Based on various new options being rolled up inside new “Release Preview” updates for Windows 11, Microsoft seems to be readying a push for AI-powered enhancements within the coming weeks.
Although Microsoft sometimes reserves main function releases for the autumn, April 2025 is a key month for the software program large as a result of it marks the 50th anniversary of the company’s founding. With two preview releases of Windows 11, Microsoft has tipped off what options your PC shall be receiving quickly—almost certainly in April.
Both Windows 11 Build 26100.3613 and Windows 11 Build 26100.3624 are a part of the Release Preview Channel for Windows 11 Insiders, which means you possibly can strive them out early your self by joining the Windows Insider program. If you do, notice that Microsoft isn’t releasing all of those options in a single fell swoop. Some of them shall be launched “normally” whereas others are rolled out in a “gradual” cadence.
Optional non-security function releases sometimes launch on the fourth week of each month, often on a Tuesday. (In this case, that’d be April 22, 2025.) Those options then sometimes roll out to everybody else about two weeks later. Nothing ensures this timeline, in fact. It’s our greatest guess primarily based on previous releases and once they’ve occurred.
Remember, although, Microsoft’s emphasis is on the “new”—and the sexiest new Windows options use AI. That means you’ll need a Copilot+ PC, and Copilot+ PCs mean NPUs. (But NPUs are solely out there on a subset of PCs, and even then sure options are solely out there for sure NPUs.) Basically, if you’d like the whole lot that Microsoft has to supply, you should purchase a laptop computer with a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite chip in it, just like the Microsoft Surface Pro 11th Edition.
New AI options coming to Windows 11
Right now, it seems that semantic search shall be Windows’ flagship AI function for the close to future. Semantic search, which was first shown off back in January, permits you to forego the precise phrase or title you’re trying to find and describe it as a substitute. For instance, you possibly can seek for “photo of children at school” with out figuring out the precise file title.
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Semantic search can also assist offset Copilot’s incapacity to watch and management your PC, one thing that was initially deliberate however fell by the wayside. In its place, you’ll be capable of describe what you need Windows to do contained in the Settings menu.
Put one other manner, semantic search shall be part of Windows Search in addition to Settings. Unfortunately, semantic search will solely be out there for Windows on Snapdragon PCs; customers with AMD- or Intel-powered Copilot+ PCs should wait. But since it is going to run domestically in your PC, you gained’t should be linked to the web for it to work.
Microsoft can be kinda-sorta bringing semantic search to pictures—however solely in File Explorer, not the Photos app. The Photos app already permits you to search through phrases like “snow” to determine pictures of snowy mountains. Going ahead, File Explorer will now mean you can search utilizing phrases like “summer picnic,” Microsoft says.
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File Explorer, like Photos, will now present pictures saved on OneDrive within the cloud alongside pictures saved domestically in your PC. It’s not fairly clear whether or not Microsoft is utilizing the PC’s NPU to carry out these searches… nevertheless it have to be since this function is reserved for Snapdragon PCs, too. It’s “coming soon” to Copilot+ PCs with AMD and Intel inside.
That mentioned, in case you do personal a Copilot+ PC powered by both AMD or Intel processors, right here’s some excellent news: reside captions and real-time translation are going to be out there.
Live Captions first debuted within the Windows 11 2022 Update, although it used the ability of the CPU again then, not the NPU. Now, as much as 44 totally different languages might be captured and translated into English on AMD and Intel Copilot+ PCs through video calls, recordings, and streamed content material. If you personal a Snapdragon PC, the other is true: now you can translate English (or 25 different languages) into Chinese utilizing real-time translation.
Chris Hoffman / IDG
Your voice will also be used to higher impact in Voice Access, too. One of the problems I’ve had with Voice Access is that it’s unbearably inflexible—you both know the instructions otherwise you don’t. Now, Microsoft is utilizing AI to “loosen up” Voice Access by permitting you to explain what you wish to do as a substitute of utilizing the precise syntax. Chinese assist for Voice Access is being added, too.
If you utilize an app with assist for Windows Studio Effects, it is best to see an icon on the system tray that reveals when Windows Studio Effects is in use. It’s a bit redundant since Microsoft already indicated that the icon would appear in a February Windows update.
Other adjustments coming to Windows
Microsoft can be altering the way it displays your system. You might begin seeing “cards” that showcase your PC’s key specs, such because the CPU, reminiscence, and storage. This is a reorganization of kinds for the reason that Windows Settings app already consolidates these options, however these “top cards” will merely pull this data out and put them on the prime of the Settings > System > About portion of Windows Settings.
Microsoft additionally says that it’ll observe CPU utilization a bit otherwise in Task Manager, although it’s not clear how this may play out. A separate, hidden tab will showcase the outdated manner of measuring it.
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You’ll see new methods of interacting with Windows, too. Laptops place a keyboard proper underneath your fingers, however desktop PCs don’t. You would possibly find yourself in a state of affairs the place your desktop’s keyboard is off to the facet (maybe in case you’ve turned your PC into an arcade or digital pinball cupboard). In that case, you need to use a brand new Xbox gamepad keyboard interface, the place you need to use an Xbox gamepad to kind similar to on the console.
A brand new emoji interface is being added, too. You would possibly know which you can entry the Windows emoji menu through the Windows key + Semicolon shortcut, however apparently nobody else does provided that Microsoft is including a brand new system tray icon to the taskbar to spotlight the emoji panel.
Chris Hoffman / IDG
Microsoft can be working with builders so as to add improved widgets, one thing that’s been promised for some time now. But one change it is best to see on this launch, given what Microsoft has introduced, is bigger management over which widgets you see in your lock display. How will that work? We’ll know quickly sufficient.
We’d prefer to assume that options equivalent to Windows’ new battery icons shall be launched quickly—however these are nonetheless caught within the Dev Channel, in order that they in all probability nonetheless have a methods to go. We additionally haven’t heard a lot about Windows Recall currently both, which has already been launched for testing. Remember, there’s at all times extra to come back.