Watch Your Step

Disabling Windows Copilot

If you want to disable Copilot for Windows 11 completely, you can use Group Policy in Active Directory. Of course, the corresponding settings are also available in local policy management, which you can launch by typing gpedit.msc. You will need the latest Group Policy templates for Windows 11 or the templates for Windows 11 22H2 Moment 4. The settings are under User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Windows Copilot . Currently, only the Turn off Windows Copilot policy setting can be found here (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Administrators can use Group Policy to disable Windows Copilot.

If you enable this setting, you are not allowed to work with Windows Copilot. By default, Windows automatically allows access after activating Windows Copilot in Europe. Make sure you disable Windows Copilot first and do not enable it again until extensive testing of the function is complete.

Like many other Group Policy entries, you can alternatively configure the settings directly in the registry by creating a new DWORD value named HideCopilotButton in the HKEY_ LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer path and set the value to 1 . This value initially only hides the Copilot button in the taskbar but does not deactivate the AI service.

You can manually hide Copilot in the taskbar in the Windows 11 settings under Personalization | Taskbar | Copilot (but, again, you cannot disable Copilot).

In HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsCopilot , you can disable Windows Copilot by setting the TurnOffWindowsCopilot DWORD value to 1 . After restarting the computer, the Copilot button has disappeared from the taskbar and can no longer be started – not even with a hack. Unfortunately, users can still work with Bing Chat or Bing Chat Enterprise in Edge.

Microsoft Intune

On mobile devices and home workstations, Copilot can be deactivated with Microsoft Intune by creating a new device profile; you can then use this profile to configure Copilot on the connected computers. The settings are under Devices | Windows | Configuration Profiles . Use Create profile and select Windows 10 and higher as the platform and Templates as the profile type, then click Custom and Create .

Assign a name to the new profile (e.g., Windows Copilot ). Press Add on the Configuration Settings tab (Figure 3), then type TurnOffWindowsCopilot (e.g., under Name). In the OMA-URI field, enter ./User/Vendor/MSFT/WindowsAI/TurnOffWindowsCopilot with Integer as the data type and 1 as the value. Save the settings and finish creating the configuration profile. Then assign the configuration profile to the desired computers to disable Copilot. No other configuration profiles are different from this point on.

Figure 3: Windows Copilot can also be disabled in Microsoft Intune.

Disabling Copilot in Edge

By default, the Copilot icon is available in the top right corner of Microsoft Edge, so you can open Bing Chat or Bing Chat Enterprise. However, this service has nothing to do with Windows Copilot, except that Windows Copilot relies on Bing Chat and Bing Chat Enterprise as its basis. Even if you disable Windows Copilot, you can still access Copilot in the Edge browser. To hide the AI application manually, type edge://settings/sidebar in the address bar and disable Show Copilot (Figure 4).

Figure 4: Copilot in Microsoft Chat, and therefore also Bing Chat and Bing Chat Enterprise, can be disabled in the browser settings.

These settings can also be automated with registry entries by adding the following two entries with the specified commands:

reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Edge"
reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Edge" /v HubsSidebarEnabled /t REG_DWORD /d 00000000 /f

After a restart, the sidebar with Bing Chat is no longer available in Edge.

If you delete the key with the settings, the sidebar becomes available again after a restart – in Bing Chat, as well. The settings are available in the policies under User configuration | Computer configuration | Administrative templates | Microsoft Edge . However, the current ADMX files for Microsoft Edge for Business must be in place for this to work. You can pick them up from the Microsoft Edge download page [1]. These settings can be used locally or distributed by Group Policy.

If you use Edge in the enterprise, it definitely makes sense to secure the browser with the additional security settings. Edge version 116 or newer must be in place. From this version onward, Microsoft Edge for Business is enabled on signing in to Azure AD/Entra ID, allowing the browser to separate business and private data. The briefcase symbol shows that Edge's business mode is active.

In the future, you will be able to manage Edge for Business in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center under https://admin.microsoft.com/adminportal/home#/Edge, where you specify configuration profiles and define page lists. This development is significant for Bing Chat and Bing Chat Enterprise because the AI chat is also available in the sidebar. Again, the possibilities are currently limited.