7 AI features you must try in Windows 11: Copilot PC not required
The global PC market has seen a strong start in 2024, with shipments already higher compared to last year. The hype around AI PCs seems to be one of the big driving forces for this uptick, and it’s only projected to get stronger. Microsoft’s introduction of its AI assistant Copilot and the flurry of new Copilot and Copilot+ laptops this year has rekindled the spark in Windows laptops. AI features are the main draw here and just like the smartphone world, you can now do things like have AI generate a professional painting or drawing, easily separate your subject and the background or add an aesthetic blur behind your subject, and plenty more.
A lot of these AI features work best with newer hardware, especially CPUs that have a dedicated NPU chip for handling all this work. While some are exclusive to the newer Copilot+ laptops or laptops that have an NPU, there are some pretty useful ones that work just fine on existing Windows 11 laptops. If you have a Windows 11 PC, these are some of the cool AI features you should be using right away.
Copilot
This is one feature which you’ve probably noticed already. If you’ve been keeping your Windows up to date, you should have the Copilot logo on the right-hand corner of the taskbar. Similar to ChatGPT, you can ask Copilot for facts, generate snippets of text, edit your homework, generate ideas for a project, and pretty much anything else. Copilot goes one step further as it can open apps, change any Windows settings, analyse text from a screenshot or image, and more. You can even enable plugins to find restaurant recommendations, compose a song, or shop for items and find the best prices. Some of the plugins are U.S. centric only for now. You can even ask Copilot to generate an image for a logo, blog post, or anything else, using just a text prompt. It’s immensely useful, and you should give it a go if you haven’t already.Image Creator in Paint
This feature is not yet rolled out in India, but you can easily activate this by simply changing the region in Settings. Make sure you’re on the most recent version of Windows (23H2) and that there are no updates pending. If you don’t already see the ‘Image Creator’ button (just before ‘Layers’ on the toolbar) in the Paint app, here’s what you need to do:
Open Settings > Time & language > Region
Under “Country or region”, choose United States
Now, open Paint again, and you should have this feature. Microsoft is rolling this out in a phased manner, so chances are you’ll have to join a waitlist. Once this feature is active, you should be able to generate AI art from text prompts and choose the style of the art too. Generating AI artwork requires credits, and Microsoft gives you 50 credits when you join. If you don't want to bother with the waitlist, you can start using Microsoft Designer right away, where you get 15 free tokens daily for creating AI artwork.
Background removal in Paint
One AI feature in the Paint app that doesn’t require any tokens is background removal. You’ll find the logo just below the Crop button. One press will automatically analyse the photo, detect the subject, and remove the background. You can then save the foreground image or copy it to another canvas. It’s a quick and easy way of removing backgrounds from your subject.
Background blur in Photos
The Photos app in Windows 11 just got more powerful with this cool feature. Once you’ve opened a photo, tap Edit or Ctrl+E to get to the editing menu. Here, the last icon on the top bar will be background removal. On pressing it, your image will be analysed and the background will be masked automatically. By enabling the ‘Background brush tool’ toggle, you can choose to mask more portions of the image or even unmask areas that you don’t want blurred. Once done, you can then choose to blur the background and adjust the intensity of the blur, remove the background altogether, or replace the background with a solid colour of your choice. It’s quite powerful and simple to use, which is great when you’re in a hurry.
Text recognition in Snipping tool
Did you ever find yourself wanting to quickly copy an address or email from a screenshot you just took? Now you can, with the ‘Text actions’ feature in the Snipping Tool. Once you’ve taken a screenshot, tap the notification icon in the bottom right corner. Your screenshot will open in the Snipping Tool app. Here, simply press the ‘Text actions’ button in the toolbar and all the text in the screenshot will be automatically selectable. You can now copy all or portions of the text to paste elsewhere. Phone numbers and email addresses can also be instantly redacted with the ‘Quick redact’ button.
AI editing in Clipchamp
Clipchamp is a handy video editing tool in Windows 11 that’s more than capable of handling basic edits. If you don’t want to bother doing the editing yourself, you can get AI to do it with the Auto compose feature. Once you open the Clipchamp app and are signed in, you’ll see the option ‘Create a video with AI’ on the Home page. Press that, and you’ll get a guided four-step process to make your video. Simply add all the images and video clips you need, choose a theme for your video, pick the orientation and clip length, and preview the clip before exporting. You can change the background music and fonts, or even edit it manually if you want to fine-tune it further. It’s super useful if you want to make reels for social media quickly, and don’t want to get your hands dirty with editing.
Copilot in Edge browser
Copilot is also available as a pop-out box in Microsoft’s Edge browser, and offers some cool features. You can use it to summarise a lengthy article that’s open in a tab, compose an email or blogpost and choose the length and tone of the write up, or ask it to find more information on the topic you’re reading about in the web page. All the features from the main Copilot menu are also available here.
A lot of these AI features work best with newer hardware, especially CPUs that have a dedicated NPU chip for handling all this work. While some are exclusive to the newer Copilot+ laptops or laptops that have an NPU, there are some pretty useful ones that work just fine on existing Windows 11 laptops. If you have a Windows 11 PC, these are some of the cool AI features you should be using right away.
Copilot
This is one feature which you’ve probably noticed already. If you’ve been keeping your Windows up to date, you should have the Copilot logo on the right-hand corner of the taskbar. Similar to ChatGPT, you can ask Copilot for facts, generate snippets of text, edit your homework, generate ideas for a project, and pretty much anything else. Copilot goes one step further as it can open apps, change any Windows settings, analyse text from a screenshot or image, and more. You can even enable plugins to find restaurant recommendations, compose a song, or shop for items and find the best prices. Some of the plugins are U.S. centric only for now. You can even ask Copilot to generate an image for a logo, blog post, or anything else, using just a text prompt. It’s immensely useful, and you should give it a go if you haven’t already.Image Creator in Paint
This feature is not yet rolled out in India, but you can easily activate this by simply changing the region in Settings. Make sure you’re on the most recent version of Windows (23H2) and that there are no updates pending. If you don’t already see the ‘Image Creator’ button (just before ‘Layers’ on the toolbar) in the Paint app, here’s what you need to do:
Open Settings > Time & language > Region
Under “Country or region”, choose United States
Now, open Paint again, and you should have this feature. Microsoft is rolling this out in a phased manner, so chances are you’ll have to join a waitlist. Once this feature is active, you should be able to generate AI art from text prompts and choose the style of the art too. Generating AI artwork requires credits, and Microsoft gives you 50 credits when you join. If you don't want to bother with the waitlist, you can start using Microsoft Designer right away, where you get 15 free tokens daily for creating AI artwork.
Background removal in Paint
One AI feature in the Paint app that doesn’t require any tokens is background removal. You’ll find the logo just below the Crop button. One press will automatically analyse the photo, detect the subject, and remove the background. You can then save the foreground image or copy it to another canvas. It’s a quick and easy way of removing backgrounds from your subject.
Background blur in Photos
The Photos app in Windows 11 just got more powerful with this cool feature. Once you’ve opened a photo, tap Edit or Ctrl+E to get to the editing menu. Here, the last icon on the top bar will be background removal. On pressing it, your image will be analysed and the background will be masked automatically. By enabling the ‘Background brush tool’ toggle, you can choose to mask more portions of the image or even unmask areas that you don’t want blurred. Once done, you can then choose to blur the background and adjust the intensity of the blur, remove the background altogether, or replace the background with a solid colour of your choice. It’s quite powerful and simple to use, which is great when you’re in a hurry.
Text recognition in Snipping tool
Did you ever find yourself wanting to quickly copy an address or email from a screenshot you just took? Now you can, with the ‘Text actions’ feature in the Snipping Tool. Once you’ve taken a screenshot, tap the notification icon in the bottom right corner. Your screenshot will open in the Snipping Tool app. Here, simply press the ‘Text actions’ button in the toolbar and all the text in the screenshot will be automatically selectable. You can now copy all or portions of the text to paste elsewhere. Phone numbers and email addresses can also be instantly redacted with the ‘Quick redact’ button.
AI editing in Clipchamp
Clipchamp is a handy video editing tool in Windows 11 that’s more than capable of handling basic edits. If you don’t want to bother doing the editing yourself, you can get AI to do it with the Auto compose feature. Once you open the Clipchamp app and are signed in, you’ll see the option ‘Create a video with AI’ on the Home page. Press that, and you’ll get a guided four-step process to make your video. Simply add all the images and video clips you need, choose a theme for your video, pick the orientation and clip length, and preview the clip before exporting. You can change the background music and fonts, or even edit it manually if you want to fine-tune it further. It’s super useful if you want to make reels for social media quickly, and don’t want to get your hands dirty with editing.
Copilot in Edge browser
Copilot is also available as a pop-out box in Microsoft’s Edge browser, and offers some cool features. You can use it to summarise a lengthy article that’s open in a tab, compose an email or blogpost and choose the length and tone of the write up, or ask it to find more information on the topic you’re reading about in the web page. All the features from the main Copilot menu are also available here.
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