Microsoft introduced a new AI-based assistant that allows changing Windows settings using regular text commands. The model is named “Mu” and operates entirely offline on special AI chips in Copilot+ devices. Users can enter commands like “Increase screen brightness” or describe a problem, such as “My mouse cursor is too small.” The assistant is integrated into the standard settings search box and responds in less than half a second.
“Mu” is built on an encoder-decoder architecture and contains 330 million parameters. Microsoft claims that this design allows processing requests almost twice as fast as popular decoder-only models. The model processes over 100 tokens per second, and on a Surface Laptop 7, over 200 tokens per second. For NPU optimization, the company used model weight quantization, which reduces memory usage and increases processing speed.
During the training of “Mu,” Microsoft used 3.6 million examples, most of which relate to changing Windows settings. This allowed expanding the number of supported parameters from a few dozen to hundreds. The system best understands detailed and clear requests, while short or vague commands may return standard search results.
Currently, the new assistant is only available to Windows Insider program participants with a Copilot+ device. Microsoft is collecting user feedback to improve the feature’s performance and gradually add support for more complex tasks. The timeline for this feature’s availability to all Windows users has not yet been announced.
