Microsoft finally gives you a good reason to buy a Copilot+ PC

Enhanced search will be a game changer for Windows 11

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Microsoft enhances Windows Search on Copilot+ PCs

Microsoft started the year with 6 AI trends for 2025 and one of them was that Copilot and other AI agents will become your companions this year. If you’re curious to learn more about those trends and click the highlighted link, you will also find some interesting statistics that contradict this trend. Regular users don’t really care about AI bots and don’t use them regularly.

However, soon, you won’t even know that you’re using an AI agent just because they will soon be ubiquitous, embedded in the functions you’re already using on your PC. Microsoft released the Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.2992 (KB5050083) to the Dev Channel and the main improvement of this update is that Windows Search uses Copilot to provide semantic indexing along the traditional one. However, the advanced search features will only be available on Copilot+ PCs. That means you will need an NPU-powered PC. It will not work on older PCs.

The improved Windows Search might persuade you to buy an AI PC

Right now, it’s really a pain to find an older file because you have to remember its name or at least an approximate date you’ve created it. Well, that will change soon because with the new search feature, you can find a file even if you remember some contextual information about it.

Whether it’s searching in File Explorer, in the Windows search box on your taskbar, or in Settings – just type what’s on your mind to find it on your Copilot+ PC. You no longer need to remember file names, exact words in file content, or settings names. For example, you can use your own words to find images by typing “bridge at sunset”, documents by describing what they are about like “Europe trip budget”, or settings like “change my theme”. Thanks to the power of the 40+ TOPS NPU onboard Copilot+ PCs, these search improvements work even when you’re not connected to the internet.

So, for instance, if you want to find some accounting data from 3 years ago, you just search for 2022 accounting and the search results will include the file containing it even if it’s called 2022 financial situation or another name. This will also work for images, but only if the files are stored in indexed locations on your PC.

You can change the indexing on your PC from the Settings > Privacy & security > Searching Windows window. There, you can set up the folders included in the search. You may also turn on the Enhanced option to index your entire PC. The search process will take longer, but you will get more relevant results.

Also, the enhanced search will only work for supported file formats. Right now, the list includes .txt, .pdf, .docx, .doc, .rtf, .pptx, .ppt, .xls, .xlsx for documents and .jpg/.jpeg, .png, .gif, .bmp, .ico for images.

The enhanced search will soon work with cloud storage as well

Microsoft promises to extend the search feature to support cloud storage providers such as OneDrive in the future. But that’s not all, you will be able to use the enhanced search in Settings. For instance, if you type change background on the taskbar, you will be directed right to the Settings > Personalization > Background menu to make that change quickly.

Right now, only the Dev Channel insiders can test this feature and it will start rolling out gradually, first on Copilot+ PC powered by Snapdragon chips. Soon, Microsoft will also provide support for AMD and Intel-powered Copilot+ PCs.

In my opinion, the enhanced Windows Search feature is the biggest incentive right now if you want to invest in an AI PC. After Qualcomm’s latest chip announcement, we will also have the option of buying a Copilot+ PC in the $600 budget range. The AI adoption becomes tempting, right?

Will you buy an AI PC just for the enhanced search feature though? Probably not, but the new PC will also be faster for all applications and will certainly run Windows 11.

More about the topics: Copilot+PCs, microsoft search

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