Microsoft is removing Copilot buttons from Windows 11 apps

Microsoft has started removing Copilot buttons from the stock apps in Windows 11. The company calls them "unnecessary entry points" and is stripping them out step by step as part of a broad plan to fix the operating system.

Notepad and Snipping Tool are the first to lose them. In the latest build for Windows Insiders, the Copilot button in Notepad has been replaced by a "writing tools" menu. In Snipping Tool it has disappeared altogether: the button no longer appears when you select an area to capture. Photos and Widgets are next in line.

Microsoft announced the changes as part of its "Windows 11 improvement plan," published earlier this year. The document sets out specific commitments: improve performance, reduce intrusive interface elements and make the system more predictable for users. Removing the Copilot buttons is one of the first visible results of those commitments.

An important nuance: only the buttons are being removed, not the AI capabilities themselves. The AI-powered features in the apps are not going away; access to them will simply become less aggressive. The distinction matters: Microsoft is not abandoning AI integration in Windows, but is rethinking how it presents it to users.

The context matters. Over the past two years, Microsoft has embedded Copilot practically everywhere, from the taskbar to individual system apps. User reaction has been mixed: many saw the buttons as imposed ballast rather than a useful tool. The Recall feature, which was supposed to take screenshots of the screen every few seconds, drew a separate wave of criticism, and its launch was postponed over privacy concerns.

The situation is telling in a broader sense. After several years of aggressively pushing AI interfaces, big tech companies are starting to realize that pushiness works against adoption. Users are more willing to use AI when they seek it out themselves than when it barges onto the screen. Microsoft, by all appearances, is drawing exactly this conclusion, and is beginning to remove what irritated people while keeping what actually works.