[Ikki Kasahara’s Ubiquitous Information Bureau]”Copilot” is implemented in Windows 10, which is supposed to disappear. But why? – PC Watch

Starting November 15th (local time, November 16th Japan time), Microsoft is holding its annual event “Ignite 2023” both in-person and virtually in Seattle, USA. On the morning of the first day, a keynote speech will be given by company executives including CEO Satya Nadella.

The next day, November 16th, a very important announcement was made for PC users. It will implement “Copilot in Windows (in preview)” (“preview version Copilot in Windows” in Japanese) on Windows 10, and the preview version will soon be available for Windows Insider’s Windows 10 (version 22H2) release preview. It was revealed that.

However, Microsoft announced in April that 22H2 would be the last feature update for Windows 10. Why did Microsoft go so far as to change its policy and implement “Copilot in Windows” into Windows 10?

According to Microsoft’s explanation in April, the provision of feature updates to Windows 10 was supposed to end in 22H2…

Do you remember the following news that came out in April of this year?

To briefly summarize the contents of this news, Microsoft has updated its blog and updated the roadmap for the client version of Windows, and for Windows 10, feature updates that are provided once a year are: The company announced that 22H2, which was the latest version at that time, would be the last, and that from now on only monthly security updates would be provided, encouraging people to migrate to Windows 11.

Microsoft will release a new version of Windows 11 and require you to meet hardware requirements, but as long as you can upgrade for free, future new features will only be included in Windows 11. , is a natural choice considering the development costs involved. If the two versions are equipped with the same new features, it becomes a question of why the new version was released, and it seems natural that 23H2 will be provided only for Windows 11. I can say it.

If you want new features but are still using Windows 10, you should migrate to Windows 11 as soon as possible. At the same time, it has been announced again that Windows 10’s EoS (End of Support, the end of support when monthly security updates will no longer be provided) is October 14, 2025, and if you want to continue using it after that, Before that, migration to Windows 11 is encouraged.

Implemented based on user feedback.However, there are no changes to the Windows 10 EoS schedule.

A CTR button has been added to Windows Insider’s Windows 10 (version 22H2) release preview (Build 19045) published today, and if you turn it on, Copilot in Windows will appear when it is released (Photo provided by Microsoft) )

However, this time an announcement was made that contradicted that policy. It has been revealed that the preview version “Copilot in Windows”, which has been available only for Windows 11, will soon be available for Windows Insider’s Windows 10 (version 22H2) release preview. Release previews are the closest to a production version among Windows Insiders, meaning that the preview version of Copilot in Windows will soon be rolled out to the production version of Windows 10.

The implementation of Copilot in Windows will be delivered through a mechanism Microsoft calls CTR (Controlled Feature Rollout), which provides new features separately from large-scale feature updates like 22H2 and 23H2. Although it can be said that 22H2 is closely following the April announcement that 22H2 will be the last feature update for Windows 10, it cannot be denied that it is a little confusing.

Microsoft says the preview version of Copilot in Windows is rolling out only to Home and Pro users, with plans to roll out soon to Business, Enterprise, and Education customers with Microsoft 365 subscriptions. Of course, for those SKUs, companies manage the deployment of Windows Updates through MDM (such as Intune), so the company’s IT personnel can choose whether to deploy them or not.

Please note that Windows 11 has increased hardware requirements, and is compatible with relatively new CPUs, 4GB of memory, and 720p or higher. On the other hand, Windows 10 requires a CPU of at least 1GHz, memory of 1GB for the 32-bit version, 2GB for the 64-bit version, and a display of at least 800 x 600 dots, which are less demanding than Windows 11.

However, the requirements for running Copilot in Windows on Windows 10 are 4GB of memory, a 720p display, and requirements similar to Windows 11 except for the CPU.

However, in reality, even with Windows 10, most PCs have at least 8 GB of memory, and considering the situation over the past few years that requires at least 4 GB of memory, changing these requirements would not make much sense in reality.

The available Copilot in Windows features are basically the same as those in Windows 11. ChatGPT-based Bing Chat functions can be used without the need for a browser, and if you ask Copilot in Windows about Windows settings, it will open the necessary settings.

“Ever since we introduced Copilot in Windows to Windows 11, we’ve received many requests to use Copilot in Windows on Windows 10,” said Microsoft Windows Marketing Vice President Eron Woodman. ” explains the reason for implementing Copilot in Windows on Windows 10.

However, he also emphasized that there is no change to the plan for Windows 10 EoS to be October 14, 2025. “Microsoft remains committed to encouraging users to migrate to Windows 11. Therefore, there is no change to the plan for Windows 10 EoS to be October 14, 2025. Microsoft will continue to use Windows 10 until that time. This announcement is to provide Copilot in Windows to users.” (Woodman) There is no possibility that the implementation of Copilot in Windows on Windows 10 will be postponed until EoS of Windows 10. And so.

Currently, Microsoft’s top priority is the spread of “Microsoft Copilot”

Copilot in Teams provided as an update to Microsoft 365 Copilot (Photo credit: Microsoft)

Microsoft has emphasized that there will be no changes to Windows 10 EoS, probably because it is afraid that this announcement will be perceived as “leading to the postponement of Windows 10 EoS.” I also don’t think Microsoft has any plans to postpone Windows 10 EoS. However, even though we understand the risks, why did we decide to implement Copilot in Windows on Windows 10?

It’s simply a matter of priorities. Priorities mean what products and services Microsoft most wants to popularize right now. That is Copilot in Windows, or more specifically, the spread of Microsoft Copilot, which serves as a larger umbrella.

Microsoft Copilot is a general term for AI services that utilize the latest AI models such as LLM (Large-Scale Language Models) provided by Microsoft in partnership with OpenAI. Under that umbrella, we have deployed Copilot in Windows, which is Copilot integrated into the Windows OS, and Microsoft 365 Copilot, which extends Copilot functionality to Microsoft 365, Microsoft’s productivity improvement tool (local/cloud)… There is.

In other words, implementing the Copilot brand into nearly all Microsoft products and services is now a top priority for Microsoft.

The reason for this is that by using functions such as the GPT-based LLM (Large-Scale Language Model), which is being developed in partnership with OpenAI, with which Microsoft has a strong team, humans can perform tasks that previously had to be done manually. This will replace the work that used to be done with AI.

For example, it can translate between different languages, transcribe audio, summarize sentences, search for materials and pull out numbers to support the process…it takes time to do these tasks on behalf of humans. The function that increases productivity is called Copilot. It is called “Copilot” because the AI ​​replaces humans, acting like a secretary or co-pilot.

The enterprise version, which was previously called Copilot in Windows, has been changed to Copilot Pro and will be available from December 1st (Photo provided by Microsoft)

Microsoft is implementing Copilot at various layers.In fact, in this Iginite

• Microsoft 365 Copilot updates
• Microsoft Copilot Studio
• Microsoft Copilot for Service
• Copilot in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Guides
• Microsoft Copilot for Azure
• Rebranding Bing Chat and Bing Chat Enterprise to Copilot
• The enterprise version of Copilot in Windows will also be unified into Copilot Pro.

Many other Copilot-related announcements have been made. The company’s current stance is that “Microsoft will become a Copilot company.” Microsoft’s top priority is Copilot, and in that context it would be correct to think of it as “implementing Copilot in Windows on Windows 10.”

It is true that Microsoft is encouraging users to migrate to Windows 11, but it is undeniable that there are still many PCs still running Windows 10, especially in Japan’s business PC industry. For Microsoft, which wants to popularize Copilot anyway, it makes sense to introduce Copilot in Windows to Windows 10, which still has a large installed base. Even if the period until EoS is only about 2 years (23 months to be exact), it would make sense to introduce Copilot in Windows to Windows 10 in the sense of increasing the number of users using Copilot. .

Even if that creates doubts among Windows 10 users that “EoS may be postponed.” That’s why I think Microsoft is sending a clear message that there are no changes to EoS, and I think it will stick.

Microsoft has already become a “wolf boy” once with Windows 7, so by using that as a teacher and thoroughly disseminating information from a long time ago, EoS was reliably executed in Windows 8, and now in Windows 10. Since EoS has been thoroughly informed, and they have strongly stated that there will be no postponement, it is my opinion that it will not be postponed.

Companies using Windows 10 business PCs have some things to do before doing so.

Microsoft has once again emphasized that Windows 10’s EoS will remain unchanged on October 14, 2025, but before that, many companies should be aware that another deadline is coming.

Specifically, the provision of PCs with Windows 10 preinstalled by exercising the right to downgrade Windows 11 Pro will end on March 31st of next year (2024). The provision of pre-installed Windows 10 licenses for OEM manufacturers has already ended, and the ones currently provided are those that exercise the right to downgrade to Windows 10, which is provided as a pre-installed license for Windows 11 Pro. It is a pre-installation of Windows 10 that takes advantage of this fact. The deadline for exercising that right is March 31, 2024.

Of course, manufacturer inventory and store inventory will remain, so you may be able to purchase it for a while, but as a general rule, from April 1st onwards, you will no longer be able to freely decide on the specs and purchase at CTO.

Therefore, migration to Windows 11 needs to be considered in two stages. First of all, I think that after April 1st of next year, it will be difficult to obtain new PCs with Windows 10 pre-installed, with some exceptions. Therefore, after April 1st, it will be necessary to deal with the situation where newly purchased systems are running Windows 11.

On October 14, 2025, Windows 10 will reach EoS. Since Microsoft is emphasizing that there are no changes here, I would like to be prepared for this as it is definitely coming.