First announced in October last year, Microsoft has made AI-powered updates to Windows Search available in the Windows 11 dev channel.
The updates mean Windows Search will use semantic indexing alongside traditional indexing to make finding files or settings on your machine more effective with casual language.
A much-needed Windows Search update
The AI updates don’t only apply to the main Windows Search bar but also to search boxes in Settings, File Explorer, and on your taskbar. Nor does the update require an internet connection to sift through all the junk you’ve accumulated, thanks to those NPUs in Copilot Plus PCs we keep hearing so much about.
Although, it’s still early days, so the feature will only fetch you Windows settings in the Settings app or image and text file formats from the main Search bar, taskbar, or file explorer. Supported formats include .txt, .pdf, .docx, .doc, .rtf, .pptx, .ppt, .xls, .xlsx for documents and .jpg/.jpeg, .png, .gif, .bmp, .ico for images. You’ll also need to make sure that the places where you save files are indexed, otherwise how will Windows know where to look?
While the updates are ‘gradually rolling out’ to Windows Insiders with Snapdragon-powered Copilot Plus PCs in the Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.2992 (KB5050083), Microsoft said support for Intel and AMD Copilot Plus PCs is “coming soon”. It also said enhanced Search capabilities will extend to “documents and photos stored in cloud storage providers such as OneDrive.”
There’s no telling when the updates will reach the Windows 11 stable build. That could be as soon as the next feature update cycle or later in the year. But hopefully, when they do, the Windows Insiders have found and squashed all the bugs and exploitable flaws.
