Microsoft Paint Gets a New Copilot Menu, Windows Search Expanded to Support OneDrive Files

Microsoft released a new Windows 11 Insider Preview build on Friday that makes changes to the Paint app and improves the Windows Search functionality. The new beta update is currently available to Windows Insider users in the Canary and Dev channels. With this, Microsoft Paint's artificial intelligence (AI) features are now available inside a new Copilot menu. Additionally, the new semantic indexing in Windows Search also supports files saved in OneDrive. Notably, these features are coming to the Snapdragon-powered Copilot+ PCs.

Microsoft Paint Gets a Copilot Button

In a blog post, Microsoft detailed the new features arriving with the new Windows 11 beta update. The features are part of the Windows 11 Insider preview build version 26120.3073 (KB5050090) and can be accessed via the Canary and Dev channels. The tech giant has not revealed when these features might be rolled out to all users globally.

Microsoft has added several AI-powered features to the Paint app over the last two years. The Cocreator feature can generate AI images by taking input from whatever the user has doodled. Users also get an option to granularly control the level of AI enhancement to the drawn image. Similarly, Image Creator is a text-to-image tool that generates images based on a text prompt and art style chosen by the user.

Additionally, Paint also has a Generative Erase feature that allows users to erase an unwanted object from an image and replace it by generating the background and blending it. Finally, the Remove Background feature lets users remove the background from any image with a single click.

Copilot menu in Microsoft Paint
Photo Credit: Microsoft

With the new update, all of these images are now being placed inside a Copilot menu, which is placed near the right side of the toolbar. Once the dropdown menu is clicked, all the available features with a short description will be visible. Notably, the Cocreator feature is only available in Copilot+ PCs.

Apart from this, Microsoft is also expanding the semantic indexing feature in Windows Search. First introduced last month in preview, the natural language search feature will now also support photos and files saved in OneDrive's cloud storage. This feature will also be available to just the Copilot+ PC users.