They did state the following:
"HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced. On the right-side pane, right-click on an empty space and select ‘New > DWORD (32-bit) Value’. Name it ‘ShowCopilotButton’ and set its value data to 0. Then, click ‘OK’. This will hide the Copilot button from the taskbar and disable its functionality."
It would be an interesting experiment to see if this actually does effectively disable CoPilot all together.
I have these same concerns of CoPilot still running in the background,****using up my much need system resources.
I have yet to implement this But I do have plans to try it on a lesser used PC in my house (just in case)... lol