbang’ bug with File Explorer, ironing out the remaining problems whereby people would still see white flashes when switching tabs in File Explorer.

Voice Access is also benefiting from an improved setup process to make it easier to get going with this feature, and voice typing with the touch keyboard has been revamped to make it more intuitive.

Analysis: AI continues to rub some people up the wrong way

This represents quite a stride forward with AI agents, and it should be interesting to see how these entities are presented on the taskbar in the end. As noted, it’s largely going to be a subjective matter as to whether you want agents to have their own separate taskbar icons, or be integrated with the Ask Copilot box. So, perhaps the best approach, as always, is for Microsoft to present options to that effect, so people can choose their own preference.

Many people would prefer that Microsoft isn’t working on AI agents at all, mind, and there’s still a negative ongoing reaction to this (as you can see in the official Reddit thread introducing the new preview build). Yes, you don’t have to turn on AI agents if you don’t want them – neither in testing now, nor in release, when they’re eventually unleashed for us all – but people are still unhappy that Microsoft is prioritizing their development over more fundamental issues with Windows 11.

As we see from the comment which has floated to the top of that Reddit thread, it again repeats the line that Microsoft shouldn’t be forced to work on AI ‘stuff’ (language moderated) rather than solving ‘UX problems’ (issues with the user experience – the interface and performance therein) instead.

And it has to be said, there’s a case to be made here, for sure – and while I don’t expect Microsoft to pause the development of AI features (that, frankly, is never going to happen), there’s definitely a better balance to be struck between progress and honing what already exists within Windows 11.

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