How to Use Copilot in Windows 11: A Practical Guide

Copilot in Windows 11 is the AI assistant built into the operating system itself, reachable from a taskbar icon, a dedicated key, or the Win+C shortcut. This guide covers what it does inside Windows specifically, including Copilot Vision and Click to Do, and which features need a Copilot Plus PC. We opened Copilot via the Copilot key and Win+C on a standard Windows 11 laptop and noted which actions worked without that special hardware.

This is the in-Windows angle. For the broader web and chat app, see our full Microsoft Copilot guide linked below.

#How Do You Open Copilot in Windows 11?

You have three quick ways in. The simplest is the Win+C shortcut, which launches Copilot from anywhere in Windows.

According to Microsoft’s getting started with Copilot guide, you can also open it from the taskbar icon, the Start menu, or a dedicated Copilot key if your keyboard has one. That key arrived on new devices in 2024 and sometimes replaces the right Ctrl key.

If Win+C does nothing, the shortcut may be off. Microsoft’s guide states that you enable it under Settings, then Personalization, then Taskbar, where you turn on the Copilot toggle. Once it’s on, the shortcut and the taskbar icon both wake Copilot.

#What Copilot Can Do Inside Windows

Most of what you’ll use is conversational. Ask a question, draft an email, summarize pasted text, or generate an image, all in a side panel over your work.

It answers questions about Windows itself, too. Ask where a setting lives, and Copilot points you to it, which pairs well with the Windows 11 25H2 new features it builds on.

Just don’t expect it to reconfigure Windows for you yet. The deep system-action features are still maturing, so today Copilot is more of a guide and a drafting tool than a hands-on operator that flips your switches for you, walks settings menus on its own, or makes changes without you doing the clicking. Coming from another assistant? Our ChatGPT vs Claude vs Gemini comparison shows how the chat side stacks up.

#Copilot Vision and Click to Do, Explained

Copilot Vision is the feature that lets Copilot see your screen. You start a session, share a window, and ask it to summarize an article or explain a chart. In our testing, Copilot Vision summarized an on-screen article in seconds on a standard laptop, no special hardware required.

Click to Do is the more powerful, more restricted cousin. Microsoft’s Click to Do guide states that it identifies text and images on screen so you can act on them, processed on-device rather than in the cloud.

The catch is hardware. Click to Do is tied to Recall and the Copilot Plus platform, so a standard machine doesn’t have it. When we tested on a non-Copilot Plus laptop, Click to Do stayed greyed out while Vision worked fine, which is the clean line between cloud features that run anywhere and on-device features that need the new chip.

#Copilot App vs Copilot on the Web

Two front doors lead to similar places. The Windows app and the web version at copilot.microsoft.com share your chat history and most features when you sign in with the same Microsoft account, so your conversations follow you between them without any extra setup or export.

The app’s advantage is integration. It launches from the key, sits over your desktop, and hooks into Windows-only features like Vision. The web version is just a browser tab, fine on a borrowed PC.

If you only want the assistant, either works. Our full Microsoft Copilot guide covers the chat, drafting, and image features that carry across both.

#Which Features Need a Copilot Plus PC?

This is the line that confuses people. On-device AI like Recall and Click to Do needs Copilot Plus hardware. Cloud-based features like the chat panel and Vision run on any Windows 11 PC.

Microsoft’s Copilot Plus PC requirements page states that these machines need a neural processing unit doing more than 40 trillion operations per second, or 40 TOPS. You can confirm the figure on the Copilot Plus PC requirements page. A regular laptop chip can’t reach that, which is why the on-device features stay locked to the newer hardware.

Not sure which camp your PC falls in? Our guide to checking if your PC can run Windows 11 helps you read the hardware. A Copilot Plus badge or an NPU line in the specs is the tell.

#Customizing the Copilot Key and Shortcut

The Copilot key isn’t locked to Copilot. If you’d rather it do something else, remap it under Settings, Bluetooth and devices, Keyboard, where Windows lets you point it at a different app or function.

You can also tune the Win+C behavior. Microsoft’s settings let the shortcut open the full app or a smaller quick view, so pick whichever fits how you work. If you lean on AI for writing tasks, our walkthrough on using AI to make a resume shows the kind of drafting Copilot handles well once you’ve got it open.

#Bottom Line

For most Windows 11 users, Copilot is most useful as a fast on-screen helper. Press Win+C or the Copilot key, ask a question, or use Vision to summarize what’s in front of you. Don’t expect it to deeply reconfigure Windows yet, since the OS-action features are still maturing and several, like Click to Do and Recall, require a Copilot Plus PC. If you’re on a standard machine, the chat and Vision features are what you’ll actually use day to day.

#Frequently Asked Questions