Uninstall Copilot and it comes back with the next update. For a long time that was just how Windows 11 worked. The April 2026 update finally added a supported policy that removes the Copilot app and keeps it gone.

Quick Fix: Group Policy

On Pro, Enterprise, or Education, open the Group Policy Editor and enable the new removal policy.

gpedit.msc

Navigate to User Configuration, Administrative Templates, Windows Components, Windows AI, open Remove Microsoft Copilot app, set it to Enabled, and apply. Then refresh policy:

gpupdate /force

Sign out and back in. The Copilot app is removed and Windows stops reinstalling it.

Windows 11 Home: Registry

Home has no Group Policy Editor, but the same policy works through the registry. Run this in an elevated PowerShell or Command Prompt:

reg add "HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsCopilot" /v RemoveCopilotApp /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

Sign out and back in for it to take effect. To undo it later, delete the value and reinstall Copilot from the Microsoft Store.

Fleet-Wide: Remove by Package Family Name

On Windows 11 24H2 and later Enterprise and Education devices, you can also strip the package itself through app deployment policy. Grab the package family name first:

Get-AppxPackage *Copilot* | Select-Object PackageFamilyName

Then add it under Computer Configuration, Administrative Templates, Windows Components, App Package Deployment, Specify additional package family names to remove. Microsoft documents both approaches in its Windows Copilot management guide.

Microsoft: Manage the Copilot experience

While You're At It: Recall

If the goal is removing Windows AI features generally, the Recall snapshot feature has its own policy. Enable Turn off saving snapshots for use with Recall under the same Windows AI Group Policy path, or set the DisableAIDataAnalysis registry value to 1 in the WindowsAI policy key.

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