How to Uninstall Copilot in Windows 11 (for Users and IT Admins)

Someone keeps pressing the Copilot key by accident, or the front-desk PCs shouldn’t run an AI chat app at all. Either way, the old registry tweak you found online won’t help anymore.

In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to uninstall Copilot in Windows 11 from Settings or PowerShell, keep it installed but out of your way, turn it off in Edge, Word and Excel, and remove or block it across your organization with Intune, Group Policy and the Microsoft 365 admin centers.

Quick answer: Open Settings > Apps > Installed apps, search for Copilot, select the … next to it and choose Uninstall. You can reinstall it from the Microsoft Store anytime. Admins should use an AppLocker rule or the Remove Microsoft Copilot App policy, because the old Turn off Windows Copilot policy is deprecated.

What You Need Before You Start

Most of this guide works on any Windows 11 PC. The admin sections assume you manage company devices that use Microsoft 365 apps and services. Here’s what each part needs:

• Uninstall or turn off on one PC: Windows 11 Home, Pro, Enterprise or Education and your normal user account.
• PowerShell removal: Windows PowerShell, run as the user who has the app.
• Office apps: Microsoft 365 Personal or Family signed in with a personal Microsoft account. Work and school accounts don’t get this switch.
• Remove Microsoft Copilot App policy: Windows 11, version 24H2 or later, and Intune or Group Policy.
• Tenant-wide controls: admin rights in the Microsoft 365 admin center and the Microsoft 365 Apps admin center.

We’d also try every admin change on a few test devices first. If you don’t have a spare tenant for that, you can set up a Microsoft 365 trial tenant in a few minutes.

What Copilot on Windows 11 Looks Like in 2026

The original Copilot in Windows was a sidebar built into the operating system. Microsoft replaced it with the Microsoft Copilot app, a regular Store app you can pin, unpin and uninstall. That’s why guides that tell you to hide a taskbar toggle or set a registry value don’t work anymore.

Two more changes matter this year. First, the Microsoft 365 Copilot app is now called Microsoft Copilot. Second, Microsoft is merging the consumer Copilot app and the work app into one unified Microsoft Copilot app, installed and updated through Microsoft Edge Update. You may see either version for a while.

Copilot also lives inside Edge, Word, Excel, Outlook and Teams. Uninstalling the Windows app doesn’t touch those, so we cover each one below. If you’re unsure which Copilot your company actually pays for, our comparison of Microsoft 365 Copilot vs Copilot Studio sorts out the names.

Step 1: Uninstall the Copilot App from Settings

This is the cleanest option when you don’t use Copilot at all. It works on Home and Pro as well as business editions:

1. Open Settings > Apps > Installed apps.
2. Type Copilot in the search box.
3. Select … (More options) next to the Copilot app.
4. Select Uninstall and confirm.

Uninstall from the Start menu

You can also open Start > All apps, right-click Copilot and select Uninstall. If you see two Copilot entries, one is usually the work app (formerly Microsoft 365 Copilot), so check which one you’re removing.

Changed your mind? Install Copilot again for free from the Microsoft Store. Work users who still want Copilot in meetings can keep using Copilot in Teams meetings, which doesn’t depend on the Windows app.

Step 2: Remove Copilot with PowerShell

For a script or a handful of PCs, Microsoft documents two PowerShell commands. Run them in a normal Windows PowerShell window as the signed-in user:

# Get the package full name of the Copilot app
$packageFullName = Get-AppxPackage -Name "Microsoft.Copilot" | Select-Object -ExpandProperty PackageFullName

# Remove the Copilot app
Remove-AppxPackage -Package $packageFullName

The first line finds the installed Copilot package and saves its full name. The second line removes that package for the current user only.

If Get-AppxPackage returns nothing, the PC may already have the unified Copilot app that Edge Update installs. Use the Settings steps on that PC, or the admin policies in Step 6. More admin scripts are in our PowerShell tutorials.

Step 3: Keep Copilot but Get It Out of Your Way

Plenty of people use Copilot now and then but don’t want it popping up. These options keep it installed.

Unpin it and stop it from starting

Right-click the Copilot icon on the taskbar and select Unpin from taskbar. To stop it from launching when you sign in, open Settings > Apps > Startup and turn off Copilot, or disable it on the Startup apps tab in Task Manager.

Remap the Copilot key

Pressing the Copilot key (or Windows key + C) opens a small Copilot prompt box, and a long press starts a voice chat. To change that, open Settings > Personalization > Text input and use Customize Copilot key on keyboard.

Choose Search to open Windows Search, or Custom to pick another app. Only MSIX-packaged apps that register as a Copilot key provider show up in the picker, so a missing app isn’t a bug on your PC.

Admins can set the key for everyone with Set Copilot Hardware Key under User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Copilot. The value is the target app’s AUMID. Teams users who’d rather quiet a different app can read our guide to ways to disable Microsoft Teams.

Step 4: Turn Off Copilot in Microsoft Edge

Edge has its own Copilot button, and uninstalling the Windows app doesn’t remove it. Here’s how to hide it:

1. In Edge, go to Settings > Appearance > Copilot and Sidebar.
2. Under App specific settings, select Copilot.
3. Turn off Show Copilot button on the toolbar.

On the same page, turn off Allow Copilot to use browser content if you don’t want Copilot reading the page or PDF you have open.

Admins have Edge policies for this. Microsoft365CopilotChatIconEnabled hides the Copilot Chat button for Entra ID work profiles in Edge 139 and later. HubsSidebarEnabled disables Copilot Chat in Edge entirely, but it also blocks every other sidebar app. The Microsoft Teams tutorials cover the Teams side.

Step 5: Turn Off Copilot in Word, Excel and PowerPoint

With a personal Microsoft account, such as Microsoft 365 Personal or Family, you can switch Copilot off in each desktop app on Windows:

1. Open Word, Excel or PowerPoint and select File > Options > Copilot.
2. Clear Enable Copilot and select OK.
3. Close and restart the app.

On a Mac, the checkbox is under the app menu > Preferences > Authoring and Proofing Tools > Copilot. The setting applies to one app on one device, so repeat it in each app. The web, iPhone and Android versions don’t have it.

In new Outlook, Outlook on the web and the mobile apps, turn off Turn on Copilot under Settings > Copilot. Just removing the Copilot icon from the ribbon doesn’t turn it off.

Signed in with a work or school account? The checkbox isn’t there; your IT admin decides who gets Copilot. If your company has the license, it’s worth learning instead, for example by building an agent in Microsoft 365 Copilot that writes Word documents.

Step 6: Remove or Block Copilot Across Your Organization

Admins have several tools, and they do different things. We’d pick based on whether you want a one-time cleanup or a permanent block.

Remove Microsoft Copilot App policy

On Windows 11, version 24H2 and later, set Remove Microsoft Copilot App (Windows Components > Windows AI) in Group Policy, or RemoveMicrosoftCopilotApp from the WindowsAI Policy CSP in Intune. It targets Enterprise and Education editions.

The policy is gentle by design. It removes the app only when Microsoft 365 Copilot and Microsoft Copilot are both installed, the user didn’t install Copilot, and nobody launched it in the last 28 days. Users can reinstall it.

Block the app with AppLocker

To keep Copilot off a device, Microsoft recommends an AppLocker packaged app rule. Create a Deny rule with publisher CN=MICROSOFT CORPORATION, O=MICROSOFT CORPORATION, L=REDMOND, S=WASHINGTON, C=US, package name MICROSOFT.COPILOT and any version. It stops new installs and blocks launches.

Manage the unified Copilot app with Edge Update

The unified app has its own policies under Administrative Templates > Microsoft Edge Update > Microsoft Copilot. Set Allow installation to disabled to stop installs through Edge Update. The Uninstall policy removes the app, but only on Active Directory domain-joined PCs.

Need more time? Microsoft documents a pause: set PauseCopilotAppUnificationRollout to 1 under HKLM\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\EdgeUpdate.

Stop the automatic install with Microsoft 365 Apps

Windows PCs with Microsoft 365 Apps Version 2511 or later install the Copilot app automatically, except on Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel. To stop it, open the Microsoft 365 Apps admin center, go to Customization > Device Configuration > Modern Apps settings, select the Copilot app and clear Enable automatic installation of Microsoft 365 Copilot app.

Remove Copilot Chat in Microsoft 365

Copilot Chat also appears in Outlook, Teams and on the web. In the Microsoft 365 admin center, set the pinning options under Copilot > Settings, and block or scope the Copilot app in Integrated Apps. Blocking it there blocks it for licensed users too. Before you roll Copilot out instead, tighten oversharing with Microsoft 365 sensitivity labels.

Cheat Sheet: Which Copilot Option to Use

Goal	Option	Who	What it does
Remove it from my PC	Settings > Apps > Installed apps > Uninstall	Any user	Uninstalls the app; Store reinstall works
Script it	Get-AppxPackage + Remove-AppxPackage	User or IT	Removes the Store package for that user
Stop accidental key presses	Customize Copilot key on keyboard	Any user	Opens Search or another app
Hide it in Edge	Show Copilot button on the toolbar	Any user	Hides the toolbar button
Turn it off in Word or Excel	File > Options > Copilot > Enable Copilot	Personal accounts	Turns it off in that app on that PC
One-time cleanup	Remove Microsoft Copilot App policy	IT admin	Uninstalls unused, admin-deployed copies
Permanent block	AppLocker packaged app rule	IT admin	Blocks install and launch
Unified app control	Edge Update > Microsoft Copilot policies	IT admin	Controls install and uninstall
No auto-install	Microsoft 365 Apps admin center	IT admin	Stops the install with Microsoft 365 Apps
Legacy setting	Turn off Windows Copilot policy	–	Deprecated; only affected the old sidebar

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Using the old registry tweak. Setting TurnOffWindowsCopilot to 1 under HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsCopilot is the registry form of the deprecated policy. It doesn’t remove or block the current app.
• Expecting the Remove policy to run every day. It only removes copies that meet all three conditions, and users can reinstall. Use AppLocker for a hard block.
• Deploying the Edge Update Uninstall policy to cloud-only PCs. It only works on domain-joined devices.
• Hiding the ribbon button and calling it done. Copilot is still reachable in Office until you clear Enable Copilot.
• Blocking Copilot in Integrated Apps for a test group of everyone. That block includes licensed users, so scope it carefully.

Does Uninstalling Copilot Remove It from Edge, Word and Teams?

No. The Windows app, Edge, the Microsoft 365 apps and Teams each have their own Copilot. Uninstalling the app only removes the Windows app, so turn off the Edge button and the Office checkbox separately.

On work accounts, admins control Copilot Chat in Teams through app permission policies and the Copilot app in the Teams admin center. If Copilot comes back after an update, check whether the unified app reinstalled it through Edge Update, then use the matching policy.

Next Steps

If you removed Copilot because you weren’t sure it was worth it, compare it first in our guide to whether Copilot is better than ChatGPT. And if your team wants its own agent instead, start with how to create a new agent in Copilot Studio.

We’d keep these handy if you manage Copilot for your team:

• Microsoft Teams Meeting Notes AI: A Complete Guide (2026)
• How to Copy Agent Builder Agent to Copilot Studio?
• Build and Deploy a Smart HR Assistant Bot Using Copilot Studio [Step-by-Step]
• How to Add Copilot to Power Apps?

Frequently Asked Questions