I liked you better when you weren't cool

[sovay]

Does anyone know how to remove the floating Copilot button from a version of Microsoft Word on which I disabled all so-called connected experiences the day I bought the new license more than two years ago and which has nonetheless just sneakily updated itself so that I have an AI-inducing rainbow-colored heartworm constantly keeping pace in the down right corner of the document, blocking out text which I am trying to write? I have looked for suggestions online and most of them seem to require preference options not available in my Mac. But what I need in a Word document is words and nothing else and I cannot deal with a planet-killing visual fault in the middle of them, on top of which the fact that this obscenity can be intruded into my software makes me want to headline the news for the disappearance of the Roko's basilisk boys who put it there. If a program is on my computer, the only person who should be able to tinker with it is me. I am not even eloquent, I am so furious. Any actionable suggestions would be appreciated.

[ETA 2025-11-12 22:23] JESUS CHRIST AFTER AN EVENING ON THE PHONE WITH APPLE SUPPORT WHICH WAS FLABBERGASTED BY THE PROBLEM AND NO SUPPORT WHATSOEVER FROM MICROSOFT I FIXED THE PROBLEM MYSELF WITH A CLEAN INSTALL OF PRE-COPILOT MICROSOFT WORD BECAUSE I NEVER THREW AWAY THE ORIGINAL INSTALL PACKAGE FROM 2023 IT WAS STILL IN MY TRASH I SHOULD NOT HAVE HAD TO REINSTALL FROM MY LITERAL TRASH WELCOME TO 2025

Comments

[foxmoth]

I don't see it on my version of Word (which is sadly Office 365 for work reasons) but if I find out I will let you know. :]

...this kind of fuckery is why I'm now moving to writing in ancient-ass command-line text editors or maybe more modern Markdown editors if it does not have to be work-related or client-facing, but it sucks. :/

[sovay]

I don't see it on my version of Word (which is sadly Office 365 for work reasons) but if I find out I will let you know.

Thank you. I am glad you are not having to deal with it. I have what is now Microsoft Word Version 16.103, originally the only version of Word that was available in October 2023 when Bertie died. It is what I have written in for decades. It is the platform of my entire body of work. I can't compose in anything other than TextEdit which I do not use for final versions of anything. It feels like having my hands chopped off. I would rather find the hands responsible.

...this kind of fuckery is why I'm now moving to writing in ancient-ass command-line text editors or maybe more modern Markdown editors if it does not have to be work-related or client-facing, but it sucks.

It is increasing the sense that I am deluded ever to have thought that I had any kind of space left in the world: I can't even look at my own documents without this abomination in them. And everything is a fingernail hold right now and it's hard to have fingernails without hands.

[edit] I fixed the problem through unbelievably stupid means. I appreciate your listening through the successive layers of despair.

[selkie]

I don't know how they did something more diabolical than Clippy, really.
Is yours a subscription product? I'm on Word 2010 at work and on Binky, so I think any kind of Gen AI is just beyond it, and our Word 365 has just had its updates turned off for ever and ever.
UGH, how rotten and unuseful all of it is.

[sovay]

Is yours a subscription product?

No! I purchased it flat out! It has done nothing for years except allow me to write and all of a sudden it has changed its icon (hideously) and has a floating blind spot of AI. It does not have a controllable option for updates, either, or I would have turned that off at the same time as the connected experiences: I can check for updates, but not tell it not to download them. It's weird and disgusting and I don't see how I can write around it when it is constantly moving and rolls through text in the process of composition. It's not even like a cursor. It can block out entire short words. And there's no clear option for removing it and possibly no option at all.

[princessofgeeks]

I have no useful suggestions but I totally feel your rage and frustration. Argh.

[sovay]

I have no useful suggestions but I totally feel your rage and frustration. Argh.

Thank you!

[f0rrest]

In the days when you were hopeless and poor ...

[sovay]

In the days when you were hopeless and poor ...

I am currently hopeless and poor.

[aurumcalendula]

Ugh. It sounds like you might need to briefly enable connected experiences to get the setting to turn it off? https://discussions.apple.com/thread/255932892?sortBy=rank

https://www.reddit.com/r/Office365/comments/1i4xu9v/comment/mb35kq1/

[sovay]

Ugh. It sounds like you might need to briefly enable connected experiences to get the setting to turn it off?

I appreciate the links: I have tried that route while on the phone with two different Apple support providers and it hasn't worked. The second tech was much more knowledgeable, even screen-shared with me to see the problem for herself, and was flabbergasted.

[batdina]

like clippy, it can be turned off, but it cannot be removed. I think there's no institutional memory at Microsoft vis a vis the furor over clippy in the 90s so it never occurred to them that this creepy bugger would be a problem.

[sovay]

like clippy, it can be turned off, but it cannot be removed.

I can't even turn it off. I have spent most of my evening trying to do so. At this point I am moving toward the scorched earth last resort of reinstalling an older version of Word.

[thomasyan]

Searching around, I also was told "you need to first re-enable connected experiences, quit out of ALL Microsoft apps, restart Word, and then you should be able to disable Copilot and connected experiences."

[sovay]

Searching around, I also was told "you need to first re-enable connected experiences, quit out of ALL Microsoft apps, restart Word, and then you should be able to disable Copilot and connected experiences."

That route did not work for me even when monitored in real time by professionals, but nuking the Copilot-corrupted version of Word and reinstalling from 2023 scratch, stupidly, did.

[kaffy_r]

Congratulations on having figured out how to solve the problem. I don't tend to use Microsoft Word if at all possible, since I'm a Google and WordPerfect fan, but I've had situations that have been somewhat similar. There's both a joy in figuring it out, and a headachy frustration in having to be the figurer. Go, you!

[sovay]

There's both a joy in figuring it out, and a headachy frustration in having to be the figurer. Go, you!

Thank you! At the moment I may still be in the shell-shock of the solution, but keyn-ahora I can interact with my documents without AI again!

[gwynnega]

I am glad you fixed the problem, but ARGH!!!

[sovay]

I am glad you fixed the problem, but ARGH!!!

Thank you! Stupid times call for stupid measures.

[thistleingrey]

I use standalone Word, but it's on Windows, where I've been able to disable Copilot, so far.

Think I found an Apple Support discussion that sounds like your post! In any case, if the Copilot widget was added on Mac ahead of the Prefs > Proofing Tools check box that's meant to go with it, that's a pretty bad UX bug (atop the bad UX of Copilot itself), and I am sorry.

[sovay]

I use standalone Word, but it's on Windows, where I've been able to disable Copilot, so far.

I'm glad to hear it. Until this afternoon I thought I had successfully kept it out of my word processor, whence much of the horror as well as the stress of the interference.

Think I found an Apple Support discussion that sounds like your post! In any case, if the Copilot widget was added on Mac ahead of the Prefs > Proofing Tools check box that's meant to go with it, that's a pretty bad UX bug (atop the bad UX of Copilot itself), and I am sorry.

Thank you! Yes, suddenly there was Copilot in my documents but no means of controlling it, which is what the second Apple tech saw when she shared my screen—I had by then repeated several times the list of available Authoring and Proofing Tools distinctly minus a Copilot icon—and said she had never seen before. I didn't think I could be the only person who had this problem, but I wish anyone else with it luck. I don't think there's a way out of it except reverting the versions.

[gullyfoyle]

((hugs))
This video is not safe for work, but at least that's one problem you don't have anymore....

https://youtu.be/wwQjy_ZTaRM?si=D9UDsZBcpAG4zs4R

[sovay]

This video is not safe for work, but at least that's one problem you don't have anymore....

Thank you!

*hugs*

[luzula]

I see you solved the problem, but I wanted to say that the open-source Libre Office, which I've used for ages, has so far not inserted any AI. It looks pretty much like older Word, and may be an option if Word is fucked up again.

[sovay]

I see you solved the problem, but I wanted to say that the open-source Libre Office, which I've used for ages, has so far not inserted any AI. It looks pretty much like older Word, and may be an option if Word is fucked up again.

I appreciate it! I have LibreOffice on this machine: I use it to read pre-2004 Word documents which the current, restored version doesn't know what to do with. I have not been able to use it to write seriously. I understand I may not have much more choice if Microsoft and Apple continue on their current paths, but it's been a real issue.

[asakiyume]

I had the exact same problem: I’m using a version that supposedly doesn’t have Copilot at all, and suddenly last night, there was the icon on every doc. I had chat support w/someone who was using an AI assistant (hilarious screenshot proof), was on for about 45 minutes, deinstalled and reinstalled, all to no avail. Finally I said I needed to go and would try later. 🤬

[sovay]

I’m using a version that supposedly doesn’t have Copilot at all, and suddenly last night, there was the icon on every doc. I had chat support w/someone who was using an AI assistant (hilarious screenshot proof), was on for about 45 minutes, deinstalled and reinstalled, all to no avail. Finally I said I needed to go and would try later.

I'm so sorry! Blech. Can you tell me where the version you reinstalled came from? I was able to eradicate the sudden contagion of Copilot by nuking Word and then reinstalling my original version on this machine (Microsoft Word 2021 Version 16.78, October 10 2023: not re-downloaded from the internet, the same install package I used the first time around, which is the stupid part) after which as soon as I could confirm that it came up without the icon, I disabled its ability to auto-update so that it couldn't sneak Copilot back in.

[marginaliana]

I suspect I have escaped the floating button in my corporate version of Word by means of having an institutional copilot subscription which means we have a separate tab on the toolbar, so they've put all the bullshit there instead. Then again, they hold all Word updates for a month to test them for disaster before they roll them out to us so if the update just happened, maybe next month I will also be screaming about this. Yay Microsoft. Congrats for your absurd trash fix, though?

[sovay]

Then again, they hold all Word updates for a month to test them for disaster before they roll them out to us so if the update just happened, maybe next month I will also be screaming about this. Yay Microsoft. Congrats for your absurd trash fix, though?

Thank you! I remain grateful it worked and I still think it was ridiculous.

As far as I can tell, the floating button was transferred from the toolbar, which strikes me as a nonensensically obstrusive move to begin with. I can't see a point to it other than putting Copilot constantly in the user's face. It's not like no one knows how to find an icon in a toolbar.

[movingfinger]

Oh, gods, I am going to have to cope with this problem myself, I suspect, even though my motto is "Never update."

[sovay]

Oh, gods, I am going to have to cope with this problem myself, I suspect, even though my motto is "Never update."

I hope not? If even disabling updates doesn't keep Microsoft from sneaking in the back door, then I don't know what to do other than, like, light their corporate headquarters on fire.

[kathmandu]

Offering my sincerest sympathy on the violation of someone sneaking into your computer and Messing With Your Stuff. The nerve of them. The outrage.

And congratulations on fixing it, even if it did require a brute-force solution.

[sovay]

And congratulations on fixing it, even if it did require a brute-force solution.

Thank you! It is my personal computer; corporations are not supposed to have a hotline!