You click the Copilot icon and wait. And wait. The window finally appears — sometimes after ten seconds, sometimes longer, sometimes stuck on a blank panel. On an AI PC with a fast SSD this feels wrong, and it is: Copilot should open in a couple of seconds.

The slowdown is rarely your hardware. The Copilot app on Windows 11 is a packaged app built on the WebView2 runtime, which means its launch depends on cached data, the runtime’s health, background process load, and a quick network handshake. Any one of these can stall the whole launch sequence.

This guide works through six fixes in technician order: quick restarts first, then cache and runtime repair, then load reduction, and finally a clean reinstall. Recheck the launch time after each step.

Why this happens

  • Bloated app cache: Months of cached web content pile up inside the Copilot package, and the app reads through it at every launch, slowing each open a little more.
  • Struggling WebView2 runtime: Copilot renders through WebView2; if the runtime is outdated, partially installed, or crashing on start, Copilot waits through timeouts before the window paints.
  • Hung background process: A previous Copilot session can leave a ghost process running that blocks a fresh launch, forcing the new window to queue behind a dead one.
  • Heavy startup contention: If Copilot is set to launch at startup alongside Teams, antivirus scans, and cloud sync, it fights for CPU and disk and loses — everything opens slowly.
  • Corrupt app package state: Interrupted updates or store glitches can leave the Copilot package half-registered, so Windows wastes time resolving the package before the app even starts.
  • Network handshake stalls: Copilot checks connectivity and account state on launch. A slow DNS response or a flaky connection delays that check and the whole window with it.

How to fix it

Work through these in order — diagnose first, then act.

Fix 1: Kill any hung Copilot process and relaunch fresh

A ghost process from a crashed or minimized session is the single most common cause of a slow open. Windows tries to reuse it instead of starting fresh, and the whole launch hangs behind it.

  1. Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open Task Manager, go to the Processes tab.
  2. Find Copilot (and any Copilot.exe entries) and end each one with End task.
  3. Also end any duplicate Microsoft Edge WebView2 processes if they are using CPU abnormally.
  4. Launch Copilot from the taskbar again — if it now opens quickly, the problem was a stuck process.

Fix 2: Repair the Copilot app through Windows Settings

A repair re-registers the app package and fixes broken launch wiring without touching your data. It is the safest first repair step.

  1. Open Settings > Apps > Installed apps, search for Copilot.
  2. Click the three dots > Advanced options next to Microsoft Copilot.
  3. Under Reset, click Repair and wait for the confirmation checkmark.
  4. Try launching Copilot. If it is still slow, click Reset instead — this clears local cache while your account history resyncs. If the app misbehaves further, the guide for when Copilot refuses to open at all covers deeper repair steps.

Fix 3: Update or reinstall the WebView2 runtime

Because Copilot renders through WebView2, a broken runtime directly slows or hangs its launch. A clean WebView2 often transforms a 20-second open into a 2-second one.

  1. Check your installed version: search WebView2 in Settings > Apps > Installed apps.
  2. Download the latest runtime from Microsoft’s WebView2 page and install it — standalone installers from Microsoft’s official download pages are the safe source.
  3. If the version was already current, uninstall WebView2 first, restart, then install fresh.
  4. Relaunch Copilot and time it. On some AI PCs, a failing NPU driver can also make app launches feel sluggish system-wide — if you see driver warnings, the NPU error code 31 guide covers that separately.

Fix 4: Cut startup contention so Copilot launches cleanly

If Copilot crawls only at boot but opens fine later, the problem is competition, not the app. Removing it from startup and trimming boot load fixes that.

  1. In Task Manager’s Startup apps tab, right-click Copilot and choose Disable so it does not race everything else at login.
  2. Disable other heavy startup items you do not need immediately — cloud backup clients, chat apps, updaters.
  3. Restart and let the desktop settle for a minute before launching Copilot manually.
  4. Check whether the app is also chewing CPU in the background, which compounds launch lag — the Copilot high CPU usage guide explains how to settle that down.

Fix 5: Clear Copilot’s cached data manually

The Reset button clears the app sandbox, but stale web cache inside WebView2’s profile folder sometimes survives it. Deleting that folder by hand finishes the job.

  1. Close Copilot completely (end the process in Task Manager first).
  2. Press Win + R, type %localappdata% and open the Microsoft folder.
  3. Look for the Copilot package folder (named like Microsoft.Copilot_8wekyb3d8bbwe) and open its LocalCache subfolder.
  4. Delete the contents of LocalCache — not the folder itself — then launch Copilot fresh.

Fix 6: Uninstall and reinstall the Copilot app package

When nothing above sticks, the package itself is corrupt. A full removal plus a fresh install from the Microsoft Store rebuilds every component cleanly.

  1. In Settings > Apps > Installed apps, open Copilot’s options and choose Uninstall; confirm it.
  2. Restart the PC so Windows fully deregisters the package and releases its folders.
  3. Open the Microsoft Store, search Microsoft Copilot, and install it fresh.
  4. Sign back in with your Microsoft account, let it sync, and confirm launches are fast. Display oddities sometimes appear alongside app package trouble on Snapdragon machines — if a screen setting also went missing, see the 120Hz refresh rate fix for ARM laptops .

Closing

Slow Copilot loading is almost always a software-state problem: a stuck process, stale cache, a tired WebView2 runtime, or a crowded boot. The repair tools built into Windows Settings clear most cases in minutes, and a fresh store install handles the rest. Keep WebView2 updated and avoid piling every app into startup, and Copilot will open the way it should — instantly.

Frequently asked questions

Why does the Copilot app take so long to open?
Slow loading is usually caused by bloated app cache, a struggling WebView2 runtime, heavy CPU or disk contention at startup, or network stalls while the app checks for updates. The fixes below clear these bottlenecks in the order a technician would.
Will resetting the Copilot app delete my chat history?
A Repair keeps everything; a Reset clears local cache but your signed-in Copilot chat history is tied to your Microsoft account and syncs back. You will need to sign in again after a full reinstall, so know your password.
Can WebView2 really slow down Copilot?
Yes. Copilot runs inside the WebView2 runtime, so a corrupt or outdated WebView2 forces the app to time out and retry during launch. Updating or reinstalling WebView2 is one of the highest-yield fixes for slow loads.
Should I just reinstall Windows?
No — that is never necessary for a slow app. Every cause in this guide is fixable in minutes without touching the rest of your system. If the app will not open at all, see the dedicated guide too.