Microsoft recently authored a list of its picks for the best productivity apps in Windows, and the contents of that list have raised eyebrows. Why? Because sitting at the top of that list is the Copilot app, Microsoft’s AI assistant that can answer your questions, summarize your emails, help you organize your projects, and more.
Unfortunately, this feels more like a marketing push than an honest-to-goodness list of actually useful productivity apps. Copilot has been unhelpful at best and problematic at worst, as we found out when Copilot failed to deliver on reminders. We also tried to make Copilot a habit and walked away with mixed results. Copilot just isn’t at a place yet where it can top a list of productivity apps without it being a joke.
It’s bad enough that users have been unhappy with Microsoft’s Copilot takeover for many months now, and a report from earlier this year shows that almost nobody is actually using Copilot.
The other apps on the list are actually pretty useful, although they’re obviously biased pushes by Microsoft towards its own apps.
Below Copilot, you have Microsoft To Do (for managing tasks and checklists), Windows Calendar (for managing events, meetings, and appointments), OneNote (for in-depth digital note-taking), and Snipping Tool (for capturing screenshots and screen recordings).
After that, you have Clock (for timed distraction-free sessions), Sticky Notes (for quick-and-easy notes), File Explorer (uh, this one’s sort of a weird inclusion to be honest), and the Edge browser (with Microsoft trying to highlight its AI features, including Copilot).
If you want to be more productive with Windows, we recommend our roundup of obscure but useful Windows features instead.
Further reading: Microsoft Copilot is the new Internet Explorer