How to turn off or remove Windows Copilot on Windows 11

Earlier this week, Microsoft began rolling out the Moment 4 update for Windows 11. The update also includes Windows Copilot, a general Artificial Intelligence (AI) utility that replaces Cortana and has the ability to suggest actions. perform certain tasks for users on the system.

However, if you don't care about having extra bloatware on your system, there are ways to remove or disable Windows Copilot on Windows 11. How you do this will depend on whether you are using Windows 11 or Windows 11 Pro.

For Pro users, intervening in Group Policy Editor will be the simplest way to turn off Copilot. On the other hand, Windows 11 users will have to rely on Windows Registry Editor. Regardless of which option you use, you should back up your system before doing so, because editing the Windows Registry Key can sometimes have an unnecessary impact on your system.

Method 1: How to remove the Copilot icon from the Windows 11 Taskbar

By default, the Copilot icon appears on the Windows 11 Taskbar. However, if you don't want it there but still want to use it occasionally, you can easily hide the Copilot icon. Just right-click anywhere on an empty part of the Taskbar and select Taskbar settings. In the Settings window that appears, turn off the toggle next to Copilot.

This will remove the Copilot icon from the Taskbar. You can still access Copilot by pressing the keyboard shortcut Win + C in Windows 11.

Method 2: Use Group Policy Editor

Windows 11 Pro users can access the Group Policy Editor on their system to disable Copilot by following the steps below:

Step 1: Open the Start menu and type “Group Policy Editor” or “gpedit”.

Step 2: Click Edit group policy

Step 3: Navigate to User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Copilot.

Step 4: Double click “Turn off Windows Copilot“. This will open a new dialog box.

Step 5: Click the button “Enabled” at the top left, then click Apply and ok to save changes.

Windows Copilot will be disabled on your system and also disappear from the Taskbar.

Method 3: Use Registry Editor

If you are running a non-Pro version of Windows 11, you will need to take advantage of the Registry Editor to remove Windows Copilot, because Group Policy Editor does not come with regular Windows 11. This method will be a bit more complicated.

Step 1: Open the Start menu and type “Registry Editor” or “regedit“.

Step 2: Click Registry Editor. Click Yes if you receive a UAC prompt.

Step 3: Now, you will need to navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows

Step 4: Click Edit > New > Key and name this new key “WindowsCopilot“.

Step 5: Navigate to value Edit > New > DWORD (32-bit) and name it “TurnOffWindowsCopilot“.

Step 6: Double click “TurnOffWindowsCopilot“, set the value to 1 and the base to Hexadecimal.

Step 7: Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows and repeat the same steps.

Step 8: Now, reboot your system or open Task Manager and restart the Windows Explorer task.

You can also paste the following code into Notepad and save it as a .reg file. Once run, this will do the above steps for you so you don't have to do it manually:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsCopilot]
"TurnOffWindowsCopilot"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsCopilot]
"TurnOffWindowsCopilot"=dword:00000001

Once completed, Windows Copilot will be removed from your system. You can revert by deleting the “Windows Copilot” key from both locations and restarting the system.

Windows Copilot is now available for those who have installed the Moment 4 update. Good luck with your implementation.