The advice on this page should only be followed if you feel you have a higher level of computer skills. These actions can be undone by essentially following these steps in reverse.
Windows 11 comes with a variety of generative AI features installed. In addition to Copilot, programs such as Paint and Notepad also have generative AI features installed when they previously did not. You might not like having these features in places due to the limitations of generative AI, or for ethical reasons, or maybe you simply don't like seeing the options there. No matter the reason, this page will help you remove AI features in Windows 11 wherever possible.
You don't have to do every option in this guide. You might like some features and not others. If you are using your work PC, you might be limited in what change you can make, depending on what level of permissions your IT department has granted you.
Copilot can simply hitting the Windows key and searching for uninstall in the Start Menu, then clicking "All" to show all programs. From here right click and then click Uninstall. This mostly removes Copilot though it'll still show up within some other programs like Teams, Notepad and Paint.
Despite the almost identical name, Microsoft 365 Copilot is a distinct program from Copilot. Microsoft 365 Copilot is embedded throughout a variety of apps. You can remove this function quite easily by searching for Microsoft 365 Copilot through the taskbar. You will see the program popup.
From here, you simply have to right-click and then click "uninstall".
Copilot requires the default Windows browser Edge to function fully. It can be uninstalled by going "Add or Remove Programs" on the taskbar. This mostly removes Edge but there may be some instances of Edge showing up as it is baked into a lot of Windows functions. If you want to fully uninstall Edge you can use a dedicated uninstaller program. If you fully uninstall Edge, you should be sure to change your default browser to an alternative such as Chrome or Firefox.
Recall is a feature that currently only comes with Copilot+ PCs. Only some Windows 11 are Copilot+. Recall takes continuous screenshots of your screen every few seconds, scrapes text from these images and then stores them where it can be accessed by a large language model. This feature naturally raises a range of security and privacy concerns.
You can find out if you have Recall simply by searching Recall in the start menu. If it is not there. It's not installed.
If you have Recall you can disable it by opening your computer settings. Click on Privacy & Security and then go to "Recall & snapshots". If this is here, you can turn it off. After this, go down to the "Delete snapshots" option and select "Delete all". This deletes all the screenshots that Recall has taken on your PC.
After this, go to your taskbar and search "Turn Windows features on or off". This will open a program that looks like this:
Scroll down to Recall, uncheck the box and then select OK. You will then need to restart your computer.
Paint in Windows 11 currently has three AI features through Copilot:
You can see these under the Copilot icon button 
To disable this feature, you're going to have to use the Registry Editor. Unfortunately, doing this will still leave the button there, but it will stop the image creator from working. The registry editor is a database that contains a lot of settings that you normal don't need to touch.
To open the registry editor, search the taskbar for this program. When it's open, you'll see something like this:
From here you want to go to Local Machine and then Software.
From here then go to "Microsoft" and then "Windows". Then go to "Current Version" and then "Policies."
Inside Policies you then right click, click "Key" and then type Paint and then hit enter. You should then have a new folder underneath system with that name. In the blank space within the Paint folder you right click and select DWORD (32-bit) Value. From here type DisableImageCreator. Please note that this is case sensitive so include the capitalisations and no spaces. Double click this and set the value to 1 as in the screenshot below
If you have done this correctly, the Copilot button will still be there but you will no longer have the Image Creator as an option in Paint.
In the Windows 11 version of Notepad, you can see the Copilot icon button near the top righthand corner of the program. To turn this off, click the gear icon 
to open up settings. From here, you simply need to scroll down to the bottom and turn Copilot off.
Smart App Control is a function that uses generative AI to help spot potentially malicious apps. On most computers, this is already turned off, but you can check if it's on by opening Windows Security and then go to "App & Browser Control".
If you want to turn this off, please note that it can't be turned back on without a complete reinstallation of Windows.
Go to your Settings through the taskbar and then go to "Accounts". Click on "Sign-in options"
Here you will see a variety of ways to sign in. Any option with "(Windows Hello)" uses AI. The three that use Windows Hello are:
From here you can disable these features. There's a good chance this is already turned off, as the Facial recognition option needs a compatible webcam and fingerprint recognition naturally needs a fingerprint scanner on your PC.
How to disable AI in Windows and your browser
How to turn off AI in Windows and bring yourself some peace
