How to use Semantic Search on Windows Copilot+ PCs
The Semantic Search feature is currently only rolling out to Qualcomm Snapdragon-powered Windows 11 laptops, and should be enabled by default. A quick way to identify if you have it or not is to check the magnifying glass icon in the search box, which should have two stars beside it, indicating it's AI powered. Clicking on the search box also changes the colour of the icon to purple and adds a similar-coloured line below it. AMD and Intel Copilot+ PCs should get it soon.
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This feature first appeared as a preview on the Windows Insider Dev channel in January 2025, but has since been rolled out to Qualcomm PCs on the stable build. If you have a Qualcomm Windows laptop running the 26100.3775 build, you should already have it.
Not sure which
laptop to buy? How to get started with Semantic Search?
Semantic Search should be enabled by default if you have a Qualcomm PC on the latest version of Windows. Microsoft suggests changing the default Windows search indexing to 'Enhanced' which indexes your entire PC. To do this, head to Settings >> Privacy & Security >> Searching Windows.
Semantic Search works on all the search boxes in Windows, from Windows Explorer, to Settings, to the main Windows Search box on the homepage. When this feature just rolled out in preview, certain commands were restricted to specific search boxes. For instance, typing 'change the theme' in the Settings search would take you to the appropriate settings, but the same wouldn't work on the main search box of the home page. This has been fixed with the April build as typing the same search term on either will give you a similar result.
Keep in mind that using a natural language search query for a setting will yield more options that are similar to what you might want, compared to using that same search string in the main Windows search box which will only give you the top best match.
Before Windows is able to give you ideal results, it's important to allow the system to index all your files first. You can check the progress by heading to the same Searching Windows option under Privacy & Security in the Settings app, and see the status of how many files have been indexed and how many are pending.
Semantic Search currently supports select languages like Chinese, English, French, German, Japanese, and Spanish. It also works with the following file types: .txt, .pdf, .docx, .doc, .rtf, .pptx, .ppt, .xls, .xlsx for documents, and .jpg/.jpeg, .png, .gif, .bmp, .ico for images. Will non-Copilot+ PCs support Semantic Search?
Most likely, they will not. This new powerful search feature takes advantage of the NPU in Copilot+ PCs, which is way more efficient at processing such tasks than the CPU. There could be workarounds to get it to work on Windows PCs that lack an NPU, but battery life and overall system performance might take a hit. As of now, if you don't have a Copilot+ branded PC or laptop, you won't be able to use Semantic Search. What Semantic Search can't do yet?
Semantic Search is currently limited to searching for files stored locally on your Windows PC. Microsoft claims that none of your search queries are saved to the cloud or used for training AI. While it's a good start for finding files using natural language, it still has a long way to go. For instance, using a search string like 'all cat images' gave me a random selection of photos, none of which included a cat (even though there were locally stored cat photos). Microsoft also claims that Semantic Search will eventually work in OneDrive for files and photos, but it does not yet as of writing this article.
Semantic Search is still very much a work in progress, and will no doubt get better with time. It's true potential will come into play when it can accurately detect objects, text, and other items in files and images. It's definitely a step in the right direction and should gives buyers a good enough reason to spring for a Copilot+ PC.
First Published Date: 29 Apr, 15:07 IST
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