Windows Copilot on Windows 11 (and Windows 10) wasn't all that useful or exciting, but that will soon change with the launch of "AI Explorer". After the release of the Build 26200 beta, we learned about some of the new features of Windows 11 that will be brought as part of the AI overhaul, which are expected to start rolling out on the Snapdragon X Elite and Plus PCs in September/October.
The flagship feature of Windows 11 24H2 is "AI Explorer", which recently appeared in Windows 11 Build 26100. The feature is designed to harness the power of the Neural Processing Unit (NPU) to record your screen and activities and then turn them into searchable content.
For example, AI Explorer keeps track of what you do on your PC, the applications you use, the emails you send and receive, and other activities. It will then make those activities "searchable," allowing you to interact with your data, find them in the timeline, and more. The feature isn't just about recording your activity, though.
As Microsoft observer Albacore points out, references to AI Explorer features were found in Build 26200. These include a new "Screen Capture" feature that captures the screen and processes it with AI.
The AI Explorer UI package also hints at some intriguing feature names like sidebar islands, shoulder taps, screen understanding, intent engine, and discovery overlays.
So, what are these codenames? We don't know exactly how they work, but Screen Sense allows AI Explorer to look at your screen and make recommendations to take action. This enables AI to perceive context, as it can detect application windows and make recommendations based on what's on the screen.
In addition, there is a new executable "aihost.exe" that seems to support screen understanding and other features. According to the reference in Windows 11 Build 26200 New File baker.dll, Screen Understanding needs to be enabled to "continue to enjoy the power of AIX".
Here are some of those strings:
- Screen Understanding is turned on and the AI host is not running.
- Screen understanding pauses.
- The model is not available and needs to be downloaded. The AI host is unresponsive.
- Try terminating the aihost.exe from Task Manager.
The second interesting codename is "Discover Overlay," which appears around your taskbar and suggests that users take action. This may be similar to the existing Copilot operation, but more advanced and context-aware:
New Copilot image suggestion menu
To support the functionality of AI Explorer, the requirements for the system are obviously high:
- ARM64 CPU
- At least 16GB of RAM
- The system hard drive is at least 225 GB
- Snapdragon X Elite and X Plus with NPU.
These requirements suggest that future AI Explorer-equipped devices may start with configurations with at least 16 GB of memory and 256 GB of storage. This marks a significant improvement from the 8GB baseline configuration previously offered by Microsoft and OEMs.
It seems that Microsoft and OEMs will still offer low-level AI PCs, but these PCs will not support AI Explorer functionality.
As you can see in the screenshot above, Albacore also spotted a brand new colorful "AI Explorer" logo, which appears to be designed around the Microsoft Copilot logo. However, there is also a new star icon in the AI Explorer logo.
I followed Albacore's clues and found the AI Explorer logo in the glyphs related to the AI Explorer feature:
Here's the HD version of the AI Explorer icon for day mode:
Here's the HD version of AI Explorer in dark mode: