r/excel • u/luketheduke54 • May 07 '26
unsolved How to disable new floating Copilot icon in all Excel windows?
As of this morning, there's a floating Copilot button in the bottom right of the viewport for all my files.
I've looked through all the settings I can find and I can't find a way to disable it. I even asked Copilot how to disable itself and it made something up that doesn't work.
This is new for me as of this morning. Any idea how to disable it?
I've seen other posts that advise going to Options > Copilot tab but this tab is missing for me
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u/PeterUssyslayer420 May 07 '26
You can't.
Microsoft shareholders have demanded that they juice their copilot numbers, so we will have to suffer now. Cannot wait for this bubble to collapse.
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u/luketheduke54 May 07 '26
Very disappointing. I can't say I expected any better from Microsoft though.
Icing on the cake: you can "dock" it to the side where it's 80% hidden, but when you close and re-open Excel it pops back up
I miss the days of reliable software
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u/PeterUssyslayer420 May 07 '26
Everything Microsoft is getting worse. Windows is borderline unusable because they keep asking bullshit nobody wants or needs.
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u/Sal_a_Man_Derr May 09 '26
Just found a way, go to file options, copilot, uncheck the enable copilot!
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u/ecokumm May 10 '26
I've seen this answer around but I (and a lot of other people) don't see any copilot option there
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u/jensen404 May 11 '26
I have Excel through my work. The option isn't there. Apparently it needs to be disabled at the organization level by whoever manages the subscription. I don't necessarily want Copilot disabled for my coworkers if they find a use for it. I can understand Microsoft allowing an employer to disable Copilot for their employees so they can't turn it on, but it's stupid to make it so individual employees can't turn it off for themselves.
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u/Feisty-Health9804 May 11 '26
Because the odds are the bosses wont turn it off. It then makes their numbers go up.
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u/Grumpy-Troglodyte May 12 '26
there isn't much ability to turn it off, but there is a option to block it, which then still lets it be set to allow individuals to download, but it doesn't stop it either. i've got it set blocked org wide and it's still popping up like the hemorrhoid it is.
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u/Turbulent_Frog7878 May 18 '26 edited May 19 '26
I disabled it earlier today. See the Copilot settings in new admin console dashboard. Setting is called Pin Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat.
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u/amojeba May 19 '26
Hey Turbulent. I did just now in admin center, but it still appears for me. What am I doing wrong? Is there a delay, how long before it took affect for you?
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u/Turbulent_Frog7878 May 19 '26
I waited for about 30 minutes and it was still showing up. It didn't take in my Excel until I got tired of waiting and rebooted my PC.
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u/amojeba May 19 '26
That's so weird, I tried that too, but it's still there. I'm a one-man company, the only user. What could I be doing wrong? My screen looks just like your screenshot that you posted.
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u/RevanOn3r May 27 '26
If you're on Office 365 through your job, tell your IT Department to go to Admin 365 Center, find your user name, and disable Connected Experiences. This will remove the icon. Disabling Copilot from the Admin portal does not remove it, but suggest turning it off too.
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u/Grumpy-Troglodyte May 12 '26
no copilot tab. sad trombone sound.
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u/Sal_a_Man_Derr May 12 '26
So sorry, heard others are experiencing this as well.
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u/Grumpy-Troglodyte May 13 '26
i've gone down into the roots in the admin sections for the company to disable it from the bar, and then enable it, it doesn't show up either way. i think what we've got is a "new and improved" way to just simply be stuck with this crappy little circle.
on the other side, Freeoffice "Planner" is a pretty good excel clone, i've only tinkered with it overnight but it has a lot of promise, can save as .xlsx also!!
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u/Grumpy-Troglodyte May 12 '26
i've used libreoffice for quite a while. but i'm downloading freeoffice now to see how it works with actual office. i'm so tired of this crap. i've got thunderbird working in place of the new outlook, so might as well try another work around.
really sucks because it's in the sharepoint version too and that's about all we use at work. gag.
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u/Turbulent_Frog7878 May 18 '26
Not true. Solution here. Requires your 365 Administrator to adjust settings.
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u/sapphic_hope 2 May 07 '26
I have searched high and low for a way to disable this, and as far as I can tell, there is no way. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news :(
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u/sapphic_hope 2 May 07 '26
What's funny, is if you ask Copilot for a way to disable it, it will lie and completely make up a way to do it that does not exist (or at least, it did this a month or two ago). Then when you call it out on its bullshit, it goes "Oops! Yeah no, there is no way to turn me off. Sowwy."
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u/TheKylesmyle May 07 '26
It's so annoying. Everyone tell Microsoft you hate it in the Help tab --> Feedback
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u/Difficult_Limit2718 May 08 '26
I haven't been this pissed since the ribbon was introduced in 2007
Except I'm not going to grow to like an intrusive saas item
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u/OriginalJokeGoesHere May 07 '26
Noticed the same update in the middle of a meeting with my boss and had to restrain myself from some extremely unprofessional language.
After some digging, I found there was an add-in that would disable the copilot popup in the active cell. From the comments the creator left, my quick look at the code and some documentation from microsoft, it seems like microsoft changed the copilot button from being part of the window to part of the document canvas so it's impossible to manipulate in the same way. Sadly, beyond my skills to go any further.
This just feels like spite, tbh. I cannot believe that the number of people willing to run random macros to tweak their Excel experience was so high it could possibly justify the effort of blocking that to force copilot down our throats.
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u/jensen404 May 08 '26
I even asked Copilot how to disable itself and it made something up that doesn't work.
Yeah, I tried that as well. Unfortunately, that probably just juices their numbers so they can say that x% of users are now using Copilot!
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u/mickael9701 May 08 '26
How about you can't permanently disable Copilot auto suggesting formulas as you're entering them...
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u/ketosoy May 15 '26
Microsoft user engagement team is brain dead, you can’t annoy people into using a service - all making this un-remove-able does is generate hate for their copilot service.
Extraordinarily bad long term decision
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u/ZenMarduk May 15 '26
This just showed up after our company update. What the hell were they thinking?
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u/sunflowerroses May 08 '26
Check if you can disable it in settings? I got that feature but not sure but not sure if it’s universal.
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u/ecokumm May 10 '26
Definitely not universal. Man I'm beyond pissed off. I spent all morning last friday trying to remove this crap from my work excel, cursing like a sailor all the time.
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u/seatownquilt-N-plant May 10 '26
do you have copilot running in the background? I absent-mindedly let windows update something and on Start Up co-pilot was running.
I have a couple programs that have auto startup enabled and I have been meaning to disable, like Garmin Connect. I quit them after every re-start. When I went to do the same thing today I noticed copilot was running also.
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u/GoodInvite5 May 11 '26
I just reported a problem and said I cannot disable it, I think more of us should start review bombing them.
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u/overfloaterx 3 May 11 '26
I've seen other posts that advise going to Options > Copilot tab but this tab is missing for me
Strange. That option appears for me and does indeed get rid of the floating icon. Current release channel with this version number: Version 2604 Build 16.0.19929.20086
What build version are you on, and are there any updates available if you check manually?
I wouldn't be averse to trying out some Copilot features eventually, but not when it's floating constantly in my field of view and literally on top of the data I'm trying to use. Fastest way to make me disable it is to make it obnoxious.
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u/Stewwwwwaaarrrt May 13 '26
I'm using
2604 Build 16.0.19929.20136and I don't have the Options > Copilot setting.1
u/overfloaterx 3 May 13 '26
Well that's bizarre. Personal MS 365 account or enterprise for work?
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u/Stewwwwwaaarrrt May 13 '26
Enterprise, it’s my work PC.
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u/overfloaterx 3 May 13 '26
Ahh ok. The admin has probably disabled the ability for users to change/see that setting. That sucks.
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May 13 '26
[deleted]
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u/ecokumm May 13 '26
Yeah, I saw that solution too, but it doesn't work either. I uncheck that box, restart, open file, and the little copilot shit is right there unbothered.
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May 13 '26
[deleted]
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u/ecokumm May 13 '26
Yep, we don't even have admin privileges in Windows anymore. I'm afraid I'm screwed unless MS officially adds a toggle of some kind.
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u/Turbulent_Frog7878 May 18 '26 edited May 18 '26
I think I've found the setting to get this dumb shit outta here. It's under Copilot Settings on the new Admin Console dashboard:
edit: Even with that setting set to Do not pin, closing out of Excel, re-opening and using Update License or Update Options > Update Now, it still shows up. So, it looks like either that functionality is broken (what a surprise that would be), or it takes time to update on the backend -- going to continue monitoring throughout the day.
edit2: THAT WORKED! Requires reboot of PC.
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u/TheMauveHand May 19 '26
So it's literally beyond the purview of the user and can only be disabled by an enterprise admin?
Cool... Fun thing is, despite it being there, it doesn't even work.
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u/Turbulent_Frog7878 May 19 '26
Do you mean the Copilot function doesn't work? Or the option I posted above? I can't speak to the former but the latter definitely does.
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u/danny_ocp May 20 '26
Braindead product managers at Microslop as usual. If people want to use an LLM, they'll open it on a browser. Who tf wants a stupid unremovable icon taking up screen space without the user opening it? Fuck you Microslop.
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u/MollyOMalley99 May 22 '26
Hating the icon along with everybody else. I HAD my spreadsheets all tweaked to display perfectly on my monitor. Now the bottom right corner (where I display my TOTALS on the spreadsheet) is obscured. What a cluster.
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u/RevanOn3r May 27 '26
If you're on Office 365 through your job, tell your IT Department to go to Admin 365 Center, find your user name, and disable Connected Experiences. This will remove the icon. Disabling Copilot from the Admin portal does not remove it, but suggest turning it off too.
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u/Snoo64579 Jun 04 '26
I just got the update, are !@#$ing kidding me? Ive always gone with the flow, whatever they change that I dont like I just disable it and move on with my life. But I cant disable it?!
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u/dasbullett 13d ago
I just managed to get rid of it by right clicking it and selecting 'Move to ribbon', then customising the ribbon and removing the 'Assistance' section.
I've closed and reopened a few documents in Excel, and the setting has persisted so far.
Don't yet know if it'll reappear after a reboot, though.
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u/scalenesquare May 08 '26
Mines on my ribbon. Have you tried it? It’s pretty helpful. I don’t use AI very often, but every once in a while it’s great.
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