Microsoft is turning Windows into a “proxy operating system” starting with the taskbar

Microsoft is trying to turn Windows into an “AI canvas,” by integrating new AI agents into the Windows 11 taskbar. These new taskbar capabilities are designed to make AI agents feel like a Windows assistant that can control your PC and do tasks for you with the click of a button. It is part of a comprehensive overhaul of Windows to turn the operating system into a “proxy operating system.”

“It’s all about our desire to make sure that every user can get the superpowers of AI,” Navjot Virk, the company’s vice president of Windows experiences, says in an interview. Edge.

Microsoft is integrating a variety of AI agents directly into the Windows 11 taskbar, including its own Microsoft 365 Copilot and third-party options. “This integration isn’t just about adding agents, it’s also about making them part of the operating system experience,” says Pavan Davuluri, head of Windows.

Agents will be able to do things like search for data in the background while you work on something else, or access files and folders on your computer to automate a tedious, time-consuming administrative task you have to do at work. Once you ask the AI ​​agent to do some tasks for you, the agent will move to your taskbar and work in the background. “You can hover over the taskbar icon at any time to see what the agent is doing,” Virk explains.

AI agent integration is part of what’s new Ask the co-pilot feature in the taskbarwhich combines the search for existing local files with the capabilities of Copilot. “Not only do you get super-fast search for files and settings, but you can now start a conversation with Microsoft 365 Copilot as well as launch AI agents right from the taskbar,” Virk explains.

Microsoft has added new taskbar capabilities to these agents so you can quickly glance at them to see the status of whatever they’re working on in the background. You’ll also see a floating window for interacting with agents or Microsoft 365 Copilot, instead of the full app.

If an agent needs attention or completes a task, it will notify you and update its status on the taskbar. There are badges on the AI ​​agent’s taskbar icons that visually show you that the agent is progressing on a task: a yellow exclamation mark when it needs help, or a green check mark when it completes something.

If you don’t want AI agents on your taskbar, you don’t need to enable this feature. “These experiences are designed to be opt-in, and we want customers to have complete control over when and how they interact with Copilot and these agents,” Virk says.

Developers will eventually think of a lot of use cases for these agents, and Microsoft is doing a lot of work at the platform level to make them possible. AI agent capabilities are built into core parts of the Windows operating system Thanks to the Model Context Protocol (MCP). “Basically what they do is provide us with a unified framework that allows these agents to discover tools and discover other agents through a secure, managed registry on the device,” Davuluri says. “It also gives us, the Windows team, the ability to provide tools in an agent framework for those agents to go and consume.”

The AI ​​agents will also have their own workspace, separate from your Windows 11 desktop. “It’s an auditable, policy-governed enforcement environment,” says Davuluri. “It gives us a place where agents can work with software in a similar way as people do.” The agent workspace is like a sandbox for AI agents, with each agent running using their own Windows account. That’s it In the name of securityPerhaps because the AI ​​models are not always accurate, you will need to separate this activity from the main Windows session.

Although taskbar agents represent a big new AI addition to Windows 11, they’re not the only way Microsoft is reimagining the operating system into what it calls an “agent OS.” Microsoft is also bringing Copilot to File Explorer as part of this work. “What we want to do is make it more convenient to get deeper, contextual help from Copilot in the Windows surfaces you already use a lot, like File Explorer,” Virk says.

Copilot’s integration into File Explorer allows Windows 11 users to summarize a document with one click, answer questions about files, or draft emails based on document content.

The Click to Do feature is also enhanced on Copilot Plus computers, allowing you to convert any table you see on the web or elsewhere on your computer into an Excel document. You can then freely manipulate the data and add new columns. While Click To Do uses local AI models on your Copilot Plus computer, once you have this data in Excel, you can modify it using cloud-backed AI models through Copilot and Agent Mode.

This hybrid mix of on-premises AI (Copilot Plus PC) and cloud-powered AI (Copilot) appears to be where Microsoft is headed with its Windows AI features. A new typing assistance feature is Access to Preview that lets you retype and compose in any text box in Windows 11, and it also has offline support on Copilot Plus PCs.

Outlook also gets AI-generated summaries, and Word gets automatic alternative text for images in Office documents. Microsoft is also working on a new Flexible Dictation feature for Windows that converts speech into text with correct grammar and punctuation.

This hybrid of AI is most evident in Microsoft’s Windows 365 service. These cloud PCs—accessible through Windows 11, a web browser, or mobile apps—include Copilot Plus features and also have access to key cloud-powered Copilot features.

If you’re not interested in AI additions to Windows, Microsoft also has some IT-focused additions at its Ignite conference this week. Hardware-accelerated BitLocker will be released next year, and will require the next generation of Windows devices built on unannounced chips. “BitLock hardware acceleration requires the power of the silicon platform,” says Davuluri. “When these capabilities are available, the operating system will be able to open them up to users.”

Sysmon functionality will also be integrated into Windows in early 2026. It will make security events available in the event log and make it easier for security teams to manage Windows systems. Microsoft is also launching a new visual update for Windows Hello Traffic Manager integrationwhich works with Microsoft Password Manager in Edge, 1Password, and Bitwarden.