Microsoft is testing a Windows 11 taskbar feature called “Share with Copilot” that lets a virtual assistant app see the contents of an open window you select. The toggle for the feature sits under Settings > Personalization > Taskbar and, per Windows Latest, is turned off by default - users must enable it before any data is shared.
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.
Why the Default-Off Design Still Matters
Microsoft turned the feature off by default, which is a better starting point than Recall’s rollout. But the toggle sits several layers deep in Settings, and the hover-triggered “Share with Copilot” prompt can still surface on apps where users do not expect it. That is the realistic risk: not silent capture, but accidental sharing by users who did not realize what the taskbar button did.
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’s “Share with Copilot” taskbar feature gives any virtual assistant registered with Windows direct visibility into whatever window a user chooses to share. The toggle is off by default, but a hovering user who clicks the prompt is sending a snapshot of an arbitrary app - VPN clients, password managers, internal dashboards - to Copilot.
That is fine for public web pages. It is a problem for confidential documents, private messages, or anything else a user would rather keep local. Until Microsoft makes the prompt a clear, deliberate confirmation step - rather than a hover-target on every taskbar thumbnail - the safest default is to leave the toggle off and only enable it for specific, low-risk windows.