A significant feature is making its return to the Windows Copilot app. You can give direct links to the operating system’s Settings. The new capability, officially called “Direct Settings Access,” is beginning to roll out to users in all Windows Insider Channels.
Now, if you ask Copilot a question related to your PC’s settings, it won’t just tell you the answer. It will give you a direct link to the relevant Windows Settings page. This helps make Copilot more of an assistant for you on your Windows computer. This is also a massive improvement because the one thing that has always been a little clunky with Copilot is that its integration with basic Windows features sometimes felt lacking.
You’d previously been able to tell Copilot to open an app, which was great, but finding a specific setting was often still a manual chore. Microsoft gave a couple of really practical examples of how this works. You could ask Copilot to “Make my screen easier to read” or “Help me focus by reducing distractions,” and the AI assistant will immediately guide you to the specific Windows settings page.
Another example shows that if you ask a question like why your screen is too dim, Copilot will give you a link to where you can adjust the brightness. The AI even gives some streamlined advice about checking things like battery saver or night light settings. This is more like Cortana used to be, but I only had trouble with it, so hopefully Copilot is much more helpful.
I generally don’t like how intrusive Copilot is, but I don’t like the Windows Settings interface even more. It’s difficult to navigate, and I tend to use Google to find out what to search, so making Copilot more of an assistant to navigate the settings is actually pretty welcome.
Some may remember that the ability to control or link to Windows Settings was actually a core feature in an earlier version of Copilot on Windows 11. It was removed at some point, likely because of issues with how it ran. This makes the current announcement feel less like a brand new feature and more like a welcome return of genuinely useful functionality that got lost in the shuffle.
You can still use Copilot for everything else that it’s generally used for, but if you want to use this particular feature, you need to be an insider or wait for an official release. This new functionality is coming through the Copilot app update (version 1.25095.161) that’s being pushed out through the Microsoft Store across all Insider Channels.
If you’re not in the Insider Program, you might have to wait a little while longer. This may appear for general users by the end of 2025, but that’s really just a guess.
Source: Windows Blog