Microsoft began rolling out its new AI assistant for Windows earlier this year with Windows 11 edition 23H2, which adds a new Microsoft Copilot button directly to the taskbar. Microsoft has brought its Copilot to every single user imaginable, however, there are still a giant number of PC users who employ the previous Windows 10 operating formula and who haven’t noticed any of Microsoft’s recent AI additions. This may soon change.
According to my sources, Microsoft plans to bring the same Microsoft Copilot to Windows 10 in an upcoming update. Like Windows 11, this Windows 10 update will place a Copilot button on the Windows 10 taskbar, which will open the exact same Copilot sidebar found in Windows 11.
The main reason for this decision is market share. Windows 10 is still used on about a billion active devices per month, compared to the 400 million active devices per month in Windows 11. Microsoft considers an additional billion users to be an untapped market for Copilot’s expansion, and therefore adding Copilot to Windows 10 is a solution. This is apparently the next step for the company.
Microsoft will also find it less difficult to convince developers to create add-ons for Copilot when they can claim that Copilot is available on 1. 4 billion devices, compared to just 400 million on Windows 11. The more users Copilot has, the more important explanation of why the developer has to code for Copilot instead of for a competitor.
I understand that the experience and features of Copilot in Windows 10 and Windows 11 will be pretty much the same, adding add-on compatibility between the two versions of the operating system.
I also heard that the new Windows bosses need to keep Windows 10 users up to date with some new features and services, and that Windows Copilot is just one of the few features the company plans to port to the old operating system. This strategy update is in stark contrast to that of Panay, who abandoned Windows 10 quickly.
I asked my resources if Microsoft is considering extending the Windows 10 end-of-support date, recently set for October 2025. I was told that discussions on this are ongoing internally, but no resolution has been reached yet.
Zac Bowden is editor-in-chief of Windows Central, giving you exclusive policy on the global scope of Windows on PCs, tablets, phones, and more. He’s also an avid collector of rare prototypes of Microsoft devices!Stay in touch on Twitter and Threads
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