How to Remove Ask Copilot from Right-Click Menu in File Explorer

You may want to remove the Ask Copilot from the context menu in File Explorer on Windows 11 if you are not an active Copilot app user. The new menu entry appears once you receive the version 1.25051.109 of the app. We will review a number of methods you can use to undo this change.

Copilot in Windows 11 is an AI-powered assistant designed to improve your productivity. Its recent variant appears like a desktop app that can be resized, moved, or minimized. It can do for you a variety of tasks, such as content creation, problem solving, and suggestions in apps like Settings. For example, it can offer step-by-step instructions for enabling some option in the OS, suggest you a pie recipe, create a summary for a lengthy text, and so on. You can ask it using natural language queries, and it will quickly come with an answer.

To make it easier to access it, Microsoft has added the new "Ask Copilot" command to certain file types. As of this writing, I see them for text and PDF files when I right-click them in File Explorer. The file content will be send to the assistant app, so you can ask it to summarize/explain/refine it with ease.

But if you are not fan of Copilot and other AI stuff, you may find the new item quite annoying. It is always visible even in the shorten variant of the context menu. You don't need open the full context menu to see it. So here are a few methods to remove the new item from the menu of Windows 11.

Remove Ask Copilot from Right-Click Menu

To remove the "Ask Copilot" item from the Windows 11 context menu, do the following.

1. Press Win + R, and type regedit in the Run box, then hit Enter.
2. In the Regisry Editor app, look in the left pane for the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Shell Extensions key.
3. There, check out if the Blocked subkey exists. If it is missing, then right-click the Shell Extensions key, and select New > Key. Name it Blocked.
4. Finally, right-click the Blocked key, and select New > String value from the menu.
5. Name the newly created value {CB3B0003-8088-4EDE-8769-8B354AB2FF8C}. Leave its value empty.
6. Right-click the Start menu button in the taskbar, and select Shut down or sign out > Sign out.
7. Sign in back to Windows 11, and you will no longer have the Ask Copilot entry in the right-click menu!

That's it!

↩️ If you eventually change your mind, it is easy to undo the tweak to restore the menu item. Simply delete the {CB3B0003-8088-4EDE-8769-8B354AB2FF8C} value under the Blocked key, and the entry will again become available.

You still may need to sign out and sign in back to your user session in the OS for the changes to take effect.

Using ready-made REG files

To save your time, I traditionally can offer a couple of REG files that modify the Registry for you. Download them from the link below.

Download REG files

Extract the downloaded ZIP archive to any place of your drive, and open the remove ask copilot context menu for current user.reg file. Click Yes in the User Control Dialog, then Yes again in the Registry Editor confirmation, and finally the OK button in the last prompt. Sign out from Windows 11 to apply the change.

The undo file, add ask copilot context menu for current user.reg, is also included in the archive.

The reviewed Registry setting will safely block the Copilot shell extension from being loaded in File Explorer, so the menu entry will disappear. But everything else will work as before. You can use the app itself, open it with shortcuts and hotkeys - Copilot remains fully functional.

The only downside is that the menu will be removed for the current user account only. If you have more than just one account on your computer, you may want to disable the Ask Copilot menu for all of them at once. This is also possible, but the Registry tweak for that is slightly different.

Hide Ask Copilot Menu Item for All Users

1. Open the Registry Editor: Press Win + R on your keyboard to open the Run dialog box, type regedit into the box and press Enter.
   • Note: You may see a User Account Control prompt asking for permission to make changes. Click Yes to proceed.
2. In the Registry Editor, look at the left pane (the folder tree). Navigate to the following path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Shell Extensions.
3. Check if there is a subkey named Blocked under the Shell Extensions key. If it exists, skip to Step 5.
4. If it’s missing, right-click the Shell Extensions key in the left pane, and select New > Key from the context menu. Name the new key Blocked.
5. Right-click the Blocked key you just created (or located). Select New > String Value from the context menu. Name the new string value: {CB3B0003-8088-4EDE-8769-8B354AB2FF8C} and leave its value empty.
6. Right-click the Start menu button on the taskbar. Select Shut down or sign out > Restart. This will ensure that the change will apply to all user accounts that exist on your device.
7. Once you log back in, the "Ask Copilot" entry will no longer appear in your right-click menu.

That’s it - you’ve successfully removed it!

Reverting the Change (Optional)

If you ever want to restore the "Ask Copilot" option for all users:

1. Open the Registry Editor again (Step 1).
2. Navigate to the same location: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Shell Extensions\Blocked.
3. Delete the string value named {CB3B0003-8088-4EDE-8769-8B354AB2FF8C}.
4. Restart Windows.

Finally, I've created REG files for this very case, too.

The Registry Files

A couple of REG files will automatically make the necessary changes to your Windows Registry. You can download them using the link provided below.

Download REG Files

Once the download is complete, extract the contents of the ZIP archive to any location on your drive. Locate the file named remove ask copilot context menu for all users.reg and double-click it to execute.

When prompted by the User Account Control dialog, click Yes to allow the change. In the subsequent confirmation window from the Registry Editor, click Yes again, and then press OK in the final prompt to confirm the update.

Afterward, restart your Windows 11 to ensure the changes take effect.

If you ever need to reverse the modification, an undo file named add ask copilot context menu for all users.reg is included in the same archive. Simply repeat the process by opening the undo file, following the prompts, and restarting Windows to restore the hidden Ask Copilot menu entry.

So, we reviewed the direct registry modification method, and the corresponding REG files. But there are a few more methods you can use to hide the new Copilot command. One of them is the good old reg.exe inbox utility that is great for various automation scripts and scenarios.

The Command Prompt Method

To remove the Ask Copilot menu item using the command prompt, do the following.

1. Open the Command Prompt console by pressing Win + R and then typing cmd.exe in the Run dialog. The console may open inside Terminal, - that is pretty fine.
2.  In the console, enter the following command to disable the Ask Copilot menu item for the current user: reg add "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Shell Extensions\Blocked" /v {CB3B0003-8088-4EDE-8769-8B354AB2FF8C} /d "" /t REG_SZ /f.

   

3. Sign out from Windows 11 for the changes to take effect.

For all users

1. Type cmd.exe in the Start menu or Windows Search in the taskbar. This will bring Command Prompt in the list.
2. Click on the Run as administrator on the right under the app icon.
3. The Command Prompt will open with high privileges. To remove the Ask Copilot entry from the right-click menu for all users, run the following command: reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Shell Extensions\Blocked" /v {CB3B0003-8088-4EDE-8769-8B354AB2FF8C} /d "" /t REG_SZ /f.
4. Restart the operating system for the changes to take effect if required.

That's it! The commands are pretty useful if your automation tasks include fine-grain UI tuning for Windows 11.

Undo commands

↩️ Finally, here are the undo commands to restore the menu item:

• Current user: reg delete "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Shell Extensions\Blocked" /v {CB3B0003-8088-4EDE-8769-8B354AB2FF8C} /f
• All users:reg delete "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Shell Extensions\Blocked" /v {CB3B0003-8088-4EDE-8769-8B354AB2FF8C} /f. Run this command as Administrator.

To save your time, you can download batch files with the above commands. Here you go.

Download Ready-to-use Batch Files

⬇️ Point you web browser to this link, and get the ZIP archive containing two *.bat files. Extract them to any location on your computer.

Double-click the file remove ask copilot context menu for current user.bat to open it. It will disable the new menu item for the current user.

The file remove ask copilot context menu for all users.bat accordingly disables it for all users. This one you must run as administrator. For that, right-click it and select Run as administrator from the menu.

Finally, the remaining files, undo - add ask copilot context menu for current user.bat and undo - add ask copilot context menu for all users.bat are the undo files. The latter must be run as Administrator.

I've put the pause command to the end of each file, so you will see the command output, as it requires the user to press any key to continue (and exit the console in our case).

Last but not least, you can get rid of the menu by uninstalling the Copilot app. This is pretty obvious and is suitable for users who do not going to use it at all. The steps are as follows.

Uninstall the Copilot App to Get Rid of Its Menu

1. Open Settings: Press Win + I to open the Settings app.
2. Navigate to Installed Apps: On the left sidebar, click on Apps, then select Installed apps on the right side.
3. Locate Copilot: Scroll through the list of installed apps, find Copilot, and click the 3 dots button next to it.
4. Uninstall the App: From the dropdown menu, select Uninstall, then confirm by clicking Uninstall again when prompted.
5. Close Settings: Once done, you can close the Settings app if desired.

That’s it! The Copilot app will now be removed from your system for your user account. It will take the "Ask Copilot" menu item with it, so both will go away.

That's it.

Thanks to thecomminty

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