An update to the Edge browser (version 123.0.2420.65), released March 28th, 2024 might have accidentally installed an application labelled “Microsoft chat provider for Copilot in Windows” on your Windows PC or Windows Server device. This might show up on your device as an application named “Microsoft Copilot” in your installed apps list.
According to a post by Microsoft, there is no need to panic. The tech giant claims the component doesn’t actually run any programs. Importantly, it does not collect any information from your device.
The app is a precursor, meant to prepare some devices for a future Windows Copilot rollout. However, it wasn’t supposed to be installed on as many machines as has happened. Users with devices running Windows 11, version 23H2, Windows 11, version 22H2, Windows 11, version 21H2, and Windows 10, version 22H2 are the ones affected.
Microsoft is currently working on a fix. In the upcoming update, this chat provider component will be removed from devices where Windows Copilot isn’t planned to be available, like Windows Server 2022 devices. The patch will be available in an upcoming update of Microsoft Edge.
Microsoft Copilot is a chatbot developed by Microsoft and launched on February 7, 2023. It combines the power of large language models (LLMs) with data in the Microsoft Graph and the Microsoft 365 apps. With these data, it can offer automation features to generate text such as emails and summaries, and create images based on text prompts users write.
Clearly, the AI chat assistant is still under development and changing fast. Its capabilities and use cases are bound to keep changing. Until very recently, Microsoft had Bing Chat, which overlapped with Copilot. Today, we only have Copilot.
