Microsoft brings Mu, a fast on-device AI, to Windows 11 Settings

Microsoft is rolling out a new AI agent in the Windows 11 Settings app, and it runs completely on-device. Powered by a small language model called Mu, this new assistant can understand natural language queries and help users find what they need without leaving the app.

The Mu model is built into the latest Windows 11 preview builds for Copilot+ PCs. If you’re running Build 26120.3964 (KB5058496) or later, you’ll find the agent integrated right inside the Settings search box. Just type a question or phrase, and the AI figures it out.

What makes Mu different?

Microsoft says Mu is fast. It runs on your PC’s Neural Processing Unit (NPU), processing over 100 tokens per second while staying completely offline. That means responses feel instant, and your data never leaves the device.

The model itself is compact, just 330 million parameters, and follows an encoder-decoder architecture. This setup cuts the first-token delay nearly in half and speeds up the rest of the response 4.7 times compared to similar decoder-only models.

Mu was trained on Azure using NVIDIA A100 GPUs. It’s designed for longer, multi-word queries, so if you type something short or unclear, the Settings app will still fall back to the traditional search system.

The AI Settings agent is only available on Copilot+ PCs for now, the same lineup that previously introduced Microsoft’s Phi-Silica model. If you’re curious, you can try it now—just grab the latest Dev Channel build and start typing into Settings.