Microsoft recently made available a couple of new previews of Windows 11, including build 26020 and 23612 in the Canary and Dev Channel, and along with the new weather widget for the Lock Screen and other improvements, these flights also come with several experimental improvements for Copilot, Share, and Start menu that the company didn’t mention in the official changes.
Copilot action menu and File Explorer integration
On build 23612, Windows 11 includes a new action menu when hovering the Copilot button with the mouse pointer (via @PhantomOfEarth), allowing you to quickly access different actions depending on the content stored in the clipboard.
For instance, when copying text to the clipboard, the menu will reveal specific actions for that type of content, such as “Send to Copilot,” “Summarize,” and “Rewrite.”
On the other hand, if you copy an image to the clipboard (not an image, an actual image like a screenshot), the menu will include the options to “Send to Copilot,” “Upscale image,” and “Remove background.”
The idea of this feature is to quickly surface the different actions that users can perform without the need for extra steps.
Furthermore, it has been recently discovered that Microsoft may be planning to integrate Copilot into File Explorer further. Currently, the latest preview of the operating system includes a reference called “CopilotFEContextMenu” that could indicate that the company plans to add some sort of entry in the context menu.
It’s unclear how this new integration will work, but speculating, this could be a “Send to Copilot” option that could become available depending on the type. Or it’s possible that the context menu could include the same option as the new action menu.
Windows Share new link option
On build 26020, Microsoft is also working on additional improvements for the Share interface. In addition to the official changes available with this flight, you will now find an option to copy a link when sharing a file.
Since this is still a work in progress, it’s unclear how it will work as it’s not possible to create a link to files stored on your computer. However, it could be the case that Microsoft is working on integrating the sharing interface from OneDrive, or this could be an option for copying links, such as those from the Microsoft Store.
Finally, on build 23612, Microsoft is also experimenting with a new option in the “Start” settings page that allows you to show upcoming meetings from Teams in the “Recommended” section of the Start menu.
Microsoft didn’t mention this feature in the official changes, but in an X post, the company responded to a user that the team has been rolling out and testing the “Show upcoming meetings” option.
These improvements were first spotted with the preview builds available on January 3, 2024, but it’s not clear when they could arrive in the stable change. Also, since these are experimental features, the plans can always change, or the company could scratch them from the operating system.