- Microsoft provides new AI features to notebooks, paint and snipping tool
- Many of them are for Copilot + PCS only, however, because they require an NPU
- The notepad obtains a new capacity for creating text fueled by AI which arrives at all Windows 11 PCs, but it needs a Microsoft 365 subscription
The Windows 11 notepad application enlarged its AI powers to include the possibility of generating written content from zero, and Microsoft offers new features related to AI to two other applications of the operating system, although all of this remains in tests for the moment.
Let’s start with the notebook which, with the version of version 11.2504.46.0 (in preview, for Windows 11 testers) adds a new “writing” option. Just click on the right button when you want text to be inserted – or anywhere in an empty document if you start with a blank slate – and say to the notes of the nature of the content you want to create, and he will write something for you.
Windows last played a game with the functionality of the tests and observes that AI tends to keep its text generated on the concise side.
If you are not satisfied with the results and the content created by AI could be better, you can always choose to use the option to “rewrite” in the notepad, which allows instructions to lengthen (or shorten) the text, or modify the tone (and more and more).
Taking with the new writing fueled by the notebook is that it uses what Microsoft calls AI credits.
If you are not a Microsoft 365 or Copilot Pro subscriber, you do not get these credits and you will not be able to use this functionality. Those who have a Microsoft 365 personal plan obtain 60 AI credits per month, to be used on all Microsoft applications, you are therefore limited insofar as you can exercise this new power.
Far from the notepad, Microsoft has also added new features to the paint application and the snipping tool, and yes, as indicated at the beginning, all this is AI stuff. Also keep in mind that, as Microsoft explains in a blog article, the following capacities are also for Copilot + PCS only (except where I noted otherwise).
The fresh addition of snipping tool is something called “perfect screenshot” which allows you to select an area of the screen you want to enter, but you only have to highlight it. The AI will then refine the window you have drawn to capture, let’s say, an image on the screen. Essentially, this makes the heaviness in terms of cropping an object exactly, which means that you only have to describe it vaguely, and the AI does the rest – quite clever.
Another movement with the snipping tool (upcoming to all Windows 11 users in this case) is a color selector capacity. It is for designers who want to know precisely what is a color given to the screen (so that they can make it match elsewhere, and it is possible to use hexadecimal, RGB or HSL color codes).
As for painting, Microsoft offers a new “welcome experience” (introductory panel explaining its latest features) which also comes to everyone, and there are some new AI tips here (for Copilot + PCS only).
First of all, the painting obtains a tool for selecting objects that use AI for, well, selecting objects on the web. These are (in a way) the equivalent of the selection capacity of the cropping of the Snipping tool, which means that you can simply point an element of the image and the AI will select the object precisely, allowing you to then apply changes.
Second, there is a new generator of stickers that again does what he says about the (painting) of the tin. You tell the AI that you want a turtle sticker in a leather jacket playing a “Flying V” guitar and that it will produce a selection of such stickers that you can choose.
Analysis: creative sparks and time saving touches
These are typical uses of AI, of course, encompassing content creation – from paragraphs in the notepad with paint stickers – to small touches in the form of an easy selection of objects in the paint, or the rapid reframing of an element in a good diaphot with response tool.
All this should make your life easier easier, but there are reasons to have a little growl here. You will need a Copilot + PC in many cases – and okay, it is because it has the local equipment (an NPU) required to accelerate the task so that it works fairly quickly – but the subscription requirement for the notepad is less reasonable.
More broadly, some people will be upset by changes in the notepad. Mainly because the notepad is supposed to be a minimalist and rationalized application to shoot the fast and other notes for news, and it slowly becomes a mini version of Word. (Or even a new WordPad, which was previously the middle between the two applications, until Microsoft kills it).
In addition, if you thought that the notepad already had capacities for creating text ai, well, no, this is not the case. Although the application has already witnessed the introduction of a rewriting installation, the creation of paragraphs from zero is a new thing (for this application, anyway).
But the all-terrain really needs it? At first glance, the move cannot hurt – if you don’t want it, do not use it. But the argument against writing slowly in more and more features for the notepad is that this bloating will slow it down, making it less reactive (and even slower to load, perhaps).
All of this gets a lot in the wrong direction for those who want a small fast fire jotting pad from an application, which, to be fair, has always been the original intention with the notepad. Not so much these days, that’s for sure.
