That Copilot button blocking your screen? Here’s how to turn it off

If you’ve opened Word or Excel recently and found a floating Copilot button parked in the corner of your screen, you’re not imagining things. Microsoft has been pushing its AI assistant much more visibly across its Office apps, and plenty of people find it more hindrance than help. The button docks to the right of your workspace, blocks cells and text, and comes back every time you reopen a file.

For most day-to-day office work, it’s a minor irritation. For anyone working on a smaller screen, sharing a machine with colleagues, or just trying to concentrate without an AI nudging them every few minutes, it quickly gets old.

The cleanest way to switch it off

Microsoft’s own guidance covers the main options, and the simplest is this: open Word or Excel, go to File > Options > Copilot, and uncheck the “Enable Copilot” box. That turns it off across your machine.

If that option isn’t showing (Microsoft has shuffled the settings menus around in some recent builds), try File > Account > Account Privacy > Manage Settings and toggle off “Turn on experiences that analyse your content.” This also removes Copilot, though it will take a few related features with it, like suggested replies and text predictions.

If you’d rather keep the feature available but just get the button out of your face, right-click the ribbon, choose “Customise the Ribbon,” find the Copilot button, and remove it. The feature stays switched on but stops cluttering your view.

If it keeps coming back

Some users on the most recent Office builds report the button reappearing after updates, which suggests Microsoft has been quietly tweaking how persistent it is. If you’ve worked through the steps above and it still shows up, check you’re on the latest version of Office first. An update sometimes resolves it. If it’s still there after that, File > Feedback inside Office lets you flag it directly to Microsoft, and they do pay attention when enough people raise the same thing.

For businesses running shared PCs, a reception desk, or a small team where everyone uses the same machines, these kinds of settings can drift after updates. It’s worth having a consistent setup documented so you’re not re-doing it every few weeks.

A few clicks and the clutter is gone. If your team uses Microsoft 365 and you’d rather have the whole setup locked down cleanly so things like this don’t keep cropping up, Dragon Digital handles Microsoft 365 configuration and ongoing management for businesses across North Wales, and can make sure your defaults actually stick.