I'm managing over 150 Windows 10 clients along with a Windows Server 2019, and I've applied Group Policy to turn off Copilot. However, several users (who aren't admins, just regular Active Directory users) are still seeing the 'Welcome to Copilot' message when they log in. I've even tried using an AppLocker policy to block Copilot, but that didn't help either. Does anyone have a way to completely get rid of this message?
4 Answers
Just a heads up, some people get confused because Microsoft renamed Office to Copilot. Make sure that the message isn’t related to that new naming. If it's indeed the Copilot popup you’re talking about, it might not actually be the Office version you're looking for.
Yeah, as others mentioned, you should definitely look into that data protection setting. If users are logged into their 365 accounts, it should automatically apply. I also recommend blocking any personal URLs through Defender or a web filter to further reduce interference.
If it’s that annoying CoPilot window asking users to sign in, a solid fix is to remove the OfficeHub appx package along with any associated runtimes. That should stop the messages for good—OfficeHub has been updated to push Copilot on users and it's not the actual Office suite, just a web version wrapped up in an Electron app.
It sounds like the 365 launcher got merged with Copilot in the latest updates. One way to tackle this is by adding some data protection specifically for Copilot. Have you tried configuring that in your Group Policy settings? It might help stop those pop-ups.
How exactly do you implement that through Group Policy?