Screenshot by Lance Whitney/ZDNET Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET's key takeaways You can access four new Copilot skills directly from File Explorer. You can summarize, ask questions, and compare up to five files. The process supports Microsoft 365 files, PDFs, and web files. Microsoft 365 users have long been able to turn to Copilot on the web to analyze and answer questions about their documents and other files. But now they can get help from Microsoft's AI directly in Windows. On Thursday, Microsoft announced four new Copilot skills accessible from File Explorer. By right-clicking on any supported file stored in OneDrive, you can ask Copilot to summarize it, answer questions about it, and create an FAQ. And by selecting as many as five files, you can tell the AI to compare them all. Also: College students can get Microsoft Copilot free for a year - here's how To tap into the new skills, you'll need a Microsoft 365 Family or Personal subscription. The files you wish to analyze must be stored in OneDrive and appear in File Explorer. For now, only certain files are supported. These include Microsoft 365 documents (DOC, DOCX, PPT, PPTX, XLSX, FLUID, LOOP), universal formats (PDF, TXT, RTF), web files (HTM, HTML), and OpenDocument formats (ODT, ODP). Sorry, but photos and videos haven't been invited to the party. To try this out, open File Explorer in Windows 10 or 11. Right-click on a supported file that you want Copilot to analyze. In Windows 10, the new Copilot commands are visible directly in the menu. In Windows 11, hover over the OneDrive option to see the new commands. Now you can choose among the following: Summarize . Selecting this tells Copilot to generate a brief summary of the contents of the file. . Selecting this tells Copilot to generate a brief summary of the contents of the file. Create an FAQ . Here, Copilot will compile a list of Frequently Asked Questions related to your file. . Here, Copilot will compile a list of Frequently Asked Questions related to your file. Ask a question . This skill allows you to ask specific questions about the file. . This skill allows you to ask specific questions about the file. Compare files. For this one, you'll have to first select anywhere from two to five files. Copilot will then generate a table showing you the differences between the files. Screenshot by Lance Whitney/ZDNET I tried each of the four skills, and Copilot responded as expected. The only drawback is that the analysis works online through OneDrive on the web rather than locally. Otherwise, the process runs smoothly enough and is a time-saver as you can now trigger it without having to leave Windows. Want to follow my work? Add ZDNET as a trusted source on Google. Featured