We characterize microlocal regularity, in the $\mathcal{G}^{\infty}$-sense, of Colombeau generalized functions by an appropriate extension of the classical notion of micro-ellipticity to pseudodifferential operators with slow-scale generalized symbols. Thus we obtain an alternative, yet equivalent, way of determining generalized wavefront sets that is analogous to the original definition of the wavefront set of distributions via intersections over characteristic sets. The new methods are then applied to regularity theory of generalized solutions of (pseudo)differential equations, where we extend the general non-characteristic regularity result for distributional solutions and consider propagation of $\mathcal{G}^{\infty}$-singularities for homogeneous first-order hyperbolic equations.