Microsoft quietly made a big change to the way Copilot works on Windows 11 PCs, including on brand-new Copilot+ laptops. Since its inception, Microsoft Copilot was an artificial intelligence-based chatbot that could also tap into your PC. Copilot could leverage OpenAI's large language models (LLMs), but it could also help you turn settings like Wi-Fi or Bluetooth on or off. However, it's losing a key part of its functionality with a recent update. The dedicated Copilot key on Windows laptops and the Copilot icon in the taskbar now launch a progressive web app (PWA) version of Copilot.

PWAs essentially mimic the experience of a website in windowed form, and do not function like a native Windows 11 app. By turning Copilot into a PWA, it's unable to be used as a Windows 11 sidebar or with system-level integration. When I tested my first laptop with a Copilot key earlier this year, I thought the chatbot would be most useful to casual users as tech support. Who needs to waste time on the phone if the Copilot sidebar could find the setting or problem with your PC that needs changing?

That's why I'm so disappointed with Microsoft's decision to strip Copilot of all the functionality that made it great. As a PWA, Copilot is no different from competitors ChatGPT or Gemini. And, the Copilot key is just a fancy macro.

Copilot is now just a PWA

The sidebar that was deeply integrated with your PC is no more

With how hard Microsoft is pushing Copilot, it's easy to forget that the feature is still in preview. The company says that it is "evolving the Copilot experience on Windows" based on user feedback.The release of Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22635.3785 includes Copilot changing from a sidebar chatbot into a PWA with limited features. Here's how Microsoft explains the changes:

As part of this update, we’re also evolving the Copilot experience on Windows as an app that will be pinned to the taskbar. This enables users to get the benefits of a traditional app experience, including the ability to resize, move, and snap the window – feedback we’ve heard from users throughout the preview of Copilot in Windows. This model also allows Microsoft to more agilely develop and optimize the experience based on user feedback.

Separately, the company is removing the WIN + C keyboard shortcut that was previously used to trigger Copilot. It's true that there are clear benefits to using Copilot in windowed form. It's also true that, as a PWA, it's easier for Microsoft to make quick updates to Copilot on the fly. As for the part about responding to feedback from Windows 11 users, I'm not so sure that the ability to resize a window was high enough on their requested feature list that made its addition worth removing core functionality from Copilot.

Copilot+ is moving backward, not forward

Microsoft already recalled Recall, and now Copilot isn't as good

If you remember, Microsoft mandated that laptops supporting Copilot+ must have a dedicated Copilot key. However, that key isn't even necessary now that the Copilot PWA is pinned to the Windows 11 taskbar by default. It's also worth mentioning that Copilot is the namesake of Microsoft's Copilot+ branding, and yet it's losing functionality right as new Copilot+ laptops debut — like the company's own Surface Laptop 7.

Copilot+ was already underwhelming, since Microsoft pulled the brand's key feature — Recall — due to serious privacy concerns. Now, the release of Copilot+ coincides with Copilot itself losing features. Somehow, Microsoft managed to make a big moment for Windows on Arm underwhelming thanks to multiple Copilot blunders.

What makes Copilot unique now?

The key is no better than a shortcut for ChatGPT or Gemini

There are numerous AI chatbots that users can turn to, but there was something special about the old Copilot. It wasn't just a chatbot that could tap into the web and various LLMs. It was also a portal to your PC itself, helping you make changes and settings tweaks that you might not have been able to do on your own. For example, you could tell Copilot to change your network settings. Then, it would show you what it planned to modify and present you with Yes and No buttons. Clicking one of those options was all it took to change a setting on your PC with Copilot.

I thought that was Copilot's "killer feature" that would separate the chatbot from all the others. Now, as a PWA, Copilot is just a carbon-copy of the other AI chatbots available. It uses the same GPT-4o model from OpenAI as ChatGPT, and it's a PWA just like Google's Gemini on ChromeOS. There's nothing unique about this version of Copilot, and that's strange, because Microsoft clearly wants Copilot to be a key part of its AI PC branding moving forward.