Apps Completely Disable and Remove Copilot in Windows 11

I removed the contents of the data key from the path below. After that, Microsoft Copilot Pro, Microsoft 365 Family, PC Game Pass ads were removed from Settings.
Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\AccountsService\Subscriptions
Can someone inform me about the safety of removing this key? Has anyone tried removing it?

The image after deleting the contents of the "Data" key.


Thanks

HADE said:

I removed the contents of the data key from the path below. After that, Microsoft Copilot Pro, Microsoft 365 Family, PC Game Pass ads were removed from Settings.
Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\AccountsService\Subscriptions
Can someone inform me about the safety of removing this key? Has anyone tried removing it?

The image after deleting the contents of the "Data" key.
View attachment 101222

Thanks

Click to expand...

It should be safe to delete to remove this info under Settings > Accounts.

I'm not sure if it will just automatically get repopulated in the future though.

Brink said:

It should be safe to delete to remove this info under Settings > Accounts.

I'm not sure if it will just automatically get repopulated in the future though.

Click to expand...

Next critical update. lol

Greetings,
I bring 3 gifts today! Articles concerning Co-Pilot integration, or lack there-of... and the privacy of such data miners that concern those keen on the risks. But first, I must vent a little bit...
Relevant links at bottom for those, currently, with no time for spirited stories.

This thread has not had any recent posts but I see there are currently 11 people viewing it. Many windows users are concerned with co-pilot. I had windows 11 installed 2 months ago, 22H2. Well, I Had some hardware mishaps and was back to just Windows 10. Get everything set back up and download a full ISO of Windows 11, 24H2 from MS website. Clean Install to new SSD and what happens???
--- Your computer does not meet the hardware requirements for Windows 11... WHAT?!?!

I sat there staring at the screen wondering what could be wrong... I know for a FACT, my Dell system meets windows 11 requirements To the T. Every Single One. That is until recently... As I will soon find out...

Upon doing some research I discovered that their are new requirements for all Co-pilot+ PC's, which includes all editions of windows up through Pro . The best part? There is no way (without hacking the registry. no matter how simple the OP has actually made that process, Thanks BTW!!!) to disable Co-pilot+ without getting a bit... creative. We all know getting "Creative" is good fun, but sometimes that fun can be a bit high maintenance.
HERES THE KICKER>>>>>
16 GB DDR5 MEMORY, MINIMUM!!!!!!
I have 16 GB but not DDR5.... That high requirement is going to force pretty much any consumer machine to not be able to get windows 11 without a hefty machine capable of such. If you want to do anything more than e-mail or have a second screen, play a decent game... suggested to have more that 16GB DDR5. Maybe this is part of the reason they recently extended support for 10, plus the PK Fail Issue. We thought we we're getting a bonus extension because Microsoft is doing us a favor... haha! I guess there is no free lunch, right?
Then Microsoft will take away our new shiny hardware just as soon as we boot it and use it to produce a neat and tidy build log of everything everyone does on their computers. Stored locally for Hacker A, B, and let's not forget the big "C" for China to browse through at their Leisure....

This upset me quite a bit. Lets not forget that Microsoft is STILL in the middle of one of the biggest fails in "security" ever. Plus countless OEM's that they drug into this mess with them. Well, to be honest it was a team effort but this BLack Lotus PK Fail Issue has been just that...

A Big Black Lotus PK FAIL.
That's a whole 'nother thread somewhere on here I'm sure. Millions of windows users still have compromised keys, including myself! I looked over the procedures to force implement the changes early... I know computers but that is a bit out of my league, it would either take me hours and potentially brick my many systems or be a headache and a half trying to figure it out and learn as I go. I want to implement my own keys but I found out rather soon that it's a bit more complicated than it may appear, and I don't want to just guess and check. That's not wise, nor does it make me feel confident about my work when I'm done. I'll wait for MS to do it, which is planned for the next year I think. Them and 25 other OEM's that are having to overhaul their core OS functionality as well. Not to mention all the drivers and what not to be happy together again. It's a massive project and in my opinion MS will be chasing their tails for decades. That one really set us all back and I don't like to acknowledge that the "dark side" may be a score or two in the lead after that one.

Yes Microsoft, I'm very eager and excited to have you hog a disproportionate amount of my computer's resources so you can implement a Gaping security nightmare that I want no part of and then somehow be dense enough to believe that the same thing wont happen that has been happening to Microsoft for years, they get hacked and zero day'd until patch Tuesday happens twice some weeks.

Don't get me started...

In their defense, I do like Microsoft. They make a good product and I would still recommend them, in moderation, to regular consumers and my fellow amateur professionals. In short, I don't agree with their security posture or their approach to build layout. They complicate things that are best pure and simple and that takes away from the finesse of a good Clean Build. In my opinion, You should apply this way of thinking about safety / security in any industry...
A competent approach to safety / security is really quite simple. Why depend on a safeguard to protect you? When you can eliminate the entire hazard itself, and have zero possibility of a safety / security incident. I understand with the AI push it may be very tempting to collect all the data and worry about protecting it after, especially when it's not their own. Besides, with all this extra Efficiency that AI is bringing us, you would think we should have some time to take our time and build this beast out proper. The last thing we want is a AI creation that one day turns into our worst enemy. Remember the Tortoise and the Hare? Yes my friend... I see that story played out many ways in this AI scene. This is the core reason why I don't like Microsoft some days. We just don't see eye to eye on a few things. This is life. Life goes on...

That being said.... I wanted to share this article i found, recently released!!! It's geared towards IT Pros and those that use "managed' editions of windows 11. Which aren't that much more for licenses and given the Freedom from forced bloatware.... are looking veerrryyy attractive in this Co-Pilot+ Microsoft Era that shadows us all...
It sounds like (maybe someone can clarify) that all you may have to do is opt for a sign-in with a school or work account. I was looking at admin 365 subscriptions and the cheapest was $6 / month for Windows 11 business. plus all the enterprise options... not bad.

Oh FYI, I did the fix in this original post and was NOT able to install upgrade my Win 10 pro to windows 11 24H2 or Clean Install it on a new partition from thumb drive without the requirements of 16GB DDR5 memory. I was hoping maybe it would not check but nope.
I wonder how many people like I got caught in the middle. I have no way of installing Windows 11 now. I've essentially been FORCE Migrated down to Windows 10 Pro after running Windows 11 Pro, within MS specs for over 2 years. I do plan on calling MS today to run this by them, maybe they have a work around....or know a build number I need. I'm tired of spending time on it!

I least I have a Co-Pilot Free Windows 10 Pro now, I better enjoy it!

Thanks for reading my story. Long time reader, first time poster. I look forward to sharing and learning with everyone.

-----CO-PILOT INTEGRATION / DIS-INTEGRATION + SECURITY SPECIFICS----

These are both Microsoft Official Publications, from the source themselves.

Windows IT Pro Blog - Enhanced data protection with Windows & Co-Pilot

Co-Pilot - What's Rolled out & When, Versions affected. "Managed" devices & how to disable Co-Pilot.

Cheers!
-NetMan304

Most of the regulars here already know my view on the matter but it's reassuring to see that I'm not alone in this. IMO I have every good reason to be not impressed with what Microsoft has done with Windows 11 and I have not deviated from this since it was first released. To be fair, Microsoft is not the only culprit to be held accountable for all these security issues you are highlighting. The entire TCG Consortium share in this fiasco and frankly I rather doubt they're all that concerned about the security of the end user. Alas, I've said it all before numerous times so I'll spare the reader any additional missives. I'm still running Win 11 on this unit but I have about a dozen other units here at home that aren't running Windows 11 and they'll likely stay that way.

I don't recall what other apps I have blocked from Micro$oft, but I do recall blocking these and some others as I don't use them and I certainly don't use Edge.
Visual Studio Background Download
Microsoft.Windows.Photos
Microsoft Phone Link
Microsoft OneDrive (64 bit) Setup
Microsoft Edge WebView2
As far as I recall, all of these are used by co-pilot. I still update the windows security stuff, but that's about it. I am currently working on setting up a laptop with Linux specifically for running google and the up and coming forced ID.ME garbage that I need for connecting to government sites. I'm not thrilled at all.

No apps at all, here..., just Settings and Security.

I am hoping to call microsoft today and ask them what to do about this situation force downgrading me to windows 10. I'll update this when I have a result. The entra ID may be something worth investing in to keep the bloatware and what not down

NetMan304 said:

I am hoping to call microsoft today and ask them what to do about this situation force downgrading me to windows 10. I'll update this when I have a result. The entra ID may be something worth investing in to keep the bloatware and what not down

Click to expand...

Well, I wish you the best with that. Every time I talk to them it turns out that I know more about fixing the problem than they do and I'm not even an IT. I think Microsoft just pays people to read scripts and pretend to be tech support until the callers get completely enervated and give up. Most likely they'll just tell you to re-install the OS. They always tell me that. lol

NetMan304 said:

Your computer does not meet the hardware requirements for Windows 11

Click to expand...

24H2 also requires your CPU has SSE 4.2 extension support.
22H2 did not require this.

I can remove CoPilot in 24H2, but it keeps coming back. Today it came back because I install Adobe Acrobat at it wants to integrate with Co-Pilot. I've uninstalled Co-Pilot, again.

Has anyone used secpol.msc to Edit AppLocker policies to stop Co-Pilot from re-installing, per this: Updated Windows and Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat experience page and the section "Remove or prevent installation of the Copilot app" > section (2) ?

I'm a newb to that interface, so if you've done it, I have a couple questions.

Levitate11 said:

I can remove CoPilot in 24H2, but it keeps coming back. Today it came back because I install Adobe Acrobat at it wants to integrate with Co-Pilot. I've uninstalled Co-Pilot, again.

Has anyone used secpol.msc to Edit AppLocker policies to stop Co-Pilot from re-installing, per this: Updated Windows and Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat experience page and the section "Remove or prevent installation of the Copilot app" > section (2) ?

I'm a newb to that interface, so if you've done it, I have a couple questions.

Click to expand...

I'm keen on learning this too because the last stand alone repair for the latest 24H2 PITA update gave me back Co-Pilot.

Seems MS is bound determined to make me keep this. I haven't installed MS WORD yet even though I paid for the legacy version this month. I have a feeling they'll just force feed it to me anyway.

Our church as 2 laptops that run Windows 10 - me thinks - and good 'ol microsoft pushed some updates that changed the login process. 1. you have to be connected to the internet and 2. it wants a PIN rather than the password normally used. Good luck working off-line. I would provide more specs but I cannot access the OS. My only recourse is to pull the SSD and slave it to another pc to read and change some stuff to make it usable. And I am not even sure what the OS version is. Could be 11.

daddyattitude said:

Our church as 2 laptops that run Windows 10 - me thinks - and good 'ol microsoft pushed some updates that changed the login process. 1. you have to be connected to the internet and 2. it wants a PIN rather than the password normally used. Good luck working off-line. I would provide more specs but I cannot access the OS. My only recourse is to pull the SSD and slave it to another pc to read and change some stuff to make it usable. And I am not even sure what the OS version is. Could be 11.

Click to expand...

If you pursue the log in it will usually provide an option to use a password. If it employs two factor authentication you might be able to verify with a phone. Otherwise you'll likely have to do factory reset or reinstall. Usually you can retrieve personal files and data using the method you mentioned via Windows Explorer or Disk Management. The same thing happened on my X570 HERO which is supposed to be "Windows 11 Ready" but MS is telling me it isn't. More TPM2 buffoonery.

Scannerman said:

If you pursue the log in it will usually provide an option to use a password. If it employs two factor authentication you might be able to verify with a phone. Otherwise you'll likely have to do factory reset or reinstall. Usually you can retrieve personal files and data using the method you mentioned via Windows Explorer or Disk Management. The same thing happened on my X570 HERO which is supposed to be "Windows 11 Ready" but MS is telling me it isn't. More TPM2 buffoonery.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the tips. These laptops are window 10 series OS'. If << IF I have any more issues, I will re-post about these over on the Windows 10 forums.
The co-pilot issue is a massive reach into our personal data for farming; but I am sure everyone here knows about that.
Another issue that people may not be aware of is how the OS on phones have changed to use the camera to scan your eyes/face to keep the screen display on while you the user is watching what ever program it is that you are using. This is mostly aimed at videos, but it affects other programs as well. I expect this to eventually migrate over to pc's/laptops etc...

I'm currently typing this on the X570 Crosshair Hero via Win 10 Home edition. I concur with what you stated about Copilot and I'm beginning to think it will soon be unavoidable in Office 365 although I managed to snag the legacy version for one more year. For the reason you mentioned (among other reasons) I simply refuse to own a cell. Call it one of the luxuries of retirement, call it what you will. I've never owned so much as a brick phone because I watched people who had them and how essentially they had next to zero autonomy as a result. They seemed to be literally run by their phones and I couldn't even sit down and have a decent conversation with my techie buddy in a coffee shop. So, I opted out.

There are methods of removing Copilot from your PC (the tutorials are here) but I find the more tweaking one does on their OS the greater the odds of running into other issues in the future. I'm guessing Windows Update can contribute predominantly to those. After struggling with my X299 build for days I gave up on my previously functioning Win 11 installation via Rufus and opted for the NRO command instead this time. What a mess that turned out to be. I did eventually manage to get a completely legit Win11 24H2 OS installed as a local account, but this took a great deal of time, hard work, and sacrifice to achieve on a supposedly "Windows 11 Ready" platform. Now I have bit locker and a whole bunch of other needless nonsense to contend with.

It would seem that I am from another time and I feel badly for men (and women) in their 70's and 80's who are far more computer savvy than me. I'm not quite 70 yet but I'm headed that way and I can well imagine their frustration. One would think that given the huge demographic of seniors who are in fact computer literate, that Microsoft would at least have the foresight to address this by offering a more "no frills" OS that can be customized via apps and modules. People like the idea of owning their own hardware but that gap seems to be closing with Windows. That said Linux is starting to look better every day.

I've just found you can now just uninstall it in app settings, like any other app - or install or uninstall it from the microsoft app store. I also had a Microsoft recovery download for a surface go of Windows 11 that didn't have copilot in at all.

MS keeps pushing the -pilot down our throats , wether you like it or not .................
Cant find a way to remove it from my Outlook 21-Office , did not came from store also.
Its just nowhere to be found in the Outlook/app-settings...............!

I have a copilot icon at the top of the start menu, on a machine that doesn't have copilot installed. If you click on the icon it says "ask copilot" but you can't because it isn't there - it just opens an edge page about copilot. So is it baked into office now? Separately from the app in the app store?

Apparently Office Home 2024 (standalone) doesn't have copilot in.