Watch: Leak from 2024 shows off Microsoft's Copilot OS for AI PCs, and it's nothing like Windows 11, as it drops the Start menu
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In 2024 or earlier, Microsoft was working on a Copilot-focused operating system codenamed "Project Aion." The idea, which appears to have been canceled, envisioned a Microsoft Edge-based and AI-powered operating system that drops the traditional Start menu in favor of a Copilot launcher and looks nothing like Windows 11.
In a leaked video shared on a private BetaWiki forum and later posted by Microsoft watcher Gareth, you can clearly see that the Copilot OS drops the traditional Start menu in favor of AI. Microsoft internally describes it as an "agentic" operating system, and there were plans to enable Win32 app support via the cloud.
Closer look at Project Aion: Microsoft’s secret Copilot OS for PCs
When you boot Windows 11 for the first time, you have the Start menu, desktop, and taskbar icons. In the case of Copilot OS codenamed "Project Aion," there are no desktop icons.
https://www.windowslatest.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Project-Aion.mp4
Project Aion shows off a taskbar, but it’s closer to ChromeOS than to Windows 11. For example, we don’t have a Start menu or Task View button. Instead, there’s a Copilot button, which is essentially a Copilot launcher.
Unlike the Start menu, the Copilot button in this AI OS greets the user with "Good afternoon, Nathan," and there’s a dashboard with three dynamic widgets: "Stay on Top" (my M365 feed), "Create something new," and "News of the day."
The "My Stuff" section is a bit similar to the Recommended feed/Apps list of the Start menu, but it mostly has standard web apps.
For example, we noticed icons for Microsoft Edge, Teams, Word, Excel, and Microsoft To Do. Right below these icons, you have chips for contextual tasks, such as "Understanding RAG" and "Design a Pirate Themed Birthday Cake." These two tasks were given as examples by the team behind Project Aion.
You can use the "Ask me anything" text box to launch agentic tasks or browse the web using Microsoft Edge. For example, if you want to open TechCrunch or Microsoft To Do, you can start typing "techc" into Copilot’s Ask me anything box, and autocomplete instantly suggests the TechCrunch website.
Since Copilot OS is based on Microsoft Edge, if you hit Enter for the suggested website, it’ll open a clean, traditional Edge browser window.
Similarly, if you want to open Microsoft To Do to check your tasks, you need to open the Copilot launcher and type "to do." AI will automatically surface To Do.
If you’ve ever used Microsoft To Do in Windows 11, you would realize that this is not the native Windows app. Instead, it’s the Microsoft To Do web app running via picture-in-picture mode of Microsoft Edge, so it’s lightweight and has a floating window.
Also, if you look closely at the taskbar, TechCrunch and Microsoft To Do, both running via Edge, have their own dedicated icons on the taskbar as apps.
It’s not entirely made up, as Microsoft recently explored a similar feature for Chromium where websites appear as separate apps on the taskbar. It’s also possible when you install a website as an app using Edge and pin it to the taskbar.
A new agentic multitasking experience, and AI-generated icons
In the video, Microsoft argues that Copilot OS is meant for multitasking and shares multiple examples.
Microsoft explained that Project AION breaks down the “traditional app-centric grouping approach.” Instead of grouping all your Word documents...