Windows Is Taking Back Copilot

Microsoft spent the past two years putting Copilot everywhere inside Windows 11. Now, it is quietly taking some of it back.

The company has begun removing Copilot buttons from built-in Windows 11 apps including Notepad, Snipping Tool, Photos, and Widgets, according to Engadget.

The AI features themselves are not going away. The branding is.

In the latest Notepad update for Windows Insiders, the Copilot button has been replaced with a pen icon labeled "writing tools."

The underlying AI writing functionality remains identical, just under a different name.

The Snipping Tool has seen a more significant change.

The Copilot button no longer appears when users select an area to capture. Unlike Notepad, there was previously no option to manually disable it.

Windows Latest reported this change is rolling out to all users, not just those in the Insider preview program.

Microsoft also removed mentions of AI from the Settings menu and moved the option to disable AI writing tools into the "Advanced features" section.

The changes follow a blog post published last 20 March by Pavan Davuluri, President of Windows and Devices, titled "Our commitment to Windows quality." Davuluri framed the move as a deliberate shift in how Microsoft thinks about AI inside its operating system.

"You will see us be more intentional about how and where Copilot integrates across Windows, focusing on experiences that are genuinely useful and well-crafted," he wrote. "As part of this, we are reducing unnecessary Copilot entry points, starting with apps like Snipping Tool, Photos, Widgets and Notepad," according to NotebookCheck.

The criticism of Copilot inside Windows 11 has been building for some time. Microsoft spent much of 2024 and 2025 embedding AI into inbox apps, shell surfaces, and productivity tools, framing Windows 11 as the front door to the AI era, according to Windows Forum.

Users pushed back hard. The most common complaints centered on increased CPU usage, reduced battery life on laptops, and slower overall system responsiveness. Many felt AI was being forced into corners of the operating system where it added friction rather than value, Windows News reported.

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France Plans To Move Away From Reliance On Windows

France is stepping up efforts to reduce its dependence on U.S. technology, signaling a broader shift in how governments view digital control.

The country now plans to move some of its government systems away from Microsoft Windows and toward Linux, an open-source operating system.

Officials see the move as part of a larger push to secure national infrastructure and limit exposure to foreign tech providers.

The change will begin within France’s digital agency, DINUM. Authorities have not shared a full timeline.

They also have not confirmed which Linux distribution they will use. Microsoft has not commented on the decision.

French officials frame the move as a strategic necessity.

Minister David Amiel said the goal is to "regain control of our digital destiny." He added that France cannot accept losing control over its data systems.

The decision reflects wider concerns across Europe. Leaders worry about dependence on foreign technology providers.

Many now see digital infrastructure as a national security issue.

France’s approach aligns with broader European Union thinking.

In January, the European Parliament adopted a report. It directs the European Commission to identify areas to reduce reliance on foreign providers.

Recent geopolitical tensions have accelerated this push. U.S. sanctions have shown how access to services can be restricted.

Some sanctioned individuals lost access to banking and U.S. tech platforms.

That risk has sharpened calls for sovereign systems. Governments want tools they fully control. Open-source software offers that flexibility and transparency.

Linux plays a central role in this strategy. It is free, open source, and customizable. Governments can modify it for specific operational needs.

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Demand For Surveillance Cameras Are Increasing In The U.S.

If you have taken a walk through a large parking lot, such as that of a car dealership or a shopping mall, you may have passed by a towering metallic mast with a small wheeled cart beneath it. These devices are known as "cameras on wheels," or "COWs," and if you're feeling intimidated by them, that's not an accident.

Rather than the secret cameras placed above roads, COWs are there to be seen. These rapidly expanding surveillance devices are becoming a common fixture throughout the United States, and they're equipped with the latest in both video and audio monitoring and deterrent technologies.

COWs are manufactured by a variety of different security and surveillance technology companies, including the controversial Flock Safety and the Texas-based ECAM, and then rented out to both local and state police agencies or private security companies. These cameras have become a crime deterrence tool of choice for police departments in numerous U.S. States because of their ability to see and hear everything in their vicinity.

And now with artificial intelligence features, they're a simple set-and-forget solution that allows officers to easily and comprehensively monitor a particular area with a combination of multi-function cameras and two-way audio capability. The COWs' tall masts and mildly unsettling flashing lights have led to them receiving the unofficial nickname of "scarecrows," and security contractors are ramping up production to meet the demand from police.

COWs utilize a combination of solar power and internal batteries, making them largely self-sufficient once installed, usually in either a high-crime area or areas where police may have blind spots, such as large parking lots. A COW can monitor a full 360 degrees in high definition, constantly recording footage in their immediate vicinity. Moreover, they're loaded with the latest in security tech, including pan, tilt, and zoom functions, thermal and night vision modes, and even AI-powered recognition for things like faces and license plates, which might encourage you to wear reflective glasses.

Additionally, they're equipped with two-way audio, recording sound around them and allowing an officer to broadcast verbal warnings to those nearby, as well as sound loud alarms. COWs can even detect the sound of nearby gunshots to aid in triangulating the position of a discharged firearm. Police and security officers can connect to a COW unit from anywhere using either cellular networks or local Wi-Fi connections. This ease of use has made the devices incredibly popular, not to mention numerous, with ECAM alone maintaining an array of over 150,000 active cameras.

"Our first line of defense is deterrence. We stop crimes before they start," ECAM Vice President Niles Coates said in an interview with Los Angeles local news station KTLA5. "This presence alone reduces risk, and when activity escalates, our team can dispatch directly to local guard partners as well as law enforcement."

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Public Wi-Fi Is A Threat To Data Security

Millions of users are still connecting their phones to networks that can expose passwords and financial data in seconds. Google and U.S. security agencies have already warned about the risk. But new data now shows the threat is getting worse.

"Avoid using public Wi-Fi whenever possible," Google warns, "as these networks can be unencrypted and easily exploited by attackers." Despite this, a new mobile security report shows millions are still connecting anyway. And when the device is a work phone, that risk doesn’t stop with you.

In its 2026 mobile threat report covering Android and iOS, Jamf reports that 18 percent of employees still "connect to risky hotspots (which) open the door to infrastructure threats like rogue access points or Adversary-in-the-Middle attacks." That’s especially true "if devices are not configured to address this risk."

Almost all phones are not.

In cybersecurity, this advice to avoid public Wi-Fi is almost as contentious as the advice to avoid public charging points. The reality though, is that cyber experts pouring scorn on warnings from these tech firms will have set their phones up properly, will always apply updates, and are less likely to fall victim to attacks.

For normal users, the risks are much higher. Jamf also warns that in more than half of organizations, "at least one device has a critically out-of-date operating system. An out-of-date OS means unpatched, exploitable vulnerabilities. Automating and enforcing updates goes a long way to protect your devices."

America’s NSA says "accessing public Wi-Fi hotspots may be convenient to catch up on work or check email, but public Wi-Fi is often not configured securely. Using these networks may make users’ data and devices more vulnerable to compromise, as cyber actors employ malicious access points, redirect to malicious websites, inject malicious proxies, and eavesdrop on network traffic."

Even TSA has warned travelers to avoid these networks. "Don’t use free public Wi-Fi," especially "if you’re planning to make any online purchases." TSA also warns you should "never enter any sensitive info while using unsecured Wi-Fi."

"Networks and web risks threaten even the most secure devices," Jamf warns. "Without proper configuration, your data is exposed. Phishing and other web risks continue to run rampant. Attackers mimic popular sites across multiple categories of online content: entertainment, business, utility and finance. And users fall for them every day, especially as generative AI helps attackers advance techniques."

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Why Are Page Views and Impressions Important To Online Creators?

For bloggers, vloggers, and online creators, page views and impressions are very important. They are both widely used used terms in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and they are mostly being used while analyzing the web analytics.

Well, there are people who are confused in both these terms, so here is the basic difference for them. Page Views is a condition which denotes the number of times a particular page is being viewed whereas impressions denote the number of times an element on a web page is viewed.

When a web user visits on the page of the website, it counts as one pageview and each visitor who is visiting the website will have at least one pageview. If the same visitor clicks on another page and that comes into search then it will also be counted as a pageview.

When the monthly report of the particular website is being analyzed after the month end, then an average number of pageviews per visitor is divided by the total number of views by the number of unique visitors. This analysis gives the exact count of the page views.

According to the pageview count, be it low or high, the SEO department decides to make an amendment and further strategy to run the website. If the page view count is lower than the expectation, then certainly there is something confusing for the visitor, it may be design, content or site navigation that doesn’t make it user-friendly.

Impression is different than pageview. Impressions refer to the number of times a visitor look into a specific element of a page, be it an image, text, video or content. Impressions are usually calculated to know that how much an advertiser needs to pay to advertise his ad on the website and as it is based on the advertisements. Each time a person loads a page then their ad appears and it is counted as one impression for the individual. Impressions are calculated in sets of 1,000.

Both pageviews and impressions are very important and they are easy to calculate a website’s success. When the count of pageview gets low then it certainly indicates the problem such as poor website design, call to action, poor quality content or bad search engine optimization. Such kind of an analysis helps the professionals to measure the effectiveness of a marketing campaign and find the area of improvement.

On the other hand, the impressions calculation helps the company to decide how many advertisements can give them benefit, so to how many numbers of people are left to pitch for the same and convince the existing clients to stay back for the better results.

The procedure of tracking pageview and impressions is very simple. It is being done through web analytics program like Google Analytics. One needs to sing up an account and insert the piece of code that is generated by the tool and also fill all the details of the business into the website analytic account and regularly keeps checking the track of the website. The code inserted into the website will keep on checking all kinds of behavior and make people analyze what to do next and how. In this way, people can enhance their business by working on diverse behavior calculated by the web analytics.

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