Microsoft to force install the Microsoft 365 Copilot app in October

88 mikece 54 9/15/2025, 4:22:23 PM bleepingcomputer.com ↗

Comments (54)

gnabgib · 2h ago
Less clickbait coverage from ghacks: Copilot App will install automatically on Windows for many users, but there are exceptions https://www.ghacks.net/2025/09/15/copilot-app-will-install-a... (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45249782)

Notably:

- You can opt out (Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Copilot > Enable the "Turn off Windows Copilot" policy)

- You won't get it if you're in the EU

- You'll only get it if you have an M365 app installed (not all windows users)

ndiddy · 1h ago
I don’t think it’s clickbait to say that Microsoft is forcing Copilot onto people’s computers just because they let you opt out if you know exactly where to go in the group policy editor, or that they know they can’t get away with pushing their AI service over Windows Update to force adoption in areas that actually bother regulating tech companies. I’m tired of Microsoft pulling bullshit like this and then people say “oh but you can turn it off if you dig through the group policy editor” or “you can opt out if you make this specific registry key”. Maybe I don’t enjoy having an adversarial relationship with my computer.
scuff3d · 49m ago
Microsoft is constantly trying to push the envelope to see what they can get away with. Anyone defending this kind of crap hasn't been paying attention for the last 20 friggin years
ThrowawayR2 · 48m ago
It's "your computer" but it's "their OS". Go ahead and switch to Linux but the "systemd / snap packages / telementry etc. is being forced on my distro" complaints is exactly the same "adversarial relationship with my computer"(sic).

If you want things exactly your way, there's the Gentoo route if you don't mind supporting it yourself.

ewest · 1h ago
It's only "your" computer insofar that you're the only person using it.
oeitho · 1h ago
Quick correction: You won't get it if you're in the EEA, which the EU is a subset of.

Sincerely, a Norwegian guy who thinks the difference is important.

RajT88 · 1h ago
A clean windows install these days comes with those apps. It is there by default.

I would swear I removed copilot from a Dell laptop I just purchased for my father, and it came back after a major update. I could be wrong.

WarOnPrivacy · 41m ago
> I would swear I removed copilot from a Dell laptop I just purchased for my father, and it came back after a major update. I could be wrong.

I've had feature-update crapware get reinstalled twice, some reinsallations happen only after a reboot and/or 5-10min delay. So upgrade, clean. Reboot, clean again. Reboot, wait 10 min, clean again.

This during the last year and for dozens of machines.

RajT88 · 10m ago
OneDrive is very persistent. Every major upgrade seems like.

Didn't they get hauled in front of congress for stuff like this back in the 90's?

I feel like they are playing with fire. Once anti-trust comes back into vogue, this is going to be big trouble for them.

sorokod · 1m ago
"The strong do what they can, the weak suffer what they must."
croes · 13m ago
It’s not you can opt-out, it‘s you have to opt-out. Imagine every software vendor would install its software as a opt-out. MS abuses its power over the OS
currency · 1h ago
That setting is under User Configuration on my Win11 Pro PC, so look in both.
sherburt3 · 1h ago
4 levels of nesting is pretty low compared to the average windows setting

No comments yet

philipwhiuk · 1h ago
This is a great sign that uptake is low and someone needs a good Q4 on their performance figures for bonus season.
brookst · 19m ago
Q2 you mean? Would be pretty easy to look at their fiscal year before speculating something that makes no sense.
jahsome · 16m ago
The point is still perfectly valid. What's the use in being pedantic and rude?
ToucanLoucan · 1h ago
I hear constantly how in-demand this shit supposedly is and then every time I look around a corner LLMs are being stuffed into every damn thing and I'm left wondering how much of this alleged "engagement" is just because LLMs are in fucking everything now and it's impossible to run a lot of mainstream software without a few calls going to one or another of them.

I have never, ever, in my entire life, seen a tech work so hard to be everywhere while simultaneously not being very useful.

estimator7292 · 7m ago
I saw someone on here the other day honestly insisting that people just don't know what they want and need to be shown the new options.

No product in our entire history has been so aggressively pushed into everyone's face. If there's a person alive in modern society who hasn't had 4000 AI apps blasted at them... where are they and how do I achieve this nirvana?

ryandrake · 48m ago
Nothing says "this product is useful and people want it" quite like having to force it onto users' computers.
chankstein38 · 36m ago
And having people complain when you do it lol if they were forcing a new hip version of minesweeper no one would care. But since it's AI garbage being forced on us, we're all mad.
ToucanLoucan · 22m ago
I mean, the vast majority of the time, I don't care. The one that actually did make me mad was Apple Messages getting pre-generated replies on every Messages window when you click into the field, which a) I don't want, and b), and this is the irritating part: the little popup thing that shows them so you can click them obstructs the Enter key from sending whatever you have typed. So you constantly have to either hit Escape to dismiss it, or click it away, before you can send what you actually want to send.

It's remarkably fucking annoying and is genuinely one of the worst UX decisions Apple has made in like a decade.

flerchin · 56m ago
lol you must be new here. To me this rhymes with web3 (kodak coin), web2 (google circle), and also web1 (pets.com). There will be a lot of failures, but the companies that get established in the space will be eeconomic goliaths.
nemomarx · 44m ago
what are the goliaths from web3?

I feel like that one still hasn't really worked out, and I do occasionally use Bitcoin to buy things

ToucanLoucan · 41m ago
I really enjoyed that comment because if you read it in reverse, each subsequent "big thing" has had fewer and fewer goliaths emerge.

In terms of web3, I think you could broadly say Bitcoin (though it was large before web3 so that one's muddy) and Etherium. But even then... given what they are, I'm not sure in what sense these are meant to be Goliaths...? It's alternative payment processors that have incredibly low adoption compared to virtually every other. They're "big" in the sense that they have a lot of traction relative to other crypto, but I still have never used the shit even once and I do not feel I am missing out even slightly.

I've used LLMs FAR more than any crypto, and I still see it largely as a neat way to get out of writing boring code, and a good rubber duck to bounce ideas off of when debugging. I wouldn't pay for it if I had to.

The only thing I know crypto for is being the new and preferred payment method for scammers, and that you used to be able to buy drugs with it but not anymore. And godawful avatar collections, I guess. I wouldn't call that a Goliath myself but. shrug

1970-01-01 · 45m ago
They're slipping it past you. Nobody is forcing you to install the update. Nuance.
polski-g · 40m ago
I disabled all Windows updates last October because 24H2 absolutely tanked performance of games. Various reports around the internet claim that its still a problem. So no more updates for me, of any kind.
lupusreal · 31m ago
You know it's great software when they shove it down your throat instead of making you pay extra for it.
nashashmi · 39m ago
Meanwhile I am still getting charged for the app even though it is part of my subscription.
blindriver · 48m ago
I had resisted upgrading to Windows 11 and was just on the cusp of doing it, but now I will never, ever upgrade. I don't care about security aspect of Windows 10 anymore. I don't trust Microsoft. They had a few good years after Nadella joined where they were doing decent things but now they have resumed their monopolistic behavior and shoving things down our throats like Recall and this shit and I'm done with it. I'll switch to MacOS before I upgrade to Windows 11.
stronglikedan · 46m ago
If, in MacOS, I can drag a file onto a taskbar icon to open the file in whatever program I dropped it on, then I too will switch to that before Win11. I can't believe MS removed functionality in Win11 that is part of the daily workflows of so many users, and just said "GFY, we're never putting it back!"
mikestew · 4m ago
If, in MacOS, I can drag a file onto a taskbar icon to open the file in whatever program I dropped it on...

MacOS already does that. You're not going to drag a video file to the spreadsheet app icon with much success, but if the app knows how to handle it then it will work. I can't imagine using an OS these days that doesn't have that functionality.

racl101 · 12m ago
Yep you can drag a file onto the doc on an app icon to have the app in question open the file (assuming it was meant to run that file).

I gotta say, I'm not a Windows user anymore, but it would drive me nuts if I couldn't do that.

Finder (the MacOS version of File Explorer on Windows) is an app you commonly interact with every day for several minutes. If it doesn't work well that's hours of your life you spend fighting the system instead of getting things done.

Those are the kinds of things that made me move away from Windows 10 years ago.

jcalvinowens · 2h ago
Now that Steam has Proton, my only remaining need for windows has evaporated. Good riddance.
nozzlegear · 49m ago
We recently replaced my wife's aging Windows PC with a Mac Mini, which eliminated the last Windows machine in our household. It feels good to be free of it, and our Macs handle World of Warcraft – the only game either of us play – without any problems.
Fire-Dragon-DoL · 1h ago
I wish it was the same for me. Nucleus coop is windows only and so many mods work only there,so I still need windows for gaming. I'm with you though ,I wish I could completely swap
barbazoo · 1h ago
What Linux distro would you recommend to be able to run Proton to play windows games but also for day to day light (mostly browser) use, SteamOS?
jcalvinowens · 26m ago
I just run Debian Trixie with almost no problems. I build the kernels I use off the upstream release cycle (so, 6.17-rc6 right now). I build with LLVM Full LTO, not because it's necessarily faster, but because I want to find bugs in it :)

For some reason the video acceleration in Steam itself will break running games if you alt-tab back and forth. But it can be disabled in the menus, and I haven't missed it at all.

rightbyte · 55m ago
Debian works fine with Proton for me. I think it is not very picky.
scuff3d · 44m ago
If you want a more curated experience that takes a lot of the rough edges off Linux: https://bazzite.gg

Bazzite isn't going to be as flexible as some other distros, but it's goal is to make the Linux transition as easy as possible. It's aimed primarily at gamers but you'll get a full OS that you can do all the normal stuff on

voidfunc · 1h ago
Proton's good-ish. But if you want to play a lot of AAA games it's a non-starter especially if they have invasive kernel anti-cheat.
autoexec · 1h ago
Thankfully I don't want and will never want any games that infect my systems with "anti-cheat" malware so I see the lack of support for it as a feature.
jcalvinowens · 1h ago
I tend to play indie games, but I've never had anti-cheat problems. Everything happily runs on 6.17-rc5 right now.
lupusreal · 27m ago
AAA games are overproduced crap that compensate with aggressive marketing.
ginko · 1h ago
Why would you willingly install games with invasive kernel anti-cheat? That's unacceptable both on Linux or Windows.
jawilson2 · 57m ago
What would you suggest to my kids that game with their friends and want to play Rocket League or Fortnite?
Marsymars · 45m ago
A console?
polski-g · 37m ago
Microsoft needs to provide their own anti-cheat hooks and block any kernel-level mods entirely.
naikrovek · 1h ago
playing any game with an invasive kernel anti-cheat is a non-starter on its own.

no game is worth that.

2OEH8eoCRo0 · 1h ago
Think Steam proton will support GTA VI? I doubt it since it still doesn't support GTA V online
kjkjadksj · 28m ago
To any microsoft workers: is this stuff really getting zero pushback internally? It is clear power users don’t want it and that is sort of who copilot is pitched towards vs the masses.
b_e_n_t_o_n · 1h ago
Life is too short to use Windows...
lenerdenator · 1h ago
Huh. I have a force install of GNU/Linux on my Windows machine scheduled for October as well. That's a weird coincidence.
hagbard_c · 1h ago
The harder they squeeze...

I installed Linux - Debian 13 with the Gnome desktop - on a few machines which used to only run Windows. These machines are used by non-technical family members aged 14 to 50. When starting the machine they get the choice between booting either Debian or Windows with files on the older Windows installs being available from within the Linux sessions.

I recently checked which system was used most and was surprised to see that this ended up being Debian, on some machines Windows was not even started after I explained the workings of the machines. Linux has been 'ready for the desktop' for decades now while Microsoft is doing its best to make Windows less and less suitable for general-purpose desktop use. Even their former strongholds have withered, especially gaming is now better done on Linux than on recent Windows iterations. I suspect they know this and are trying to reap the last remaining fruit before the plantation succumbs to the self-inflicted disease since I see no other explanation for their clearly user-hostile actions.

Fischgericht · 32m ago
OMG, the bloody marxist Europeans AGAIN limiting the freedom of choice and free speech of American mega-corps!!1ONEohenee

:)