Windows 11’s New Copilot Assistant is Reportedly Headed to Windows 10

Microsoft’s new Copilot AI assistant, one of the flagship new features in the freshly-released Windows 11 version 23H2 may soon make its way to Windows 10. Windows Central’s Zac Bowden is reporting today that Microsoft sees the large Windows 10 user base (approximately 1 billion devices) as a big opportunity for bringing the AI assistant to more eyeballs.

“According to my sources, Microsoft is planning to bring the same Microsoft Copilot to Windows 10 in an update coming soon,” Bowden wrote. “Just like Windows 11, this update to Windows 10 will place a Copilot button directly on the Windows 10 taskbar, which will open the exact same Copilot sidebar experience found on Windows 11.”

Copilot is currently available in preview in select markets, and it has yet to be enabled in Europe. The AI assistant works as a pinned Edge tab that provides access to Bing chat, but Microsoft also built plugins to let Copilot interact with Windows settings. Support for third-party plugins is coming as well, and developers may have a bigger incentive to create plugins if Copilot also becomes available on the most popular version of Windows.

Microsoft said last year that Windows 10 version 22H2 would be the “the final version of Windows 10” and that it would be supported until October 2025. While it looked like no big new features would ever come to Windows 10 going forward, Bowden reports that Microsoft is now considering going into a different direction.

“I’ve also heard that Windows’ new bosses are keen to keep Windows 10 users up to date with select new features and services, and that Windows Copilot is just one of a handful of features that the company is planning to backport to the older OS,” Bowden wrote. Last but not least, Bowden also heard that there are ongoing internal discussions about extending Windows 10’s end-of-support date beyond 2025, though nothing has been decided yet.