Windows 11 update KB5072033 quietly introduced a feature that sends screenshots of your open applications to Microsoft’s cloud servers. The “Share with Copilot” function appears when you hover over any app in your taskbar, and it’s turned on by default.
How It Works
When you hover over an open application in your taskbar, a new “Share with Copilot” option appears. Click it, and Windows sends a visual snapshot of that window to Microsoft’s cloud servers for AI processing. The feature works on both Copilot+ PCs and standard hardware, including older Intel and AMD systems.
Microsoft frames this as contextual AI assistance - ask questions about what’s on your screen without switching windows. But the implementation raises serious questions about what happens to those screenshots once they leave your computer.
The Privacy Problem
The feature operates on what Microsoft calls a “read-only” basis, but that doesn’t mean your data stays local. When activated, the system transmits a visual snapshot of the specific window to cloud-based servers for processing.
This means anything visible in that window - internal documents, private conversations, login screens, financial data, credentials, code, or confidential business information - gets sent to Microsoft’s servers.
The feature appears for any app window, including VPN clients and security tools. There’s no warning about what might be captured before you click.
Default-On Is the Problem
The most concerning aspect: Microsoft enabled this by default. Users don’t get asked whether they want AI analyzing their screen content. The option simply appears, ready to capture whatever’s in your windows.
This follows a pattern. Microsoft’s Gaming Copilot was found capturing screenshots and sending data to Azure endpoints even when the Game Bar widget was closed. The Microsoft 365 Copilot mobile app now automatically uploads files to OneDrive before opening them locally.
And just this month, a bug in Microsoft 365 Copilot was summarizing confidential emails marked with DLP protection labels - without user consent, for over a month before it was patched.
Enterprise Headaches
For business users, embedding AI this deeply into the operating system creates governance nightmares. When does data stay local? When does it get uploaded? What telemetry is collected?
Microsoft says business users benefit from existing compliance frameworks, with IT administrators able to manage Copilot through Group Policy or Intune. They claim interactions are logged for compliance review through Microsoft Purview.
But the questions remain: Is file metadata analyzed even without explicit content sharing? What about accidentally clicking the share button with sensitive material visible?
Security researchers have raised concerns about users “accidentally sharing sensitive screenshots or files” with cloud models. Organizations need fail-safes and user education to prevent leaks - but Microsoft made the feature opt-out rather than opt-in.
Microsoft’s Lock on the Feature
There’s another wrinkle: Microsoft uses a “Limited Access Feature” API that only allows Copilot to register as a “sharing command source.” Third-party developers cannot use this taskbar integration without an explicit unlock token from Microsoft.
This means competitors like OpenAI can’t build similar native functionality. Microsoft gets exclusive access to your taskbar screenshots.
How to Disable It
You can turn this off, but you have to know where to look:
- Open Settings > Personalization > Taskbar
- Expand “Taskbar behavior”
- Find “Share any window from my taskbar with”
- Change the selection from “Chat agent apps” to “None”
This removes the “Share with Copilot” option from your taskbar entirely.
For a more comprehensive privacy cleanup, you may want to disable Copilot entirely through Windows settings or Group Policy. Multiple guides exist for removing Recall, Copilot, and other AI features that send data to Microsoft’s cloud.
What This Means
Microsoft continues pushing AI features that require cloud processing, enabled by default, with minimal transparency about what data gets transmitted. The “Share with Copilot” taskbar button is just the latest example.
Every time you hover over an app, you’re one accidental click away from sending a screenshot of that window to Microsoft’s servers. That might be fine for public web pages. It’s a problem for confidential documents, private messages, or anything else you’d rather keep local.
The feature exists because Microsoft wants Copilot everywhere, processing everything. Your data is the price of that convenience.
If you value privacy over AI assistance, disable this feature. And keep watching for the next default-on feature that Microsoft quietly ships with a Windows update.