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

[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.

[asakiyume]

Mine is a subscription product which I deliberately downgraded to get rid of Copilot, so I'm thinking your solution (which I read downthread) may not work for me anyway. *sigh*

I already use Office Libre for my personal work (which I see reading downthread you unfortunately can't do), but I guess for my paid work I'll just convert docs to Libre, edit, and then convert back. What a drag.

[sovay]

Mine is a subscription product which I deliberately downgraded to get rid of Copilot, so I'm thinking your solution (which I read downthread) may not work for me anyway.

If your version predates the introduction of Copilot in 2023, it feels to me as though it should be possible, so long as all of its channels to Microsoft are cut. That seemed to be important in my case: I tried several times unsuccessfully with newly downloaded older versions and even with the product key of my original purchase, all of which had become contaminated with Copilot. What finally worked was literally throwing out my current version of Word after rescuing the old install package from the trash.

(I'm still impressed you got chat support. I could not get hold of anyone at Microsoft at all, even AI-assisted. I spent some considerable time trying.)

I already use Office Libre for my personal work (which I see reading downthread you unfortunately can't do), but I guess for my paid work I'll just convert docs to Libre, edit, and then convert back. What a drag.

I did that for years with Bertie in the other direction because he could only read .docx and not save them, but it is extra steps that no one needs.

[muccamukk]

Libre office can save as docx now. If that information is of use.

The AI bubble can't burst soo enough 😭😭😭

[sovay]

The AI bubble can't burst soo enough

Please, yesterday!