Your First Conversations with Copilot

Set up Microsoft Copilot and use it for research, writing, and image creation.

Introduction

30 Second Summary

AI assistants can help you research, write, and create. But most people type a vague question, get a mediocre answer, and walk away thinking AI is overhyped.

In this project, you will set up Microsoft Copilot and explore its free features across research, writing, image creation, and webpage summarization. You will also build a personal Prompt Playbook with your best prompts organized for daily reuse.

What You'll Build

A hands-on walkthrough of Microsoft Copilot's free features, covering web-grounded research, iterative prompting, AI image generation, and webpage summarization in Microsoft Edge.

By the end of this project, you'll have:

A signed-in Copilot account with chat history enabled and the Edge sidebar ready for webpage interaction.
A collection of tested prompts across research, writing, image creation, and webpage summarization.
A personal Prompt Playbook document with your best prompts organized by category for daily reuse.
Secret Mission: Build an advanced multi-step prompt workflow that chains multiple Copilot interactions to complete a complex real-world task.

Do I need a Microsoft account?

Signing in is not required, but it unlocks chat history, image creation, longer conversations, and voice interactions. If you have an Outlook.com, Hotmail, or any Microsoft login, you are ready to go.

Set Up Copilot on the Web and in Edge

Microsoft Copilot is free to use without an account, but you lose access to key features like chat history, image creation, and longer conversations. Setting up properly from the start means every conversation you have will be saved and every feature will be available.

In this step, you will sign in to Copilot on the web and set up the Copilot sidebar in Microsoft Edge. The Edge sidebar lets Copilot read and interact with any webpage you have open, which is a feature you will use later in this project.

In this step, get ready to:

Sign in to Microsoft Copilot and unlock your full feature set.
Set up the Copilot sidebar in Microsoft Edge.
Send your first test message and receive a response from Copilot.

Sign in to Microsoft Copilot on the web

Signing in unlocks features that anonymous users do not have access to. These include chat history, image creation, longer conversations, and voice interactions.

Open your browser and go to copilot.microsoft.com.
Click Sign in in the top-right corner of the page.
Enter your Microsoft account email and password to log in.

Once signed in, you should see a chat interface with a text box at the bottom labeled Message Copilot and quick-action tiles like Create an image, Find the best deal, and Improve writing.

Why sign in?

You can chat with Copilot without signing in, but you miss out on chat history, image creation, longer conversations, and voice interactions. Signing in with your personal Microsoft account unlocks all of these features at no cost.

Can't sign in?

Make sure you are using a personal Microsoft account (Outlook.com, Hotmail, or Live). Work or school accounts may have different Copilot features depending on your organization's settings.

If you do not have a Microsoft account yet, click Create one! on the sign-in page to set one up for free.

Still stuck? Help me sign in to Microsoft Copilot.

Set up Copilot in Microsoft Edge

Copilot works in any browser at copilot.microsoft.com, but Microsoft Edge adds a special feature. The Edge sidebar lets Copilot see and interact with the webpage you are currently viewing. You will use this later to summarize articles and extract information from real webpages.

First, check whether you already have Microsoft Edge installed on your computer.

✔️ I already have Edge installed

You are all set. Move on to the next instruction below to open Edge and sign in.

ⓧ I don't have Edge yet

Open your current browser and go to microsoft.com/edge.
Click Download for your device and follow the installer prompts to complete the installation.

Press Cmd+Space (macOS) or the Windows key (Windows) to open your search bar.
Type Edge and press Enter to open Microsoft Edge.
Click your profile icon in the top-right corner of Edge.
Click Sign in and log in with the same Microsoft account you used for Copilot on the web.
Click the Copilot icon in the upper-right corner of the Edge toolbar to open the Copilot sidebar.

A chat panel opens on the right side of your browser. This is the Copilot sidebar, and it can read the content of whatever webpage you have open in the main window.

What is the Copilot sidebar?

The Copilot sidebar is a chat panel built into Microsoft Edge. Unlike the standalone Copilot website, the sidebar can see the webpage you are currently viewing.

This means you can ask Copilot to summarize an article, pull out specific details, or answer questions about whatever page is open. You will use this feature in Step 4.

First-time permission request

The first time you use Copilot in Edge, it may ask for your permission to use information from Microsoft Edge. Allow it so Copilot can read page content and provide relevant responses.

Don't see the Copilot icon?

The sidebar may be turned off in your Edge settings. Type edge://settings/appearance/copilotAndSidebar into the Edge address bar and press Enter. Make sure the sidebar is set to Always on.

Under App specific settings, find Copilot and make sure Show Copilot button on the toolbar is toggled on.

Still stuck? Help me find the Copilot icon in Edge.

Explore the Copilot interface

Now that both the web and Edge versions of Copilot are set up, take a moment to explore the interface and send your first message.

Go back to copilot.microsoft.com in any browser tab.
Notice the three key areas of the interface: the Message Copilot text box at the bottom for typing prompts, the quick-action suggestion tiles above it, and the conversation area where Copilot's responses will appear.
Type Hello, what can you help me with? into the text box and press Enter.
Read Copilot's response.

Copilot provides a structured answer with suggestions for what you can ask next. This is your first conversation, and it is now saved in your chat history.

What are the quick-action tiles?

The tiles on the Copilot home screen are shortcuts that pre-fill common prompts. Tiles like Create an image and Improve writing jump-start tasks without you having to write a prompt from scratch. You can always ignore them and type your own prompt instead.

Your Copilot setup is complete. Next up, you will put Copilot to work by researching a topic you genuinely care about using web-grounded answers.

Research a Topic with Web-Grounded Answers

Your Copilot account is set up and your first message is in the books. Now it is time to move beyond greetings and tackle a real question.

One of Copilot's most practical features is web grounding. Instead of relying only on its training data, Copilot searches the live web and cites its sources so you can verify what it tells you.

In this step, get ready to:

Ask Copilot a specific research question and receive web-grounded answers with source citations.
Practice follow-up questions to refine and reformat Copilot's responses.
Critically evaluate Copilot's sources by fact-checking a response.

Ask Copilot a research question

The best way to learn Copilot is to use it on something you actually care about. Think of a topic that interests you. This could be a hobby, a career question, a technology you want to understand, or a current event.

Return to copilot.microsoft.com in your browser.
Click the Message Copilot text box at the bottom of the screen.
Type a specific question about your chosen topic. For example, instead of "tell me about photography," try something like "What are the best camera settings for taking photos of stars at night?"
Press Enter or select the Send button to submit your question.
Read the full response. Notice that Copilot includes source citations and clickable links alongside its answer.

What is a web-grounded answer?

A web-grounded answer means Copilot searched the live web to build its response. It pulls from current web data, so its answers reflect up-to-date information rather than only what the AI was originally trained on.

The source links in Copilot's response let you verify the information yourself. This is a key difference from AI chatbots that do not show their sources.

You should see a detailed answer with numbered footnotes or inline links pointing to the websites Copilot used.

Not seeing source citations?

Make sure you are signed in. Source citations and longer responses are available when you are logged into your Microsoft account.

Try making your question more specific. Very broad or conversational prompts sometimes produce general answers without citations.

Help me troubleshoot missing source citations in Copilot.

Practice follow-up questions

Most people type one question and move on. The real power of an AI chat assistant is in the follow-up. You can steer Copilot toward exactly what you need by asking it to dig deeper, shift focus, or change the format of its answer.

Stay in the same conversation. Do not start a new chat.
Type a follow-up question that builds on Copilot's first answer. For example: "Which of those settings works best for a smartphone camera?" or "Can you compare the top two options?"
Press Enter and read the response.
Now type a second follow-up that asks Copilot to reformat its answer. For example: "Can you summarize that as a numbered list of 5 key points?" or "Put that in a simple table."
Press Enter and review the reformatted response.

What is conversational context?

Copilot remembers everything you have said earlier in the same conversation. This is called conversational context. You do not need to repeat your original question when you ask a follow-up.

If you start a new conversation, Copilot loses that memory and treats your next message as a fresh topic.

You should see Copilot respond to your follow-ups using details from earlier in the conversation. Your reformatted answer should appear as a numbered list, table, or whichever format you requested.

Copilot not remembering your earlier question?

Check that you are still in the same conversation thread. If you clicked New topic or refreshed the page, Copilot may have started a fresh session.

Scroll up in the chat to confirm your original question is still visible above your follow-up.

Help me understand why Copilot lost my conversation context.

Compare Copilot's web grounding to your experience

AI answers can sound confident even when they are wrong. The best habit to build early is checking Copilot's work on a question where you already know the answer.

Type a question where you can quickly verify the facts. For example: "What is the current population of [your city]?" or "What are the opening hours of [a local business]?"
Press Enter and read the response.
Click on at least one of the source links Copilot provides.
Check whether the source is recent and whether it comes from a reliable website.
Compare what the source page says to what Copilot told you. Note any differences.

You should now have a feel for how accurate Copilot's web-grounded answers are and how useful its source citations are for verification.

Build this habit early

Spot-checking sources on a question you already know the answer to is the fastest way to calibrate your trust in AI responses. Once you know how often Copilot gets things right (and where it tends to slip), you can use it more confidently on questions where you do not already know the answer.

You have tested Copilot's research abilities and learned how to steer conversations with follow-ups. Next up, you will learn a prompt formula that makes every Copilot interaction more effective.

Learn the Prompt Formula

In the last step, you used Copilot to research a real topic and saw how follow-up questions shape its responses. You even asked Copilot to reformat an answer on the fly.

Now it's time to get strategic about how you write prompts. A good prompt can be the difference between a generic answer and a genuinely useful one. In this step, you'll learn a simple formula that makes Copilot dramatically more helpful, and you'll start a personal Prompt Playbook to save your best prompts for reuse.

In this step, get ready to:

Learn and apply the "Role + Task + Format" prompt pattern.
Practice iterating on Copilot responses to refine the output.
Test different prompt types and save your best prompts to a Prompt Playbook.

Use the "Role + Task + Format" pattern

The most effective prompts follow a simple pattern. You tell Copilot who to be (the role), what to do (the task), and how to present the answer (the format).

This pattern is the foundation of prompt engineering. It works because it gives Copilot the context it needs to produce a focused, useful response instead of a vague one.

Start a new conversation at copilot.microsoft.com by selecting New topic (or refreshing the page).
Type the following prompt into the Message Copilot box and press Enter:

Act as a career coach. Review the following paragraph and suggest how to make it sound more professional. Present your suggestions as a before-and-after comparison:

[[YOUR_TEXT="a paragraph you have written, such as an email draft or a social media post"]]

What does this prompt do?

This prompt uses all three parts of the formula. The role is "career coach," which tells Copilot to respond from that perspective. The task is reviewing your paragraph and suggesting improvements. The format is a before-and-after comparison, so the answer is structured and easy to read.

Compare this to what you would get from a vague prompt like "fix my writing." The specificity makes a dramatic difference.

Read through Copilot's response. You should see a clearly structured before-and-after comparison showing your original text alongside a more professional version.

Don't see a before-and-after comparison?

Make sure you pasted an actual paragraph of text where the placeholder is. Without source text, Copilot has nothing to compare.

If Copilot gave a general response instead of a comparison, try rephrasing your format request. For example, add: "Show the original text first, then the improved version below it."

Why isn't Copilot giving me a before-and-after comparison from my prompt?

Practice iterating on a response

Most people type one prompt, read the answer, and move on. The real power of Copilot is in steering it toward exactly what you want through follow-up prompts.

Without starting a new conversation, type a follow-up that changes something specific about Copilot's response. Try one of these examples:
Read the updated response. Notice how Copilot adjusts its output based on your follow-up while keeping the context of your original request.
Send at least one more follow-up to refine the response further. For example, if you asked for a casual version, now ask for it as a bullet-point list.

Why is iteration so important?

Iteration is the single most important prompting skill. Your first prompt rarely produces the perfect result. Each follow-up narrows the gap between what Copilot gave you and what you actually need.

Think of it like giving feedback to a coworker. You would not expect a perfect first draft. You would say "make it shorter" or "change the tone." Copilot works the same way.

Try different prompt types

Copilot adapts its response style based on the type of request you make. Testing different prompt types builds your instinct for which approach fits which situation.

Start a new conversation at copilot.microsoft.com.
Pick at least two of the following prompt types and try them in Copilot. You can use the examples below or adapt them to a topic you care about:

Brainstorming: "Give me 10 creative names for a pet grooming business that sounds fun and trustworthy."
Explaining: "Explain how a mortgage works to a 15-year-old in simple language."
Planning: "Create a weekend trip itinerary for a city I want to visit. I have 2 days and a $200 budget."
Comparing: "Compare the pros and cons of learning Spanish vs. French as a second language. Present it as a table."

After trying each prompt, notice how Copilot adapts its response style. A brainstorming prompt produces a list. A comparing prompt produces a table. The prompt type shapes the output.

What makes each prompt type different?

Each type signals a different kind of thinking to Copilot. Brainstorming prompts generate quantity and variety. Explaining prompts simplify complex topics. Planning prompts create structured timelines or budgets. Comparing prompts produce side-by-side analyses.

Knowing which type to reach for is half the skill. The other half is iterating on the result until it fits your needs.

Now that you have a collection of tested prompts, it is time to save them somewhere you can find them again.

Open a notes app (Apple Notes, Google Docs, Notepad, or Microsoft Word) and create a new document.
Title it Prompt Playbook.
Add three category headings: Writing, Brainstorming / Planning, and Comparing / Explaining.
Under each heading, copy and paste the prompts you tried in this step. Include a short note about what worked well (for example, "the before-and-after format was really clear").
Save the document somewhere easy to find. You will add more prompts to it in the next steps.

Keep your Playbook lightweight

Your Prompt Playbook does not need to be fancy. A simple list of prompts organized by category is enough. The goal is to have a reference you can grab whenever you need Copilot to do something specific.

Your Prompt Playbook is started and your prompting instincts are sharpening. Next up, you will use Copilot inside Microsoft Edge to summarize real webpages and pull out specific details without reading every word.

Summarize a Webpage with Copilot in Edge

You've learned how to craft effective prompts and refine Copilot's responses through iteration. Now it's time to put those skills to work on content you encounter every day.

The Copilot sidebar in Microsoft Edge can read the webpage you're currently viewing. This turns Copilot into a reading assistant that summarizes, explains, and extracts details from any page you visit.

In this step, get ready to:

Summarize a long-form article using the Copilot sidebar in Edge.
Extract specific information from a second webpage.
Save your webpage summarization prompts to your Prompt Playbook.

Find an article to summarize

Switch to Microsoft Edge.
Navigate to a news article, blog post, or any long-form webpage that interests you. Pick something at least a few paragraphs long so Copilot has meaningful content to work with.
Confirm the Copilot sidebar is visible on the right side of the browser.

Sidebar not visible?

If the Copilot sidebar closed, select the Copilot icon in the top-right area of the Edge toolbar to bring it back. You can also press Ctrl+Shift+. (Windows) or Cmd+Shift+. (macOS) to toggle it.

Help me find the Copilot sidebar in Microsoft Edge.

You should see the webpage on the left and the Copilot chat panel on the right, ready to interact with the page.

Summarize and ask questions about the page

In the Copilot sidebar chat box, type the following prompt and press Enter:

Summarize this page in 5 bullet points.

Copilot reads the webpage content and returns a five-point summary of the article's key ideas.

How does Copilot read the page?

The Copilot sidebar in Edge has access to the content of your currently open tab. This is different from the standalone Copilot at copilot.microsoft.com, which can only work with text you type or paste into the chat.

This page-awareness is one of the most practical free Copilot features for daily productivity. You never need to copy and paste content out of an article to get a summary.

Without starting a new conversation, type a follow-up question about the page content and press Enter. Try something like:

What is the author's main argument?

Copilot answers using context from the page, not just general knowledge. You did not need to repeat any information from your first message.

What is conversational context?

Copilot remembers what you discussed earlier in the same conversation. This is called conversational context. Follow-up questions automatically build on previous answers without you repeating yourself.

Try one more follow-up. Ask Copilot to change the format of its answer by typing something like this and pressing Enter:

Can you summarize that as a numbered list of 5 key points?

Copilot restructures the same information into the format you requested. You could also try asking for a table or a shorter version.

Copilot not referencing the page?

If Copilot gives a generic answer that does not mention specific details from the article, try closing the sidebar and reopening it while the target page is in focus. Some pages with heavy JavaScript rendering may not be fully readable by the sidebar.

Why is Copilot in Edge not reading my webpage content?

Try a second page with a different request

Summarizing is just one way to use the sidebar. Copilot can also pull specific details out of a page, which is especially useful for product reviews, recipes, and how-to guides.

Navigate to a different webpage in Edge. Try a product review, a recipe, or a how-to guide.
In the Copilot sidebar, type a prompt that asks for specific information from the page and press Enter. For example:

List all the ingredients mentioned on this page.

Copilot scans the page and pulls out just the details you asked for. You could also try asking for key specifications, pricing details, or step-by-step instructions depending on the page.

Why is this useful?

Extracting specific information turns Copilot in Edge into a reading assistant that saves you from scanning an entire page. Instead of scrolling through a long review to find the battery life spec, you can just ask.

Open your Prompt Playbook document.
Add a new section called Webpage Summarization.
Save the prompts you used in this step: your 5 bullet point summary prompt, your follow-up question, and your specific information extraction prompt.

Include notes on what worked

Next to each saved prompt, jot down what kind of page you used it on and how well the result turned out. These notes make your Prompt Playbook much more useful when you revisit it later.

You now have a Copilot-powered reading assistant in your toolkit. Next up, you'll explore Copilot's creative side by generating your first AI image.

Generate Your First AI Image

In the last step, you used Copilot in Edge to summarize webpages and pull out specific details. You turned Copilot into a reading assistant that works on any page you visit.

Copilot also has a creative side. In this step, you will generate original AI images from descriptive text prompts and learn how to refine your results through iteration.

In this step, get ready to:

Generate an AI image using a descriptive prompt.
Refine your image prompt and compare the results.

Create an image with a descriptive prompt

Copilot includes a built-in image creator that turns text descriptions into original images. The key to getting a good result is being specific and visual in your prompt.

Return to copilot.microsoft.com in your browser. You can also use the Copilot sidebar in Edge from earlier.
Select New chat to start a fresh conversation for your image prompts.
Type the following descriptive image prompt into the chat box:

Create an image of a cozy coffee shop on a rainy evening, with warm lighting, bookshelves in the background, and a cat sleeping on a chair.

Press Enter or select the Send button to submit your prompt.

Copilot generates one or more images based on your description. This may take a few moments to complete.

What are image generation boosts?

Free Copilot users get 15 image generation boosts per day. Each image you create uses one boost. Once you have used all 15, you can try again the next day.

Not seeing an image?

Make sure you are signed in to your Microsoft account. Image creation is only available to signed-in users.
If Copilot returns a text response instead of an image, try rephrasing your prompt to start with "Create an image of" so Copilot recognizes it as an image request.
If you have used all 15 daily boosts, wait until the next day and try again.

Why isn't Copilot generating an image from my prompt?

Iterate on your image

The first image Copilot generates might not match your vision exactly. Iteration is the process of refining your prompt to steer the output closer to what you want.

In the same conversation, refine your image by typing this follow-up prompt:

Make the same image but in a watercolor painting style.

Press Enter and wait for the new image to appear.
Compare the new image to your original. Notice how adding a style keyword completely changed the look.
Try one more refinement by typing a prompt that adjusts a specific detail:

Add more detail to the bookshelves and make the cat orange.

Press Enter and compare all three results side by side.

Write more vivid image prompts

Include a style keyword like "photorealistic," "cartoon," or "oil painting."
Describe the mood you want, such as "peaceful," "dramatic," or "energetic."
Add composition details like "close-up," "wide angle," or "bird's eye view."
The more specific and visual your language, the better the result.

Open your Prompt Playbook document.
Add a new section called "Image Generation."
Paste your initial image prompt, your refined prompts, and a brief note on which techniques (style, mood, composition) produced the best results.
Save your Prompt Playbook.

Why save image prompts?

Good image prompts are hard to write from scratch every time. Saving the ones that worked well gives you a starting point for future projects. You can swap out details while keeping the structure that produced strong results.

Secret mission

Build a Multi-Step Prompt Workflow

So far, you have used Copilot for individual tasks like research, writing, and image creation. But the real power of AI assistants comes from chaining multiple prompts together into a single workflow. Your secret mission is to build a complete multi-step prompt chain that tackles a complex, real-world task from start to finish.

Clean Up Your Resources

This project runs entirely on free tools, so there are no ongoing costs. Decide whether to keep your resources as they are, tidy up your Copilot history, or remove everything you created during this project.

Resources you used:

Copilot chat history (conversations saved to your Microsoft account at copilot.microsoft.com).
Prompt Playbook document (your local file with saved prompts).

Keep everything running

No action needed. Choose this if you plan to keep using Copilot and want to reference your past conversations and Prompt Playbook.

Your Copilot chat history stays saved to your Microsoft account. You can revisit past conversations anytime at copilot.microsoft.com.
Your Prompt Playbook document stays wherever you saved it. Keep it somewhere easy to find so you can add new prompts over time.
Microsoft Edge stays installed on your machine. On Windows, Edge is a core part of the operating system and cannot be uninstalled. On macOS, it stays installed unless you manually remove it.

Pause - I'll come back to this later

No active processes to shut down. Everything in this project is free, so nothing is running up costs while you are away.

Your Copilot chat history is automatically saved to your Microsoft account. You can pick up where you left off anytime at copilot.microsoft.com.
Keep your Prompt Playbook document saved. You will build on it in future projects.

Delete - I don't want to use this again

Remove all project resources and start fresh. Follow these steps to clean up everything you created during this project.

To delete individual Copilot conversations, go to copilot.microsoft.com. Find the conversation in the history sidebar on the left. Select the three dots to the right of the conversation, then select Delete. Repeat for each conversation you want to remove.
To delete all Copilot chat history at once, visit your Microsoft Privacy Dashboard. Look for the Copilot app activity section. Select Delete all activity history and confirm by selecting Clear.
To clear Copilot's memory of your preferences, go to copilot.microsoft.com. Select your profile icon, then select Memory. Select Delete all Memory.
Delete your Prompt Playbook document from wherever you saved it (your notes app, a Word document, or your local file system).

That's a Wrap!

Nice work! You just went from zero Microsoft Copilot experience to confidently using it across research, writing, image creation, and webpage summarization.

You've learned how to:

Used Copilot's web-grounded answers to research a real topic and critically evaluate its cited sources.
Applied the "Role + Task + Format" prompt formula and practiced iterative refinement to steer Copilot toward exactly the output you needed.
Summarized real webpages using Copilot in Edge, generated AI images with descriptive prompts, and saved your best prompts in a reusable Prompt Playbook.
Secret Mission: Built a multi-step prompt workflow that chains prompts together for complex tasks and saved it to your Prompt Playbook.

Ready to quiz yourself?