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

[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.

[movingfinger]

LibreOffice is OK, but like you I ended up getting a (non-network-dependent) copy of Word, and now I'm worried. How the heck can it be forced to phone home and download what is essentially malware?

[sovay]

like you I ended up getting a (non-network-dependent) copy of Word, and now I'm worried. How the heck can it be forced to phone home and download what is essentially malware?

I don't know and find it grotesque: in the shock of it happening, I kept saying that it felt illegal. In my now reinstalled version of Word, there is an option from the drop-down Help menu to "Check for Updates," which if selected pulls up a window of an otherwise unfindable application called Microsoft AutoUpdate which can be disabled. I did so and it immediately screamed at me and I assume will continue to scream at me as I continue not to allow it to update a two-year-old version of Microsoft Word, but guess what? No thanks, Satan. I'm not going through this idiocy again.

[thistleingrey]

As part of an automatic "security update," perhaps.
Any use of the in-app help definitely phones home as well. For a while, my Word version was the standalone 2016 release (on Windows), and because it'd reached end of life, I had no help refs, e.g. for finding where one command was lurking in a ribbon subsection. (It was fine--it's only how I noticed that help has become a web-on-demand thing.) With the standalone 2024 version on Windows, I can access the usual supports.

[sovay]

(It was fine--it's only how I noticed that help has become a web-on-demand thing.)

I noticed that when I acquired this new machine and strongly did not approve.

[thistleingrey]

I mean, I understand why, re: product management and prioritizing app features--they want to gather usage data passively. But maybe they shouldn't! *shakes tiny fist*