(Credit: PCMag Composite; Microsoft; da-kuk/E+ via Getty Images)
Copilot on Windows is a marvelous tool, but it has lost a lot of its original abilities to interact with your PC. For instance, you can no longer use it to directly change settings. Microsoft is unsurprisingly focusing on Copilot's AI aspects these days (such as those related to generating images and text), but I’m glad to report that one PC-aware capability is now available: searching for files on your PC’s hard drive.
Using this feature is dead simple, and you don’t even need a fancy new Copilot+ PC to try it. It works on any PC with Windows 11 and, just like Copilot Vision, runs on Windows 10 machines, too. Copilot+ PCs, as you might recall, support the semantic search functionality in File Explorer, Settings, and Windows Search. It uses on-device AI to analyze the contents of files, whereas the file search feature I discuss here relies more on text-based analysis. That's not all it does, though; you also can use Copilot to get info and insights about your files
Here’s how to set up Copilot file searches, how they work, and some pointers for getting the most out of them. Compared with traditional methods, this functionality makes the search process so much more pleasant and conducive to productivity.
How to Get Started With Copilot File Searches
As you’ve probably surmised, you need the Copilot app for this search feature. If you don’t have it, you can get it from the Microsoft Store. You night also need to update Copilot to the latest version (anything newer than version 1.25034.133.0 should work). You can find the version of your Copilot app by opening the left sidebar, clicking on the account circle, and choosing About. The file search feature currently only works in the US and in English. You need to be running Windows 10 22H2 or Windows 11 22H2 or later.
1. Open the Copilot App
There are several ways to do this: Click the Copilot icon in your Windows taskbar, hit Alt-space bar, or press Windows Key-C. If you have a newer PC, just tap the Copilot key on your keyboard. Note that keyboard shortcut options open a narrow, always-on-top window of Copilot, but clicking the icon or pressing the Copilot key on a Copilot+ PC opens the standard resizable app window.
2. Ask Copilot to Find a File
You can do this in natural language. For example, I asked Copilot to “find my document about ChromeOS.” You can, unfortunately, only do this by typing—it doesn’t work with voice mode.
(Credit: Microsoft/PCMag)3. Give Copilot Permission to Access Your PC Files
This is the part where things start looking a little different from a standard Copilot interaction: You get three buttons to choose from: Always Allow, Allow Once, and Not Now. Choose the one you’re most comfortable with, remembering that Copilot will be able to see files on your hard drive. I chose Allow Once to test the feature. You can enable File search all the time in Copilot’s settings if you like this way of searching.
(Credit: Microsoft/PCMag)The File Read option here is another Copilot feature. It lets you ask Copilot about a file on your computer without needing to explicitly upload it. The option is in the same section because it’s another feature that requires access to files on your PC.
4. View the List of Files
The search process was surprisingly quick on my computer, and Copilot displays results in an attractive list. Here's what I got for the request "Find a picture of a warbler on my PC." In the next sections, I go over the available options for the list items.
(Credit: Microsoft/PCMag)5. Open a File
You can click on any of the files to open them in their default application on your PC. Files you offloaded to OneDrive via the Files on Demand feature show a cloud icon, but I didn’t have any trouble opening those. You might get the warning message box below when you open a file from Copilot.
(Credit: Microsoft/PCMag)You can ignore this if you’re opening your own files on your computer and things you download from the internet from trusted or verified sources.
6. View All Files in File Explorer
If you choose the View All Files option, Copilot opens a File Explorer search window with said files.
(Credit: Microsoft/PCMag)7. Add Files to Your Copilot Conversation
Alternatively, the Add to Conversation option uploads a file to your chat with Copilot. This makes it available for discussion, elucidation, information, summarization, or even translation.
(Credit: Microsoft/PCMag)When I tried to upload an old PDF about Photoshop CS6, Copilot automatically summarized the presentation's highlights.
(Credit: Microsoft/PCMag)Copilot can also translate documents to over 100 languages, including less widely spoken ones, such as Basque and Icelandic. Below is Copilot's Basque version of the doc I uploaded:
(Credit: Microsoft/PCMag)I cross-checked this in Google Translate, and it is indeed Basque, in case you couldn't tell.
Bonus: Ask Copilot About a Specific File
In a separate feature (as noted above), Copilot can not only scan your hard drive for files you search for, but also read them. The result is very similar to the Add to Conversation choice I mention in the previous section. You use this feature by asking Copilot about a particular filename on your PC. You see a similar permission step as you do with File Search, except that in this case, it asks if it's OK to read a file rather than search for it on your PC.
(Credit: Microsoft/PCMag)Here’s the result of the request:
(Credit: Microsoft/PCMag)As with the Add to Conversation choice above, you can have Copilot explain, summarize, or translate a file into over 100 languages.
What's It Like to Use Copilot for File Searches?
For now, file searches in Copilot base results only on text in the filename and the file type. That said, it knows whether to look for a document, an image, or a spreadsheet, as well as what file extensions are appropriate to those file types. When I asked it to find “presentation files,” for example, Copilot looked for files with the PPT and PDF extensions. But Copilot doesn’t search text inside a document and doesn’t know whether a photo contains the likeness of a bullfrog or a daffodil. That type of semantic search that lets you find files based on their contents is available on Copilot+ PCs, as mentioned.
Copilot can find files only in the standard user folders: Desktop, Documents, Music, and Pictures. To extend the search’s reach to the entire hard drive, you can go to the Windows Settings app and find the Searching Windows option in the Privacy & Security section. Here, you can switch from the limited folder search to a full drive search by pressing the Enhanced option. This may take a while to take effect, since the system has to index your entire hard drive. You can exclude folders from the index by clicking the Customize search locations option.
(Credit: Microsoft/PCMag)In my testing, sometimes Copilot couldn't find a file that it should have. I ran into this issue when trying to search files in my Download folder, even though I checked to make sure that it was included in the Windows Search index. But Copilot offers some help in these cases, as the below response shows:
(Credit: Microsoft/PCMag)Why Should You Search for Files With Copilot?
I’m glad that Microsoft is adding back PC-aware capabilities to Copilot. When I first started using the file searching feature, I was impressed by its conversational interface and quickness. But after more testing, I concluded that its reliance on the text in filenames is limiting. Occasionally, it didn’t find files that I knew existed because of folder restrictions, too.
So, why shouldn’t you just search for files from the Start menu or via Windows Search? For one, searches with Copilot appear in a visually more appealing list. The AI can also help you learn what file types and extensions apply to your query. Finally, the ability to upload files for summarization and translation is also a big advantage.
One of the main reasons I can think of for using this over standard Windows Search, however, is not yet available: the ability to search with your voice. I expect that at some point, especially given that beta versions of Windows now include a Copilot wake word.