Microsoft’s new Copilot AI has wormed its way into nearly every aspect of Windows 11. However, there’s a bit of a learning curve, but don’t worry. We’ve got you covered. We've put together a primer on the company's new AI assistant, along with step-by-step instructions on how to both enable and disable it on your Windows computer.

What does Microsoft Copilot do?

Microsoft’s Copilot is a suite of AI tools that work together to create a digital personal assistant of sorts. Just like other modern AI assistants, the tech is based on generative artificial intelligence and large language models (LLM.)

You can use Copilot to do a whole bunch of things to increase productivity or just have fun. Use the service to summarize a web page or essay, write an email, quickly change operating system settings, generate custom images based on text, transcribe audio or video, generate a screenshot and even connect to an external device via Bluetooth. It also does the sorts of things other AI chatbots do, like creating lists of recipes, writing code or planning itineraries for trips. Think of it as a more robust version of the pre-existing Bing AI chatbot.

How to enable Microsoft Copilot

Update your computer to the latest version of Windows 11

First of all, you need the latest Windows 11 update, so go ahead and download that first. 

1. Head to Settings and look for the Windows Update option. 

2. Follow the prompts and reset your computer if required. 

You’re now ready to experience everything Copilot has to offer. If Microsoft just dropped an update, you may have to wait a bit before it reaches your region. Click the tab to automatically install the latest update when available.

Once your computer is updated, click the Copilot button

As for enabling the feature, click the Copilot button on the taskbar or press Win + C on the keyboard. That’s all there is to it.

How to disable Microsoft Copilot

Engadget/Terrence O'Brien

Microsoft Copilot isn’t an always-on feature. Once it shows up in the taskbar, it only works when you ask it something. However, if you want to disable or delete the feature entirely, you have a couple of options.

The easiest method is to remove it from the taskbar. Out of sight, out of mind, right? Open up Settings and click on Personalization. Next, tap the Taskbar page to the right side. Look for Taskbar Items and then click on the Copilot toggle switch to remove it from the line-up. This ensures you won’t ever accidentally turn it on via the Taskbar, but you can still call up the AI by typing Win + C.

If you want to delete the toolset entirely, the process is a bit more involved. Start by opening a PowerShell window. Search for Windows PowerShell, right-click on the results and select the option to run as an administrator. Next, click yes on the UAC prompt. This opens up a command prompt.

Paste the following into the window: reg add HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsCopilot /v "TurnOffWindowsCopilot" /t REG_DWORD /f /d 1

That should do it. Every trace of Copilot will disappear from your system.

What are the limitations of Copilot?

This is new technology, so the limitations are extensive. Like all modern LLMs, Microsoft’s Copilot can and will make up stuff out of thin air every once in a while, a phenomenon known as hallucination. It also doesn’t retain information from conversation to conversation, likely for security reasons. This means it restarts the conversation from a blank slate every time you close a window and open another one. It won’t remember anything about you, your preferences or even your favorite order from the coffee shop down the street. Finally, it doesn’t integrate with too many third-party sources of data, beyond the web, so you won’t be able to incorporate personal fitness data and the like.

What's the difference between Github Copilot and Microsoft Copilot?

There is a primary difference between the two platforms, despite the similar names. Github Copilot is all about helping craft and edit code for developing software applications. Microsoft Copilot can whip up some rudimentary code but it’s far from a speciality. If your primary use case scenario for an AI assistant is code, go with Github. If you only dabble in coding, or have no interest at all, go with Microsoft.

The once-ubiquitous social media site Myspace is getting the documentary treatment, with a film currently in the works that chronicles the rise and fall of the house that Tom built. The movie’s a joint project between production companies Gunpowder & Sky and The Documentary Group, as originally reported by Deadline.

Gunpowder & Sky has produced a number of well-known documentaries, such as 69: The Saga of Danny Hernandez and Everybody’s Everything, about deceased rapper Lil Peep. The Documentary Group’s behind shows like Amend: The Fight for America and The Deep End, a series focusing on spiritual wellness guru Teal Swan.

As for behind-the-camera talent, the film’s being directed by Tommy Avallone, who recently helmed the Barney docuseries I Love You, You Hate Me and The Bill Murray Stories: Life Lessons from a Mythical Man. The film will feature the social media site’s founders Tom Anderson (yes, that Tom) and Chris DeWolfe, in addition to a spate of celebrities who got their start on the platform.

Myspace was the social media site to beat before it was, well, beat by Facebook. The platform launched in 2003 and set the world on fire, becoming an important music promotional tool long before Bandcamp, Spotify and even YouTube. There was a guy named Tom who everyone was chums with. Folks agonized over which real-life friends to put in their list of top eight digital friends. There were some truly grody wallpaper options for your page, and the idea of an Internet troll wasn’t really a thing yet. It was a simpler time.

Gunpowder & Sky CEO Van Toffler said the documentary is a no-brainer for folks of a certain age bracket, noting that his colleagues at the time “were all obsessed with Myspace,” going on to say “without Myspace there’s no TikTok, no Facebook, no YouTube, no Instagram, no social media.”

One must understand that before Facebook, people just expected social media sites to enjoy a few months or even years in the sun before making way for the next big thing. That’s the way it was with Myspace, Friendster, SixDegrees, Classmates and all the rest. Then along came Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, beginning the era of the “too big to fail” social media platform. Recent years have finally shown cracks in the armor of these old-school giants, with Twitter’s stark drop from relevance and generational shifts from Facebook to platforms like TikTok. In other words, massive sea changes of the kind that sank Myspace are no longer unthinkable.

There’s no release date for the Myspace documentary, nor has there been an announcement if it would run in theaters or just on a streaming platform. We'll have to play the waiting game for a while longer.  

As gaming laptops and dedicated portable consoles like the Steam Deck eat up all of the press, it’s easy to forget the humble tower desktop. Alienware sure hasn’t, as it just announced the latest refresh to its popular Aurora line of mid-tower gaming desktops. The Aurora R16 is a legit monster that the company says can overclock to an incredible 6.1GHz to handle even the most advanced modern gaming applications.

As a matter of fact, Alienware says this is the company’s first system to reach beyond 6Ghz. This is due to the inclusion of an Intel Core 14th Gen processor, a two UDIMM memory architecture and a custom motherboard based on the Intel Z690 chipset. You can overclock via a BIOS switch to fly past that 6GHz benchmark.

Gaming PCs are also largely defined by the GPU, and the R16 ships with the scarily-powerful Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 graphics card with 24GB of GDDR6X memory, though that’s the top-of-the-line model. You have plenty of GPU options here, all the way down to the GeForce RTX 3050 with 8GB of GDDR6 memory. You can also choose up to 64GB of DDR5 XMP memory and up to 4TB of SSD storage.

Aurora desktops have been a mainstay with PC gamers since 2009, but this latest release represents a near-total redesign. The R16’s inspired by the industrial form factor of the company’s Legend 3 gaming laptop. You get a nifty cube design that’s 40 percent smaller than last year’s R15, while still emphasizing accessibility and user upgrades. The chassis ships with either a solid door or a clear side panel so you can marvel at all of those sweet techy innards. The new cube shape also makes it easier to find the perfect spot on or under your desk.

Alienware

With all of that new power comes new thermal regulation requirements. The R16 boasts larger air-intakes and exhausts than the R15, with hexagonal side vents and a new vertical stadium to provide a larger surface area for airflow. The top face also features a larger surface area for the purposes of exhaust. All told, the company says these upgrades contribute to a seven percent reduction in overall temperature when compared to the R15, despite the added power. You also have your choice of air-cooled or liquid-cooled CPUs.

The R16 also integrates with the company’s Alienware Command Center 6.0 software suite, a first for desktops. This software lets you adjust nearly every aspect of the PC, from the AlienFX lighting, thermal regulation, game presets and much more. As for user upgrades, you have two DIMM slots for memory, 2x M.2 PCIe slots for SSD storage and an additional 3.5” HDD slot. All configurations also support Wi-Fi 6E and 2.5 Gbps ethernet.

The Alienware Aurora R16 will be available for purchase tomorrow and starts at $2,200. This is for a bare-bones model, however, so you could potentially pay hundreds more for access to each and every bell and whistle.

The world of ants is a mysterious one, as we’re still learning new stuff about the most populous insect on Earth. Soon we’ll be able to get a more hands-on approach with everyone’s favorite picnic-ruiners, thanks to the forthcoming insect sim Empire of the Ants. The game’s based on the hit sci-fi book series and has you controlling a heroic ant to protect your massive colony.

Publisher Microids and developer Tower Five just dropped a trailer and these are perhaps the most photorealistic ants ever seen in a video game. As a matter of fact, the whole trailer’s teeming with eye candy, which makes sense given the title was built using Epic Games’ powerful Unreal Engine 5. Plus it’s not just one or two ants on screen, as in-game footage shows hundreds of the little buggers doing their thing, complete with a photorealistic forest down to the pebbles and dirt on the floor.

As for gameplay, the devs liken it to a real-time strategy title, with some 3rd-person adventuring peppered throughout. The makers say that “strategy planning, exploration, combat skills, but most of all, setting up local wildlife alliances will be necessary to survive the many challenges awaiting.”

The developers tout scalable difficulty levels to suit players of varying skill, a day-night cycle and gameplay that changes depending on the season. Each season will present players with different attributes, adding some light RPG elements, impacting “speed, resistance, buffs and more,” according to an email sent to Engadget.

There’s no release date yet, other than sometime in 2024, but the game’s coming to both PC and unnamed consoles (likely PS5 and Xbox S/X.) Publisher Microids previously released a smaller-scale adaptation of Empire of the Ants, back in 2000. Developers Tower Five previously worked on the strategy game Lornsword Winter Chronicles and the ill-fated 2020 remake of XIII.

We knew Netflix’s Squid Game reality show was coming sometime in November, and now we have an exact premiere date of November 22. This puts the release just in time for Thanksgiving, so you can celebrate the holiday by watching a reality show adaptation of a dystopian drama that shined a light on the brutal horrors of late-stage capitalism. Heartwarming fun!

Squid Game: The Challenge is a 10-episode series that features over 450 contestants competing in events inspired by the TV show, in addition to some brand-new challenges. There’s no bloodshed, of course, but there is a $4.56 million prize for the winner, which Netflix says is the largest reality show payout of all time.

There are also plenty of other nods to the source material here, including that terrifying “red light, green light” doll and contestant costumes straight from the show. The shot and framing choices also call to mind the dystopian drama.

We don’t yet live in the kind of capitalist hellscape the Korean series depicted, but we’re getting there. To that end, the filming of this reality show made headlines when players faced health emergencies after being exposed to brutally cold temperatures during one of the contests. One producer told The Sun that “even if hypothermia kicked in, people were willing to stay for as long as possible because a lot of money was on the line,” going on to add that “there were people arriving thinking they were going to be millionaires but they left in tears.”

In just over a month, we can all watch actual humans suffer for a potential payout that they only have a 1 in 456 chance of snagging. What a glorious time to be alive. To be fair, other grueling reality shows like Naked and Afraid don’t even offer a cash prize, so that’s something.

The original Squid Game is Netflix’s most popular series of all time, by hours viewed, besting Stranger Things, Wednesday, The Witcher and even the universally beloved Real Rob (sarcasm.) So The Challenge was something of a foregone conclusion, considering the runaway success of the source material. It’s also worth noting that Squid Game season 2 is also coming, but there’s no release date yet.

Netflix used to make its money on physical media, mailing DVDs to customers, and it looks like the company’s trending toward the analog once again. The streaming giant has, strangely, decided to open a number of brick-and-mortar retail locations, called Netflix House, as originally reported by Bloomberg.

The stores will sell merchandise based on hit Netflix shows, so you can finally snag that Lincoln Lawyer coffee mug you’ve always dreamed of. Netflix House establishments will also offer dining and curated live experiences. To the latter point, the two initial locations are going to feature an obstacle course based on Squid Game. This seems to miss the point of the show’s brutal satire of modern capitalism, but that’s been par for the course since it took the world by storm back in 2021.

Netflix House will also boast rotating art installations based on hit shows and live performances to excite fans. Additionally, the in-house restaurant will serve cuisine and drinks originally featured on the streamer’s many unscripted food-based reality shows. The menu will range from fast casual to high-end dining.

The first two locations should open up in the US some time in 2025, though Netflix hasn’t said where, with more global outlets to come at a later date. Why the big global push? Josh Simon, the company’s vice president of consumer products, told Bloomberg that its customers “love to immerse themselves in the world of our movies and TV shows, and we’ve been thinking a lot about how we take that to the next level.” Want to really take things to the next level? Let us play real-world versions of The Circle and Is It Cake?

Of course, this isn’t Netflix’s first stab at brick-and-mortar nirvana. In the past, it’s opened a number of pop-up experiences throughout the world to celebrate shows like Stranger Things and its spate of cooking reality programming. Netflix House, on the other hand, will celebrate the streamer’s entire stable of content, though we doubt there will be any live experiences based on Real Rob, Flaked or The Ranch anytime soon. We wouldn’t mind, though, snagging some sweet Bojack Horseman merch.

The company’s still finalizing details regarding menus, locations and just about everything else. It has more than a year, after all, to set up shop.

The combustion engine is a marvel of engineering, but has also majorly contributed to air pollution. After all, there are over 1.4 billion combustion engine vehicles roaming the planet. That’s a whole lot of carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide and hydrocarbons being released into the atmosphere.

While we wait (and wait) for the eventual rise of electric vehicles, some areas have taken it upon themselves to solve the issue of air pollution related to combustion engines by, well, banning the vehicles entirely. Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, just announced a ban on diesel and petrol-powered vehicles throughout its city center, as reported by Semafor.

The ban goes into effect sometime in 2025, so you still have more than a year to race around Stockholm in your old beat-up Dodge. The new policy will, however, continue to allow hybrid vans in the city center, in addition to combustion-based ambulances and police cars. Additionally, if you have a documented disability you’ll be able to drive whatever you want, wherever you want, as indicated by The Guardian.

The ban doesn’t impact the entire capital city. This is just for what’s called the city center, an area comprising 20 blocks at the heart of the city. Stockholm’s vice mayor for transport, Lars Stromgren, announced the move and said current conditions represented a “completely unacceptable situation,” noting that the city’s air “causes babies to have lung conditions and the elderly to die prematurely.”

Electric vehicles will, of course, be allowed to drive in the city center with no restrictions. Stockholm’s new policy joins other low-emission zones (LEZs) in cities throughout Europe, including London, Madrid, Berlin and Paris, among others. Stockholm goes further than any of the other European cities with this near complete ban. London, for instance, charges combustion vehicles to drive through its low-emission zone while Paris, Athens and Madrid just banned diesel vehicles.

Detractors are calling Stockholm’s policy too extreme. The Swedish Confederation of Transport Enterprises said that the city’s ruling political party is in “far too much of a hurry” to further reduce combustion-based emissions.

LEZs have a good track record when it comes to reducing health issues related to air pollution. A recent study by The Lancet found that five out of eight LEZs studied showed a reduction in heart and circulatory issues, with fewer hospital admissions for heart attacks and strokes. London, for instance, experienced a 19 percent drop in harmful particulate matter found in dirty air throughout its ultra low-emission zone since rolling out the program in 2019. With that in mind, Europe is about to go all-in on the concept, with more than 500 new LEZs coming by 2025.

Twitch has finally begun rolling out a previously announced feature that lets creators block banned users from watching their streams. Before this tool, banned users couldn’t participate in chats, but they could watch every second of your stream with their creepy little eyes. Now, they can’t. Well... mostly.

There’s a big-time caveat. While banned users can’t watch your streams, logged-out users can. So the workaround would be simply to log out and cruise to your page. Still, they’d have no way to make their presence known so it would become something of an “out of sight, out of mind” type thing.

This feature must be enabled via moderation settings in the Creator Dashboard, according to Twitch. Once you turn it on and drop the ban hammer on some pest, they’ll immediately lose the ability to watch your stream. You can un-ban them to renew access, or they can log out and watch you anonymously.

It’s also worth noting that Twitch is just banning users and not IP addresses, so another possible workaround would be for someone to sign-up with a new username via a new email address. That’s a fair bit of work, however, just to watch someone fool around with Baldur’s Gate 3. Still, it’s the internet so you never know.

The tool begins rolling out today, but Twitch says it could be a while before it reaches every account, noting that “these updates roll out over time, so some people get it a bit sooner than others.” Check your Twitch app and look for the update.

This is just the latest step in Twitch’s war against harassers. Other moves to address the issue have included the inclusion of a one-button anti-harassment tool, enhancing its reporting and appeals process, rewriting community policies and taking a strong stance against explicit deepfakes.

Star Trek: Prodigy has found a new streaming home with Netflix, after being both canceled by Paramount+ and completely deleted from the platform back in June. Not only will Netflix air the previously-released 20-episode first season later this year, but it’s also putting the final touches on the second season, which will stream sometime next year.

The initial cancellation came as a surprise, as Paramount had already greenlit a second season and those episodes were just about finished. Then it did that recent streamer thing where it went through and deleted all of the old episodes, kicking them to the dustbin of history. That may be possible for a lesser-known IP, like the criminally underrated Infinity Train, but this is Star Trek. Trekkers have been conducting successful campaigns to bring back shows ever since the original series was canned back in 1969. These are the same fans, after all, that helped Star Trek: The Animated Series and Star Trek: The Motion Picture get off the ground.

So they went to work, amplifying fan engagement across various social media sites. Prodigy’s creators have long held out hope for a new platform, and it looks like this optimism has finally paid off.

Star Trek: Prodigy follows a ragtag group of alien adolescents after finding the titular spaceship. It’s actually very good and acts as the perfect entry point for parents who want to introduce their kids to the ideals of Star Trek. It’s also a pseudo-sequel to Star Trek: Voyager, with Kate Mulgrew reprising her role as Captain Janeway and Robert Beltran appearing as Chakotay, among other guest stars. Season two looks like it’ll integrate further with Voyager, if leaks are anything to go by.

It’s odd that the show will now be on Netflix, given that one of Paramount’s slogans is “The Home of Star Trek.” This has been a busy week for streamers selling shelved projects to other platforms. Disney+ inked a deal with Roku, giving the platform rights to air an adaptation of the acclaimed book series The Spiderwick Chronicles. As for Star Trek animation, Paramount+ is still home to the stellar Star Trek: Lower Decks which is currently airing its fourth season.

Apple’s flagship high-end smartwatch, the just-released Apple Watch Ultra 2, is on sale as part of Amazon’s Prime Day shopapalooza thingamajig. You can snag the durable and functional timepiece for $750 instead of the typical price of $800, a savings of $50. While this deal won’t set the world on fire, the watch is only a couple of weeks old, so any savings at this point is worth noting.

The deal nets you an Apple Watch Ultra 2, complete with GPS and cellular connection options. You get the typical rugged titanium case and can choose from eight colored band options and six band-size options to suit different wrist shapes. Certain colors may not be available in every size, however, so read the fine print.

The Apple Watch Ultra 2 is the company’s most premium wearable, with specs to boot. The form factor matches the OG Ultra smartwatch, but the display is now extra bright, at 3,000 nits vs 2,000 nits from last year’s release. This makes the screen easier to read in varied light conditions. There’s an ambient light sensor on board that automatically adjusts the brightness to suit your environment.

The Ultra 2 also features the company’s new S9 chip, which powers upgraded Siri functionality and the same double-tap feature found with the Series 9. This allows users to double tap the area in front of the watch to answer calls, snooze alarms and perform a variety of other tasks, all by pinching the thumb and forefinger together.

The watch has fantastic battery life, which comes in handy when you’re trekking through the wilderness, with up to 36 hours per charge. However, there’s also a low-power mode that brings this number up to 72 hours per charge. The depth-tracker has been upgraded to further assist divers, with the ability to save past dives and track depth history straight from the watch, with more details available in the iPhone app.

The Ultra 2 boasts new widgets, an upgraded compass app, new workout-tracking features and much more. Apple also noted that it was manufactured using 95 percent recycled materials as part of a broader push to lessen the environmental impact of its product line. Amazon’s sale will only last for the next day or so, so if you have money to burn and a naked wrist, have at it. This isn't the only Apple smartwatch deal to be found as part of Prime Day, so peruse the other deals before settling on a final purchase choice. 

Your October Prime Day Shopping Guide: See all of our Prime Day coverage. Shop the best Prime Day deals on Yahoo Life. Follow Engadget for Prime Day tech deals. Learn about Prime Day trends on In The Know. Hear from Autoblog’s experts on the best Fall Prime Day deals for your car, garage, and home, and find Prime Day sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.