On the desktop and in Windows Explorer, the entry “Ask Copilot” has been appearing in the context menu when right-clicking on a registered file type such as DOCX, TXT, PDF or PNG for a few weeks now.
Microsoft wants to draw users’ attention to the AI contained in Windows and encourage them to use the function. If this annoys you though, you can simply remove the menu entry via the registry.
Type “Registry Editor” in the search window of the taskbar and click on the hit Registry Editor. Click through to the folder “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Shell Extensions\” and open the key Blocked.
If this key does not exist, right-click on Shell Extensions, go to New -> Key and give the new key the name “Blocked”.
You can remove the Copilot entry in the context menus of Desktop and Explorer by changing the registry.
Sam Singleton
Then right-click on Blocked, call up New string and give it the name {CB3B0003-8088-4EDE-8769-8B354AB 2FF8C}. Now double-click on the character string and enter “Ask Copilot” as the value.
Then close the window with OK. The next time you open Explorer or the next time you right-click a file on the desktop, Ask Copilot should disappear.
The alternative is to remove Copilot completely from the system. To do this, go to Settings via the Start menu and then to Apps -> Installed apps. In the following list, you will also find Copilot, which you can uninstall by clicking on the three dots.
By the way: If you’re using Windows 11 Home, you will miss out on the many advantages of the Pro version. Fortunately, the Windows 11 upgrade is available in the PCWorld Software Store 64 percent off right now.
This article originally appeared on our sister publication PC-WELT and was translated and localized from German.
Author: Roland Freist, Contributor, PCWorld
Roland Freist is a freelance IT journalist covering topics related to Windows, applications, networks, security and the Internet.