After introducing AI in its Bing search engine, Microsoft has decided to go all in on the AI wave. It has integrated Copilot, an AI assistant designed to help users automate tasks, right inside Windows. But what if you don’t like the idea of Copilot and want to disable it? We will discuss the methods to remove the Copilot icon from the Taskbar. However, if you want a more permanent solution, we will list two working methods to disable Copilot on Windows 11 completely.
How to Remove the Copilot Icon From the Taskbar
You can easily pin and unpin items on the Taskbar in Windows. But Microsoft’s new improvements to the taskbar settings offer the option to add or remove some elements only via the Settings app. Here’s how to remove the Copilot icon from the Taskbar:
1. Right-click on the Taskbar to open the context menu. Click on the Taskbar settings option.
2. Find the Copilot option under the Taskbar items section. Click on the toggle next to it to hide the Copilot button from the Taskbar.
Note that this will only remove the Copilot icon from the Taskbar. You can still launch it by pressing the Windows key + C shortcut combination.
How to Disable Copilot on Windows 11
Here are the two methods to disable Copilot on Windows 11:
1. Using the Group Policy Editor (Windows Pro and Enterprise)
Group Policy Editor is an advanced tool meant for power users and comes preinstalled on Windows Pro and Enterprise PCs. All you need to do is tweak a system policy in the Group Policy Editor to disable Copilot on your PC. Here’s how:
1. Press the Windows key to open the Start menu. Type gpedit.msc in the search box and press the Enter key to open the Group Policy Editor.
2. Navigate to User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components option. Now, locate the Windows Copilot option in the right sidebar and double-click on it.
3. Right-click on the Turn off Windows Copilot policy. Click on the Edit option.
4. Click on the Enabled radio button to select it.
5. Now, click on the Apply button. Then click on the OK button to finalize the changes.
6. Close the Group Policy Editor window.
7. Restart your PC to apply the changes and then log in to your PC.
You will see that the Copilot icon will vanish from the Taskbar and the app won’t launch after pressing the Windows key + C shortcut.
2. Using ViveTool (For All Windows Editions)
If you use the Windows 11 Home version then the Group Policy Editor method isn’t for you. Instead, you can use the ViveTool to disable Copilot in a few easy steps.
ViveTool helps in tweaking Windows experimental features and is effective in disabling Copilot on Windows 11 Home and all other versions at the time of writing this guide. Firstly, download the latest version of the ViveTool from GitHub and then follow the below-mentioned steps:
1. Press the Windows key + E to open the File Explorer. Navigate to the Downloads folder where you downloaded the ViveTool ZIP file.
2. Right-click on the ZIP file and select the Extract All option.
3. Name the folder “Vive“. Click on the Extract button.
4. A new folder named Vive containing all the extracted files will be created. Copy this folder and then paste it into the C drive.
5. Press the Windows key, type cmd, and then press the Ctrl + Shift + Enter keys simultaneously.
6. The User Account Control windows will open. Click on the Yes button to launch the Command Prompt with administrator privileges.
7. Now, type the following command and press Enter to switch to the Vivetool directory:
cd c:\vive
8. After that, execute the following command:
vivetool /disable /id:44774629,44776738,44850061,42105254,41655236
9. Close the Command Prompt window after you get the “Successfully set feature configuration(s)” message.
10. Restart your PC to apply the changes.
Tip: There are many different ways to restart a Windows PC.
Easily Hide or Disable Copilot
These were the multiple methods to remove the Copilot icon from the taskbar and completely disable it from your Windows 11 PC. Microsoft is pushing it as an AI companion that will make menial tasks easier. However, you can use Bing Chat in the Edge browser to still access Microsoft’s AI chatbot.
