Improved Windows Search arrives... but only for Copilot+ PCs

Windows Search is improved in the latest Dev Channel Windows Insider build, but you'll need a Snapdragon-powered Copilot+ PC to use it.

The tweaks arrived in build 26120.2992, and Microsoft said the changes are "coming soon" for AMD and Intel-based Copilot+ PCs.

Windows Search has been the punchline to many a Windows joke over the years. The service is intended to provide an easy way of finding content on a local machine, and has previously been mocked for being slow and unreliable. It was blamed for various failures, from causing high CPU usage and toppling over when bits of infrastructure had issues, to tripping up other applications, such as Outlook.

Microsoft is making improvements in the latest Dev Channel release – although only for Copilot+ PCs – and is "introducing semantic indexing along with traditional indexing." This means typing some natural phrases into the Windows search box on the taskbar or searching in File Explorer, which will produce a list of documents that include items close to or related to the search terms.

For example, if a user were to search for "pasta," images of lasagna might turn up in the results if they are on the user's local device.

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The word "local" is important – the semantic indexing only works with what is stored locally on the user's PC. It is also only in specific locations and for particular file types, which the user controls. Microsoft was at pains to point out that no data gathered during the indexing is sent to the company or used to train AI models.

Microsoft said: "In a future flight, we will support searching for documents and photos stored in cloud storage providers such as OneDrive." For now, however, the experience will be local, requiring a Copilot+ PC, although not a connection to the internet.

Users on non-Copilot+ PCs are unlikely to see the improvements, which Microsoft attributed to "the power of the 40+ TOPS NPU onboard Copilot+ PCs."

However, Windows Insiders without Copilot+ PCs will receive a swathe of fixes, including several File Explorer tweaks and an update to Task Manager to deal with a scenario where the application misidentifies an HDD as an SSD. ®