Microsoft unleashes Copilot preview on Windows 10 insiders

Microsoft has begun rolling out the Windows 10 incarnation of its Copilot tool to Windows Insiders in the Release Preview Channel.

The company announced the impending arrival of the AI-infused service last week, and as of last night's Insider update, the preview of Copilot has started landing onto Windows 10 22H2 Home and Pro editions.

Windows 10 22H2 Enterprise and Education users aren't dealing with Microsoft's AI assistant quite yet, although Redmond has issued a help bulletin for admins wondering how to manage the service in their organization when it does show up.

Should Windows 10 Insiders be at the head of the queue for the Controlled Feature Rollout (CFR), it looks awfully like Bing Chat - or whatever Microsoft is calling it today - wrapped up in Edge rather than the more integrated version found in Windows 11. However, both the operating system and service have the preview tag firmly affixed, so the feature is likely to change between now and the release.

Current issues with the preview

You will need more than 4 GB RAM to fire up Copilot on Windows 10, although we'd contend that such a number is the minimum to do any useful work in the operating system regardless of the AI. A display adapter that supports more than 720p is also required. Failure to meet those relatively low bars could result in a safeguard hold and no preview of Copilot in Windows being offered.

Even if you do manage to get it installed - and don't forget to turn on the "Get latest updates as soon as they're available" setting in Windows Update - Microsoft has acknowledged issues with the preview. Hit Refresh in the Copilot "experience" and you could see instability. Clicking links or attempting to close Copilot or Edge might also result in a crash.

Copilot doesn't play nicely with vertical taskbars either - Microsoft notes that "in Windows [it] isn't currently supported when your taskbar is located vertically on the right or left of your screen." If you're wondering where the feature is, try using a horizontal taskbar at the bottom or top of the screen.

Finally, as if to emphasize some similarities with Windows 11, the Windows 10 version of the Copilot preview does not currently work on multi-monitor setups. The icon will only appear on the primary monitor taskbar. As shipped, Copilot had problems with Windows 11 and multi-monitor setups. The issue was resolved for Windows 11 Dev Channel insiders in build 23570. ®