Copilot coming to Windows 10 to help navigate the OS's twilight years

Microsoft has listened, but only to people who like its AI assistant

Despite Windows 10 users clamoring for Microsoft to change course on its avowed termination date for the operating system's support, the IT giant has instead chosen to spread AI far and wide with Copilot – whether you wanted it or not.

Copilot is on the way to Windows 10 22H2 Home and Pro users, less than two years before Microsoft is due to pull the plug on support. Windows 10 Release Preview Insiders will be the first to feel the cold, dead hand of Microsoft's latest attempt at an assistant. Still, they will need to switch on the "Get the latest updates as soon as they're available" setting in Windows Update and await their turn for the – still in preview – Copilot experience.

One can but hope the assistant will ditch the preview moniker before Windows 10 breathes its last.

It is unclear if Microsoft intends to further squeeze further value from its Windows 10 user base with more AI-infused functionality culled from its Windows 11 sibling. The company is still set on killing off Windows 10 in 2025.

In its post, the company said: "The Windows 10 end of support date of October 14, 2025, is unchanged."

But here's Copilot in the meantime.

Even the most ardent Microsoft apologist would struggle to describe Windows 11 as a roaring success compared to its predecessor. Recent reports put the active device usage of the operating system as finally cresting the 400 million mark, not too shabby until one considers how much farther along Windows 10 was at the same point in its lifecycle.

There are many reasons behind this, not least the insistence on minimum hardware requirements that render perfectly acceptable computers obsolete with little discernible benefit to users.

Unless it has a change of heart – and you just know the company will extend a lifeline to its enterprise customers, Windows 7 style.

However, while the clock ticks and the landfills await, some Windows 10 users will at least get a chance to prod Microsoft's new AI-powered assistant. Before closing it down because they've had years to learn how their operating system works. Even if they don't have too many years left to use it. ®