How to completely remove Copilot from Edge?

Circling back to the original thread question, unless your Windows Operating System version and/or the corporate administrative policies applied are preventing you editing the registry to neuter this particular feral creature, then you need to follow the earlier instructions to clean it from Edge. (this won't have any effect other M$ products such as Dynamics365, but at least in that product you get the option to toggle it on/off - for now.)

Vote with your feet and stop using Edge browser, although you may be forced back that way by a URL that demands it will only work if opened in Edge (yep - those anti-trust rulings can be circumvented by claiming it is for product security).

and as for S.L.Bradford's comments, I'm with you all the way. Been doing this since error codes were a set of light bulb sequences that needed translating in an A0 sized engineering manual and the way M$ treats its customers is abysmal. I remember in the early 90's Gates saying that he'd given users too much power through Windows PCs, and here we are all the way back to good old-fashion bureau computing , but these days it's called cloud subscription and you can't sweat the assets for cheaper running costs anymore. And if you do find a way to run it cheaply, they simply bang the prices up to maintain their share dividends.

You may get through to a sympathetic ear, it will be very difficult (impossible?) to reach anyone at Microsoft who will actually be able/willing to help. You can send them a letter - but unfortunately this is the issue with mega companies like Microsoft that own such a massive portion of the computing environment (and I have used their products since Bill got his hands on DOS). AI is one of those "trains" that everyone is going to try to not only ride but to rise to the "Engineer of the railway". Rather than trying to deal with Microsoft, it's likely better if anyone concerned reaches out to our government to continue to raise the alarm. Not that the folks there will know what to do - but eventually they are going to have to step in to set up some guardrails. In the meantime, all most of we minions can do is continue to raise up our concerns here and elsewhere - without much hope that we can do things in regedit or with other mainstream software that will arise to "help" us deflect the AI intrusion. And I'm not a pessimist. I've just been in the personal computer environment since it started and speaking from how they have responded to every consumer concern since the beginning - irregardless of which major company (Apple, Microsoft, even beloved Linux).

I liked DuckDuckGo and used it for awhile. However, it is tricky to know sometimes what it is excluding. And, when you are ready to remove it, you may find it wants to hang harder in various locations of your computer than other browsers. I'm not sure I'll go back to DDG because of my earlier experience getting rid of it, but it has a decent enough reputation and certainly no more problematic (IMHO) than Edge. Unfortunately, AI is going to become increasingly invasive across all platforms/media because that's where the money potential is right now. It was interesting to see that a bunch of AI employees are raising awareness that they are being coerced by various companies to keep their mouths shut about raising concerns about how their employers are using/planning to use AI. Potential for great good - greater potential right now for great harm. :-(

For the past month I stopped using the Edge browser and have been trialing the DuckDuckGo browser which I have been very happy about. First thing is that Copilot is nowhere to be seen with this browser, which is wonderful.

When viewing YouTube in DuckDuckGo, DuckDuckGo has its own media player which can be used that cuts out everything except the screen to view the video, the channel, comments and any advertising is removed. There is an option within the player to revert back to the normal YouTube player and to copy the URL of what you are watching.

Since using DuckDuckGo and particularly their media player, I have had zero spam emails.

I still open the Edge browser to download updates, but that's all I open it for.

But if I click on a link in an email in Outlook 365, that will open in the Edge browser. But that is most likely due to not yet setting DuckDuckGo to my default browser as I'm still trialing.

IT DOSEN'T WORK.