Microsoft Begins Removing Copilot Branding From Windows 11 Apps (windowscentral.com)
- Reference: 0181541184
- News link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/04/10/1947203/microsoft-begins-removing-copilot-branding-from-windows-11-apps
- Source link: https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft/windows-11/microsoft-finally-begins-removing-copilot-from-notepad-on-windows-11-but-the-ai-still-persists
> As promised, Microsoft is now beginning its effort to reduce and remove Copilot branding across Windows 11, with the latest Notepad update for Insiders outright removing the Copilot icon and phrasing. Now, the AI menu is simply called "writing tools," and maintains the same functionality as before. Additionally, Microsoft has also removed references to AI in the Settings area in Notepad. Now, the ability to turn on or off these AI powered writing tools are now listed under "Advanced features."
>
> This change is present in the latest preview build of Notepad which is now rolling out to all Windows Insiders. The app version is 11.2512.28.0, and you'll know you have it if you see the Copilot icon replaced with a pen icon instead. [...] For Notepad, it appears Microsoft has opted to replace the Copilot menu with something more generic. It's still the same functionally, but it's no longer leaning on the tainted Copilot brand. Of course, you can still easily turn off all AI features in Notepad if you don't want them.
The Verge reports that the "unnecessary Copilot buttons" are also [2]disappearing from the Snipping Tool, Photos, and Widgets .
[1] https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft/windows-11/microsoft-finally-begins-removing-copilot-from-notepad-on-windows-11-but-the-ai-still-persists
[2] https://www.theverge.com/news/909640/microsoft-removing-copilot-windows-11-buttons
bring back Tay (Score:2)
C'mon Microsoft, bring back Tay and tell us what you really think.
Tay is my Copilot.
Translation (Score:5, Insightful)
> ... replacing the old Copilot menu with a more generic "writing tools" label. The AI features themselves aren't going away, but ...
To more easily trick people into using Copilot.
Mockery (Score:2)
When design decisions are driven by marketing teams, hype might set the original roadmap, but mockery is the more powerful later force.
Notepad Copilot is the modern Clippy.
Microsoft Marketing (Score:5, Informative)
Is kinda goofy.
1998- MSN Everything!
2002 - XP Everything!
2005 - Live Everything!
2012 - Metro Everything!
2016 - XBox Everything!
2023 - Copilot Everything!
Not everything needs to be one thing.
Re: (Score:3)
Don’t forget .net everything. They even called windows server ‘.net’ at one point.
So somehow people are not happy with copilot? (Score:2)
No idea why that is. Is copilot really a lot more crappy than other LLM manifestations? Or is its crappiness just more obvious?
Re: (Score:2)
Windows 11 has been 100% SNAFU since its inception. Copilot is just the icing on the cake, the cherry on top, or the chef's kiss if you like. People are just sick and fed up with the direction that Microsoft has taken with their flagship OS, and will naturally direct their anger at the most readily identifiable aspect of that direction. To be fair, Copilot is probably no worse technically than other LLM offerings, it's just that Microsoft has seen fit to shoehorn it every-fucking-where they can, whether or
Re: (Score:2)
Copilot is just the icing on the cake, the cherry on top, or the chef's kiss if you like.
I prefer "the turd that won't flush"
Re: (Score:2)
Copilot isn't one implementation or model, but branding for [1]LLM use in a large number of products. [teybannerman.com]
> As of April 5th 2026, Microsoft has applied the name "Copilot" to 80 (formerly 78) separately marketed products and tools. There are now Copilots inside Copilots, Copilots for other Copilots, and a physical Copilot key on your keyboard for summoning them.
With each of those products with a separate product manager and design team that decides what the LLM has access too, what the model is, and the UI to interact with it. Just with an previous overarching message of include AI in your product and call it Copilot.
[1] https://teybannerman.com/strategy/2026/03/31/how-many-microsoft-copilot-are-there.html
Re: (Score:2)
> No idea why that is. Is copilot really a lot more crappy than other LLM manifestations? Or is its crappiness just more obvious?
I think it's a combination of the two. In my limited interactions with Copilot, it has seemed almost Siri-level bad; but it's also true that Microsoft chose to shove it in everyone's faces in every place they possibly could.
When I've used both ChatGPT and Claude, even very recently I've still noticed a number of silly errors and oversights; but in general their responses have at least been helpful overall.
Textbook definition of a screw up (Score:3)
You know you've screwed up when a key new feature that you've added to your product is so reviled that you're forced to hide its existence.
Assurance (Score:2)
This is great information to help me avoid Windows 11 altogether, knowing they're going to force it in and not be honest about it.
Nothing is changing! (Score:2)
"The AI features themselves aren't going away," they are just hiding things until the ruckus calms down. Then Microsoft will force things to meet their goals when no one is expecting it.
remapping the key is a half-solution (Score:2)
I used PowerToys to map that dumb key back to CTRL as it's my go-to for CTRL-C,V,W,X,Y,Z. Even still, it's not functional when trying to do CTRL+SHIFT+Arrow keys for highlight-jumping complete words in text editors. Even worse, I was never able to get the remap to work in VS Code, despite trying to follow wildly varying online instructions for configuring environment settings in the app, none of which seemed to apply to my installation. I ended up going to Cursor because I got a license at work for it, a
Cash, Venmo or BTC is acceptable... (Score:2)
to pay me back for being forced to have a Copilot key on my notebook's keyboard. I think $500 would be sufficient. If not, I'm sure there's a *huge* pool for a class-action lawsuit.
Re: (Score:1)
Can you reprogram that key to do something more useful?
On Linux you could use xev to see if it has a keycode; if it does you can assign it to another function. I have one of the "special keys" on my keyboard assigned to automatically type my email address, for example, which is very convenient for filling out forms.