Starting on Windows 11 build 22635.3430 (KB5036992), Microsoft began the early rollout of the new “Copilot suggestions menu on copy” feature. In this guide, I will show you how to manage it on your computer.
What is the Copilot suggestions menu?
It’s a new menu that suggests different actions depending on the content you copy to the clipboard. When the feature is enabled, and you copy some text or an image to the clipboard, the Copilot icon will change its appearance and animation, and a flyout menu will open from the System Tray in the Taskbar. When you hover over it, the menu will expand, revealing the description of each action, depending on the content in the clipboard.
If you copied some text, you will see the option to send it to Copilot directly, or you can choose to explain or summarize it.
On the other hand, if you copy an image, you can send it directly to the chatbot, create a similar image with AI, or analyze the image. (Microsoft is still testing this feature, and in my installation, the options for an image include sending it to Copilot, explaining it, and editing it.)
Although the new feature can help to lure users into using Copilot, I have already noticed that this flyout menu can be an annoying distraction for many people as it opens up on every copy action. If this is the same case for you, Windows 11 is adding an option to turn off the menu completely.
In this guide, I will explain how you manage the suggestions menu for Copilot on Windows 11.
To enable the Copilot suggestions menu, use these steps:
- Open Start on Windows 11.
- Click on Personalization.
- Click the Copilot in Windows page.
- Turn on the “Show Copilot suggestions menu on copy” toggle switch.
Once you complete the steps, when you copy some text or an image, Copilot will open a suggestion menu with different self-explanatory actions, including “Send to Copilot in Windows,” “Summarize,” and “Explain.”
When copying content to the clipboard, the Copilot icon will change appearance and play an animation indicating that it can help with different actions. You will also see a flyout menu that will expand, revealing the name of each action as you hover over the menu.
Enable the feature through ViveTool
If the feature isn’t available during your installation, you may still be able to enable it on Windows 11 using ViveTool (via @PhantomOfEarth).
At the time of this writing, the Copilot suggestions menu is gradually rolling out on Windows 11 build 22635.3430 (KB5036992), meaning that you will need a computer enrolled in the Beta Channel with the latest preview to access the feature.
To enable the new Copilot action menu, use these steps:
- Open GitHub website.
- Download the ViveTool-vx.x.x.zip file to enable the new Copilot menu.
- Double-click the zip folder to open it with File Explorer.
- Click the Extract all button.
- Click the Extract button.
- Copy the path to the folder.
- Open Start.
- Search for Command Prompt, right-click the top result, and select the Run as administrator option.
- Type the following command to navigate to the ViveTool folder and press Enter:
cd c:folderpathViveTool-v0.x.x
In the command, remember to change the path to the folder with your path.
- Type the following command to enable the new Copilot suggestions menu and press Enter:
vivetool /enable /id:48681146
- Restart the computer.
After you complete the steps, the option to enable the menu with action suggestions will appear on Settings > Personalization> Copilot in Windows. You can now use the previous steps to turn on the feature.
To disable the Copilot menu that appears in the Taskbar, use these steps:
- Open Start.
- Click on Personalization.
- Click the Copilot in Windows page.
- Turn off the “Show Copilot suggestions menu on copy” toggle switch.
After you complete the steps, the Copilot menu with suggestions will no longer appear in the Taskbar when copying text or images to the clipboard.