Microsoft might bring Copilot to Windows 11 File Explorer

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26020 is the year’s first Canary Channel build. But unlike many Canary builds, the latest one does include some noteworthy new features. However, the most exciting part of the Build 26020 is what could be seen as a hint to an upcoming feature allowing users to use Copilot in File Explorer.

Copilot is Microsoft’s answer to ChatGPT and is available to many of Microsoft’s apps and services, including both Windows 11 and Windows 10. Now, Windows enthusiast PhantomOcean3, after seeing code changes in Windows 11 Canary Build 26020 and Windows 11 Dev Build 23612, speculates that Microsoft could be working on adding Copilot to the File Explorer context menu. The code along with the feature ID found in the latest Canary build reads as follows:

CopilotFEContextMenu: 45647150

This isn’t a significant piece of information for anyone to guess how Copilot will help users in File Explorer. But well-known leaker Leopeva64 believes that the code change has been made to introduce the “Send this file to Copilot” or “Send to Copilot” option to the File Explorer context menu. When you send a file to Copilot, it can analyze it and create a summary, giving you key takeaways from that document. If it’s a PowerPoint file, Copilot can summarise that long presentation.

Copilot is currently available in the Windows 11 taskbar, though it has limited functionality. A few months ago, Microsoft also brought the chatbot to Windows 10 users. It’ll be interesting to see if we also get to see Copilot coming to the Windows 10 File Explorer context menu, assuming Microsoft will bring it to Windows 11 first.