In April 2026, Microsoft finally caved to user complaints and made Copilot removable from Windows 11. It became one of the most controversial additions to the operating system in years, which is why the company had to take such a drastic step.
Two months later, it is installing it again. The only thing that has changed is the method. The bad news is that the new method is harder to stop. The good news, however, is that the change doesn’t affect all Windows 11 users. In fact, it doesn’t affect a majority of them.
Microsoft / Digital Trends
So what exactly is Microsoft doing this time?
Rather than using the Microsoft Store’s auto-install feature, which can be blocked by enterprise administrators and users alike, Microsoft is piggybacking the Copilot installation onto the Office suite’s update mechanism.
The latest rollout targets systems running commercial Microsoft 365 desktop apps. It is scheduled to run between mid-June and mid-July, giving it roughly a 30-day window to land on your machine before you might notice it arrived.
If your organization wants to prevent it, an administrator can disable Copilot in the Admin Center in advance. However, this is where it gets deliberately annoying.
Microsoft
Why is Europe being spared?
The settings to remove Copilot are scattered across the Admin Center and the individual settings of apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams. Microsoft calls this approach a way to “simplify” access to Copilot (via Windows Latest).
Users in the EU are exempt for now, likely due to competition law. The same legal scrutiny has kept Microsoft from bundling products as aggressively in European markets before. It’s worth noting here that the change doesn’t affect regular Windows 11 Home users either.
A previously leaked internal document (via Notebookcheck) revealed that Microsoft’s goal with its AI products is not just adoption but to create dependency. The force-install method and the deliberate friction around removing it read more clearly in that context.
