Why has microsoft copilot installed itself on my windows 10 pc?

It keeps getting updated. We don't really get the choice, do we?!

All the places your average non-techy, non-nerdy consumer is never likely to venture! That's not very helpful. At time of installation, Microsoft could put some effort into explaining new features it wants users to accept, the pros and the cons (in the spirit of transparency (ha!)), and give them the option at the time whether to accept or decline the feature.

For the umpteenth time I'm having to reinstall windows 10. Where Microsoft doesn't do the above I'm forced back into playing a game of whack-a-mole to rid it of everything I didn't want, as each and every thing turns back up on my machine. If it was a simple process, I wouldn't have so many complaints about it. Too, often though, it's a long exercise in researching the problem, trying this, trying that, and maybe you succeeed. It eats up hours and hours of my valuable time while causing much grief and frustration. Does Microsoft really want that to be the experience its customers have? The idea that Microsoft make things easy for non-techy customers is frankly laughable. I often end up in the registry and places no ordinary consumer should ever need to be.

WRONG!

Copilot installed itself without my permission when I updated Windows last week.(I'm using Windows 10). Since the update I can't access Outlook, Word and Excel documents. I've spent the last 4 days trying to retrieve them. Nada

Uninstalling it it Settings > Apps & Features > Copilot <is greyed out> > Uninstall I get the following error message: We couldn't uninstall..... The error code is 0x80073cfa.

I've tried several times.

I'm trying to check the version I'm using in the Windows Update Window > View update history, and it's just stuck. I'm going to send this and shut down completely.

Is this Microsoft's way to force users to purchase Microsoft 365?

The problem is AI should never be, even as a part of windows be added to a system. If people want to use it, it should be available as an extra that they take action to implement. It has the possibility of being exploited just sitting there as you say.

Is this even legal in the European Union. It seems like Microsoft is giving itself a huge advantage by automatically installing these "features" (or are they bugs) without permission. I got my new Win11 PC yesterday and immediately de-installed Edge, One Drive, and something else I didn´t want. Now less than 24 later they are all back without me having any say about it. No matter what I try I can´t stop Edge being the preferred browser. Really, Microsoft, I should not have to spend 5 minutes to change a default browser let alone the over an hour I spent last night in vain.