Groups > alt.comp.microsoft.windows > #3466 > unrolled thread

Can anyone get Edge Copilot to work without logging in after July 2026?

Started by	Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com>
First post	2026-07-27 18:20 -0700
Last post	2026-08-11 08:42 -0800
Articles	9 on this page of 29 — 6 participants

Back to article view | Back to alt.comp.microsoft.windows

Page 2 of 2 — ← Prev page 1 [2]

#3499

From	Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com>
Date	2026-08-07 19:30 -0800
Message-ID	<11567se$1du1$1@nnrp.usenet.blueworldhosting.com>
In reply to	#3466

Interestingly, half way through the day today, the Copilot sidebar chat
STOPPED working if you didn't log into a Microsoft Account.

Is it just me? 

Or do others find that today, the Copilot sidebar chat changed how it works
in that it won't do anything until you log into a Microsoft Account (which
I don't have).

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#3500

From	Paul <nospam@needed.invalid>
Date	2026-08-08 01:03 -0400
Message-ID	<1156daj$17llm$1@dont-email.me>
In reply to	#3499

On Fri, 8/7/2026 11:30 PM, Maria Sophia wrote:
> Interestingly, half way through the day today, the Copilot sidebar chat
> STOPPED working if you didn't log into a Microsoft Account.
> 
> Is it just me? 
> 
> Or do others find that today, the Copilot sidebar chat changed how it works
> in that it won't do anything until you log into a Microsoft Account (which
> I don't have).
> 

The Reliability Monitor here, is showing

    9NRZT3Q9R3DL-Microsoft.WindowsAppRuntime.2

getting updated every couple of days, no signs the
update is malfunctioning in any way, but it does
seem a fetish. There can't be bugs in it so bad,
they're fixing them at that rate.

The spacing of updates showing here, isn't as
frequent as the rate of installation in my
Reliability Monitor.

   https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-app/whats-new

Sometimes, other in-box Metro.Apps get updates and the
update fails, and the update is retried later on and eventually
it succeeds. This is not that kind of pattern.

  Paul

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#3501

From	"....winston" <winstonmvp@gmail.com>
Date	2026-08-08 12:29 -0400
Message-ID	<1157lhp$1lgjt$1@dont-email.me>
In reply to	#3500

On 08/08/2026 1:03 AM, Paul wrote:
> On Fri, 8/7/2026 11:30 PM, Maria Sophia wrote:
>> Interestingly, half way through the day today, the Copilot sidebar chat
>> STOPPED working if you didn't log into a Microsoft Account.
>>
>> Is it just me?
>>
>> Or do others find that today, the Copilot sidebar chat changed how it works
>> in that it won't do anything until you log into a Microsoft Account (which
>> I don't have).
>>
> 
> The Reliability Monitor here, is showing
> 
>      9NRZT3Q9R3DL-Microsoft.WindowsAppRuntime.2
> 
> getting updated every couple of days, no signs the
> update is malfunctioning in any way, but it does
> seem a fetish. There can't be bugs in it so bad,
> they're fixing them at that rate.
> 
> The spacing of updates showing here, isn't as
> frequent as the rate of installation in my
> Reliability Monitor.
> 
>     https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-app/whats-new
> 
> Sometimes, other in-box Metro.Apps get updates and the
> update fails, and the update is retried later on and eventually
> it succeeds. This is not that kind of pattern.
> 
>    Paul
> 

While hiccups can and do occur, the op's issue cause/symptom is more 
likely from having previously tampered with Windows default and/or oobe 
settings or mis-configured Edge settings.

Fyi...on a Local account
  - No MSA sign-on in Windows, Edge, Mail(Outlook app, not Office) and 
also no MSA sign-on in related MSA required apps/programs(OneDrive).
  - Edge Sidebar chat is enabled, works fine and all without prompt for 
MSA logon....which is the expected and design intent norm.
  - no app updates(Edge or CoPilot) modify anything forcing the Copilot 
Sidebar sign-on


Additionally, even in a Windows MSA Logon account, signing out 
completely in Edge and Office, the Copilot Sidebar chat functions the 
same as the Local account(no MSA sign-on required for use).


-- 
...w¡ñ§±¤ñ

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#3502

From	Paul <nospam@needed.invalid>
Date	2026-08-08 14:56 -0400
Message-ID	<1157u5f$1om3h$1@dont-email.me>
In reply to	#3501

On Sat, 8/8/2026 12:29 PM, ....winston wrote:

> 
> While hiccups can and do occur, the op's issue cause/symptom is more likely from having previously tampered with Windows default and/or oobe settings or mis-configured Edge settings.
> 
> Fyi...on a Local account
>  - No MSA sign-on in Windows, Edge, Mail(Outlook app, not Office) and also no MSA sign-on in related MSA required apps/programs(OneDrive).
>  - Edge Sidebar chat is enabled, works fine and all without prompt for MSA logon....which is the expected and design intent norm.
>  - no app updates(Edge or CoPilot) modify anything forcing the Copilot Sidebar sign-on
> 
> 
> Additionally, even in a Windows MSA Logon account, signing out completely in Edge and Office,
> the Copilot Sidebar chat functions the same as the Local account(no MSA sign-on required for use).

For a Metro.App, is there ever a situation where an MSA prompt
appears before the application agrees to start ?

I presume in all these cases, the Metro.App was determined by licensing,
to be allowed to install. And the behavior is a request by the Metro.App
itself later (now running and allowed to run), for the MSA, giving access
to something perhaps. Like something stored in the Cloud is being accessed.

All the context the CoPilot program could need, could be stored
on the local disk, with the exception if the model of usage allowed
moving to any computer and continuing the session. Is there a kind
of global setting which says "we don't need to synchronize our sessions
across computers" ? At one time, there was the concept of passing
work between computers and their interfaces.

   Paul

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#3504

From	Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com>
Date	2026-08-09 09:31 -0800
Message-ID	<115adi6$rak$1@nnrp.usenet.blueworldhosting.com>
In reply to	#3502

Paul wrote:
> I presume in all these cases, the Metro.App was determined by licensing,
> to be allowed to install. And the behavior is a request by the Metro.App
> itself later (now running and allowed to run), for the MSA, giving access
> to something perhaps. Like something stored in the Cloud is being accessed.

I literally do not understand what Paul & Winston are saying as they know
more about Windows than I ever will, but what I know is Copilot is no
longer available to me, even in the sidebar-chat form, sans login.

I presume that's the case for everyone, but I'm not sure from responses.

Moving forward, given Gemini limits free chats as does ChatGPT, I'm going
to try, for the first time in earnest, the duck.ai interface & browser.
 Newsgroups: alt.comp.os.windows-10,alt.comp.microsoft.windows,alt.comp.os.windows-11
 Subject: PSA: Quick startup on the dedicated Duck.ai LLM/AI WebView2 chat mechanism
 Date: Sun, 9 Aug 2026 09:29:12 -0800
 Message-ID: <115add8$nnu$1@nnrp.usenet.blueworldhosting.com>

In summary, as far as I can tell, Microsoft CoPilot no longer allows even a
single chat to go unregistered to an account. 

I'm not sure if only a Microsoft Account will be acceptable, but the
side-bar only allows an MSA (it doesn't have an option for Google/Apple).
-- 
We all strive to add privacy that marketing doesn't want us to have.

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#3505

From	Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk>
Date	2026-08-09 18:41 +0100
Message-ID	<ndrscbFmjc4U1@mid.individual.net>
In reply to	#3504

Maria Sophia wrote:

> Moving forward, given Gemini limits free chats as does ChatGPT, I'm going

I presume access to the AI chatbots is also blocked (without login) from 
the Firefox sidebar?

<https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/ai-chatbot>

I have all AI (apart from website language translation disabled).

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#3510

From	Paul <nospam@needed.invalid>
Date	2026-08-09 18:57 -0400
Message-ID	<115b0ko$2msen$1@dont-email.me>
In reply to	#3505

On Sun, 8/9/2026 1:41 PM, Andy Burns wrote:
> Maria Sophia wrote:
> 
>> Moving forward, given Gemini limits free chats as does ChatGPT, I'm going
> 
> I presume access to the AI chatbots is also blocked (without login) from the Firefox sidebar?
> 
> <https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/ai-chatbot>
> 
> I have all AI (apart from website language translation disabled).

Well, you have to be able to take a joke.

I've tried out three models so far. Not really all
that adventurous at running local models (on inadequate hardware).

 16GB of RAM would handle the  7GB or so Gemma 4 E4B needs (a bit weak model).
 64GB of RAM would handle the 35GB or so Gemma 4 31B needed.
128GB of RAM would handle the 80GB the OpenAi 120B one needed.

Two are loaded in a Windows copy of LMStudio.
One is loaded in a Linux copy of LMStudio.

The tale starts with the following query.

   Write a program in the C language that computes the mathematical constant PI to one million digits

I started out, not really caring about the code :-)
The mission here, was to see if an LLM-AI could "actually finish a mission".
Can it work its little pencil, until the pencil is just a stub.
The longest question runtime, was 50 minutes. Another of the runs
took 23 minutes.

1) With E4B, all it did was write a file full of "comment text"

   /* Comment text about how I would write your program */

   Utterly... useless. Like tits on a chest freezer.

2) So I tried 31B. First I had it attempt the feat in the C language.

   It burbled along for a bit, talking to itself. It always
   announces "what the BEST algorithm is". Then it just happens
   to mention one of the older or inferior algorithms and it writes
   code for that! Then in the comments, it happens to mention
   "If I implemented the Binary Splitting Algorithm, that would
   be 200 lines of code." That's its excuse for why the homework
   assignment is late. A virtual dog ate the homework.

3) Now, knowing from previous work I've done, that the C++ version
   of Bignum code is half the length of the C version (and runs at half
   the speed, so this is not a free lunch), I "cut the AI a break" by
   reducing that BSA-toughness issue, to a potential 100 lines of code.

      Write a program in the C++ language that computes
      the mathematical constant PI to one million digits

   This time it writes Chudnovsky, without BSA. And this time, it
   volunteers the comment about BSA, that "it would take five hundred
   lines of C++ to implement BSA and I could make an off-by-one error
   while writing it". So now I know, it is pulling its complexity
   estimates from the AI nether region (the hole where the slop comes out) :-)

OK, so now I go online, and ask for a Chudnovsky with BSA. It's
almost the first hit in the Google search. It is C++ .

  ( https://gist.github.com/komasaru/68f209118edbac0700da )

/*
 * Compute PQT (by Binary Splitting Algorithm)
 */
PQT Chudnovsky::compPQT(int n1, int n2)
{
    int m;
    PQT res;

    if (n1 + 1 == n2) {
        res.P  = (2 * n2 - 1);
        res.P *= (6 * n2 - 1);
        res.P *= (6 * n2 - 5);
        res.Q  = C3_24 * n2 * n2 * n2;
        res.T  = (A + B * n2) * res.P;
        if ((n2 & 1) == 1) res.T = - res.T;
    } else {
        m = (n1 + n2) / 2;
        PQT res1 = compPQT(n1, m);
        PQT res2 = compPQT(m, n2);
        res.P = res1.P * res2.P;
        res.Q = res1.Q * res2.Q;
        res.T = res1.T * res2.Q + res1.P * res2.T;
    }

    return res;
}

Notice that this is 23 lines of code :-) Nether regions, my ass.
Now, is that code "scary" or what ? Does your little AI heart
tremble at the thought of coughing up a hairball like that ?
The code is recursive and calls itself, but that does not
normally cause shyness in AI.

So let's run that puppy. I ran it for two million digits,
because the above code is missing the "+ 64 bits" thing
you're supposed to add for the guard digits, which helps ensure
the last digits in your millions of digits, are correct.

$ ./chudnovskyBSA
**** PI Computation ( 2000000 digits )
TIME (COMPUTE): 0.664249 seconds.
TIME (WRITE)  : 0.172128 seconds.

That code runs *ten times* faster than SuperPI 1.5 XS .
You could re-write the code in C and shave more time off it.

I don't think humans are obsolete, quite yet. Tip of the
hat to komasaru for the code.

   Paul

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#3508

From	"....winston" <winstonmvp@gmail.com>
Date	2026-08-09 14:45 -0400
Message-ID	<115ahst$2i7mg$1@dont-email.me>
In reply to	#3502

On 08/08/2026 2:56 PM, Paul wrote:
> On Sat, 8/8/2026 12:29 PM, ....winston wrote:
> 
>>
>> While hiccups can and do occur, the op's issue cause/symptom is more likely from having previously tampered with Windows default and/or oobe settings or mis-configured Edge settings.
>>
>> Fyi...on a Local account
>>   - No MSA sign-on in Windows, Edge, Mail(Outlook app, not Office) and also no MSA sign-on in related MSA required apps/programs(OneDrive).
>>   - Edge Sidebar chat is enabled, works fine and all without prompt for MSA logon....which is the expected and design intent norm.
>>   - no app updates(Edge or CoPilot) modify anything forcing the Copilot Sidebar sign-on
>>
>>
>> Additionally, even in a Windows MSA Logon account, signing out completely in Edge and Office,
>> the Copilot Sidebar chat functions the same as the Local account(no MSA sign-on required for use).
> 
> For a Metro.App, is there ever a situation where an MSA prompt
> appears before the application agrees to start ?

Yes and No.
  The most common Windows Microsoft included apps do not require a MSA 
sign-on for use(e.g. Outlook mail app[fka Mail], Photos, Music, Maps).

If one desires sync(settings, messages or files across devices) or 
integration with cloud features like Outlook.com/OneDrive an MSA is 
necessary.  The OneDrive folder(2 way sync) in File Explorer requires an 
MSA.

> 
> I presume in all these cases, the Metro.App was determined by licensing,
> to be allowed to install. And the behavior is a request by the Metro.App
> itself later (now running and allowed to run), for the MSA, giving access
> to something perhaps. Like something stored in the Cloud is being accessed.

The term Metro.app no longer applies. The term was only Windows 8.0 
unique.  Included apps for 8.1 was Modern apps, 10.x and later was 
termed Store or Windows apps to represent/describe UWP(Universal Windows 
Platform) apps...up until 2021.  In 2021, development under the UWP 
naming ceased - since then in Win10/11, anything formerly UWP or 
newer[included desktop] are just 'Apps'.

> 
> All the context the CoPilot program could need, could be stored
> on the local disk, with the exception if the model of usage allowed
> moving to any computer and continuing the session. Is there a kind
> of global setting which says "we don't need to synchronize our sessions
> across computers" ? At one time, there was the concept of passing
> work between computers and their interfaces.

CoPilot Sidebar is not entirely the same as CoPilot(Windows) or CoPilot 
on the web.

Sidebar is browser primarily intended but not specific to work with the 
open web page.
Windows Copilot is intended for use across the device(tasks, files, 
settings, apps)
Web version is stand-alone no integration with browser or OS.

For the most part, trying to over-analyze it since it's subject to 
change is futile.
  i.e use it or ignore it!!!

> 
>     Paul
> 
> 
> 
> 

-- 
...w¡ñ§±¤ñ

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#3516

From	Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com>
Date	2026-08-11 08:42 -0800
Message-ID	<115fjec$2322$1@nnrp.usenet.blueworldhosting.com>
In reply to	#3500

Paul wrote:
> getting updated every couple of days, no signs the
> update is malfunctioning in any way, but it does
> seem a fetish. There can't be bugs in it so bad,
> they're fixing them at that rate.

Well, it's changing almost on a weekly basis, so I think Microsoft is
testing things or maybe slowly changing things, but it works differently
today.

Yesterday, when I tried to use the two mechanisms within MS Edge
a. copilot.microsoft.com (as a web page)
b. copilot as a sidebar inside of edge
it wouldn't even give me the option of an Apple or Google signin.

Today, when I used the pinned Microsoft Edge taskbar shortcut:
TARGET
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\Edge\Application\msedge.exe" --profile-directory=Default
Up popped a "Choose your account" box, providing options for:
a. Personal
b. Work or school
c. Or Sign in with Apple
d. Or Sign in wth Google
e. Or, maybe later (which doesn't do anything)

I had already removed the chat thingey at the top right, so I brought it
back to see if anything changed in the chat-sidebar whatchamacallit.
Edge:3dots > Settings > hamburger > Copilot and AI > Copilot in Edge >
A. Show Copilot button in toolbar
Quickly open Copilot whenever you need it.
B. Copilot new tab page
Search, explore the web, and chat with Copilot from one search
box in the new tab page.

I turned both back on.
Hmmm... It still only provides the Microsoft option (no Apple or Google).
Let's get you signed in
Upload files, use Voice without limits,
and make Copilot yours with memory across conversations.

So my conclusion, for today anyway, is
1. The web page allows Microsoft/Apple signin
2. But the sidebar thingey only allows an MSA sign in

BTW, for whatever reason, my Edge browser is no longer opening up my
startup pages once I changed it to open up other AIs. Odd.

So I changed the taskbar-pinned shortcut target to
TARGET
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\Edge\Application\msedge.exe" --profile-directory=Default edge://settings/privacy/clearBrowsingData https://gemini.google.com/app https://chatgpt.com/

Funny thing. When I did *that*, a different Edge instance showed up!
So it wasn't starting with my startup items 'cuz of that hidden instance.

Windows befuddles me every single day.
I tested it with "C:\> start msedge" and I proved it was repeatable.

a. If an edge instance is already running
b. Starting Edge again opens up a window that doesn't respect
Edge:3dots > Settings > hamburger > Start, home, and new tab page
c. Now, *every* edge instance shows up with two of those 3 URIs
The Edge settings URI to clear browsing data doesn't show up

Dunno why. As the settings show up on the first instance.
But they don't show up from the TARGET when I added them.
--
Sometimes you just have to test things empirically to figure 'em out.

[toc] | [prev] | [standalone]

Page 2 of 2 — ← Prev page 1 [2]

csiph-web

Can anyone get Edge Copilot to work without logging in after July 2026?

Contents

#3499

#3500

#3501

#3502

#3504

#3505

#3510

#3508

#3516