Everything announced at Microsoft's Windows and Surface event

The company is highlighting agentic AI features for Windows.

Simon Ray/Unsplash

Microsoft held a Windows and Surface event today, which gave us a look at what's ahead for the operating system and lineup of devices. Along with CEO Satya Nadella, the company's head of Windows and Devices, Pavan Davuluri, spoke at the San Francisco event. NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang was in attendance too.

Ahead of the event, Microsoft said it would focus on "how local AI will shape the next chapter of the PC," so perhaps (like me) you're already wondering how to disable whatever agentic AI features the company is planning to shove into Windows. Maybe this time it'll work for Microsoft after the whole Copilot+ PC deal didn't turn out to be a raging success and the company started pulling Copilot features out of Windows 11.

During the event, much of which was surprisingly developer-focused, Microsoft hammered home that it's working to make Windows the most secure platform for AI agents. The company also talked up a hybrid approach to AI that runs both locally and in the cloud. 

We'll be updating this story as swiftly as we can to give you a rundown of the key news (at least on the consumer side) in one place, along with links to read more of our coverage from the event. With that said, let's jump into everything Microsoft announced for regular folks at its Windows and Surface event.

Copilot and AI features in Windows

Microsoft doesn't want to be left behind when it comes to agentic personal computing, especially in the wake of Meta's Muse AI agent quickly finding a large audience and tools like Perplexity's Personal Computer seeping into the world. The company has been making some moves in this area. It announced an agentic AI platform called Project Solara earlier this year and it recently updated the Copilot app to include more automation. Now, though, Microsoft is ready to make a bigger push into agentic AI.

For instance, with your permission, Copilot will able to carry out actions based on your local files. It'll be able to run AI models locally while tapping into the cloud for extra compute power. There's also the ability to generate apps and widgets (Google is offering something similar in Googlebooks). 

Starting this fall, you'll be able to take thousands of quick actions directly in Windows search from the taskbar, a bit like Mac users can in Spotlight. These include switching on dark mode, taking a screenshot, adjusting the volume, getting answers to questions, sending text messages and, of course, access the new Copilot app.