How do I stop Copilot interfering with my documents? I removed the app but it is still there like an embedded virus. Word for Windows.

Hi Neil Burnett1,

Welcome to Microsoft Community.

I am pleased to inform you that, thanks to proactive feedback from users like yourself, the development team has taken this issue seriously. In the latest version of Word (version 2501), the development team has added a button that allows you to disable all Copilot prompts in Word with a single click. To do this, please open the Word application, go to File > Options > Copilot, and uncheck the "Enable Copilot" option.

Currently, this feature to disable Copilot is only available in Word; it has not yet been added to Excel or PowerPoint, as the development team has received the most feedback from Word users. If you have any thoughts or suggestions regarding the use of Office applications, please feel free to share them with the development team at any time by using the File > Feedback button within the application. The development team is committed to listening to user feedback to improve Office.

Lastly, we would like to extend our gratitude for your feedback, which is incredibly valuable to Microsoft. I hope the information above is helpful to you, and I look forward to your reply!

Best Regards,

Thomas C - MSFT | Microsoft Community Support Specialist

Thank you.

As an aside I did ask Copilot how to get rid of the Word document intrusion and it said that it didn't know and to look it up on the Web. That is not a ringing endorsement of AI.

Thank you thank you thank you! The fix worked.

That CoPilot prompt was driving me crazy, especially when writing dialogue or other text with short paragraphs.

I DO NOT WANT COPILOT!!!!!!!! Why are you polluting my Word documents with stupid Copilot?????? I don't want it.

What worked for me, thanks to instructions from Thomas C., above, was:

Open a Word document;

Click File;

Click Options;

On Options list, click Copilot.

Uncheck Copilot.

Bingo! The Copilot icon stopped appearing in the documents I'm working on

and the Copilot icon is grayed-out on my ribbon.

Nothing to do with Preferences.