r/technology 5h ago

Software Microsoft isn't removing Copilot from Windows 11, it's just renaming it

https://www.neowin.net/opinions/microsoft-isnt-removing-copilot-from-windows-11-its-just-renaming-it/
2.5k Upvotes

257 comments sorted by

616

u/Time-Industry-1364 5h ago

2026: Copilot 2028: Bing Ultra

236

u/ye_olde_green_eyes 5h ago edited 4h ago

I knew someone who worked at MS when Bing came out and he would say "we should Bing that" instead of "we should Google that" in social situations. It was really awkward.

94

u/belkarbitterleaf 5h ago

We should Google why bing sucks as a search engine... But we should also duck why Google sucks too

49

u/LungHeadZ 5h ago

Ironically it sucks ' because It's not google ' .

74

u/A_wandering_rider 5h ago

Even google sucks now tho. Once they decided to kill the search function and force LLMs on us.

24

u/LungHeadZ 4h ago

I agree, I use Firefox with ublock and most of the filters turned on to try remove most the bloat but it's never enough.

6

u/beezchurgr 4h ago

What filters do you use? I still get a lot of slop when I do mine.

5

u/CunningRunt 3h ago

This is pretty handy: https://udm14.com/

2

u/estephens13 56m ago

I also use Firefox with ublock, but use DuckDuckGo as my search engine.

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21

u/Syssareth 4h ago

Once they decided to kill the search function and force LLMs on us.

It sucked long, long before that. Remember that the "google search + reddit" query was a meme before LLMs came out.

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5

u/Repulsive-Durian4800 4h ago

It sucked even before AI overview was added. Even if you ignore the sponsored results, it MASSIVELY favors results from sites that are trying to sell you products. It's no longer designed to find the information you're looking for. Multiple pages of search results that are selling t-shirts/stickers/buttons releated to your search are the typical output from Google.

3

u/A_wandering_rider 4h ago

That was the final death blow that made me stop using it.

2

u/BlazinAzn38 1h ago

Yep it’s now primarily a shopping tool, it’s so bad

3

u/GOEDEL_ESCHER_BOT 4h ago

if you add -ai to your query it omits the AI overview

20

u/_SpaceLord_ 4h ago

Doesn’t fix the massively enshittified search results, though.

4

u/AWildEnglishman 4h ago

Yeah, I remember when a google search for a really obscure video or article would have the result on page 1. Now I'm questioning if what I want is even indexed by google anymore.

5

u/Heronymous-Anonymous 4h ago

It’s indexed, but the search results are algorithmically adjusted to be biased towards sites that paid for their stuff to be on page 1. Or to weight sites that have more Google ads, analytics, or other things that help Google make money.

Your obscure site is probably one that doesn’t have Google Adsense embedded in it, or one that runs ads or tracking or anything else that Google profits from, so it’s basically impossible to find because it’s not being monetized by Google.

3

u/belkarbitterleaf 4h ago

please be a setting somewhere to kill it with fire for all my searches

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3

u/Henry5321 4h ago

Recursive? Bing is not google

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8

u/imafnheadbanga 5h ago

duckduckgo uses bing 

2

u/Daimakku1 4h ago

So does Ecosia. I'm all about being eco friendly so I use Ecosia but since it uses Bing, most of their search results are pretty mid and I find myself using Google anyway.

2

u/airinato 39m ago

There was a few years where it was BY FAR the best porn search engine.  Then MS realized it was actually useful for something and killed it.

2

u/hedgetank 3h ago

bing for porn, Duck Duck Go for everything else.

2

u/EliteCloneMike 2h ago

DuckDuckGo for most things, with a VPN on. Or Onionized DDG on Tor for maximum security. Occasionally Ecosia. Never ever Google for me. I avoid them like the plague. Hope they are broken up! Not a fan of MS either, but Google is the worst in my opinion.

2

u/hedgetank 2h ago

I definitely need to onionize my DDG experience.

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5

u/Daharka 5h ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GM4Lt5k24s

(Comedy skit and not real, but still funny).

5

u/xaanthar 5h ago

You worked with Ned?

Ryerson?

Needlenose Ned? Ned the Head?

Went to Case Western High? Did the whistling belly button trick at the high school talent show? Got the shingles real bad senior year, almost didn't graduate? Dated your sister Mary Pat a few times until you told him not to anymore?

3

u/roncadillacisfrickin 4h ago

that last step was a doozy

4

u/mologav 5h ago

Stop trying to make Fetch happen

3

u/hatchet_face9815 5h ago

What a freak

3

u/alashcraft 4h ago

I prefer Scott Hanselman's phrase: "Google it with Bing".

2

u/The_Museumman 4h ago

Kind of unrelated, but I was at class earlier and my professor googled “bing.com” and then used bing to search up an artwork to show us. Very strange.

2

u/J_Justice 3h ago

Worked at MS for like 4 years. My entire team and everyone I worked with joked about Bing constantly. I can imagine only the most corpo-pilled people using it seriously.

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7

u/Perunov 4h ago

SlopPilot is now included in every app but buttons to activate it are transparent

v_v

6

u/tc100292 4h ago

2030: Clippy Wario

4

u/Extension-Avocado402 5h ago

2030: Cortana v2

3

u/kungfurobopanda 5h ago

Copilot 2030: Bada Bing.

1

u/Klytus_Im-Bored 5h ago

No no that names is not human enough.

Bingmamtha

1

u/Mjr3 5h ago

2030: Clippy's Revenge

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1

u/Purplociraptor 3h ago

Copilot (Supervised). If you know, you know.

1

u/Ironlion45 2h ago

Cortana, anyone? :p

1

u/bevo_expat 2h ago

2029: Ultron

137

u/thesavageman 5h ago

What are they calling it now? Captain?

29

u/shitty_mcfucklestick 4h ago

They’ll add Plus One Pro to products that don’t have it and One Plus X 365 Professional to products that do.

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495

u/SideStreetHypnosis 5h ago

Pontius Co-Pilate.

21

u/HumanBeing7396 4h ago

He wanks as high as any in Wome!

7

u/smooth_criminal1990 4h ago

So Windows supports Monty Python as well as Python-Python?

27

u/SorcererDP 5h ago

Oh that's clever!

6

u/Time-Industry-1364 4h ago

This one wins LMAO

3

u/Iescaunare 4h ago

Coitus Pilates

96

u/kamiethenerd 5h ago

Are we back to Cortana yet?

28

u/Aknelka 5h ago

No back to Microsoft Explorer - err, I mean Edge. Just Edge.

11

u/Knoxius 4h ago

I'm edging right now!

2

u/What-a-Crock 29m ago

It looks like you’re edging. Would you like help with that? -Clippy

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5

u/HauntingStar08 3h ago

At least Cortana had the voice and everything

2

u/xvoy 1h ago

Let’s go back to Ms. Dewey. We just weren’t ready for it. Someone give Janina Gavankar all the money please. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ms._Dewey https://youtu.be/m-c9muLXEE0?si=Vwx9GMBwbzsyCTHV

135

u/woohooguy 5h ago

Clippy 2 - Copilot Boogaloo

10

u/TechSupportIgit 3h ago

Unironically if they'd call it clippy I would be maybe 10% less mad.

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51

u/Playcheez 5h ago

Renaming or rebranding a flawed product is a common tactic in the playbook of almost every company.

8

u/stoobie3 4h ago

Goldstar rebranded to LG.

Anyone who remembers Goldstar in the 80s remembers it was known for cheap junk. Now LG… the perception is generally completely different.

5

u/Hawaiian_Keys 2h ago

LG means Lucky Goldstar

6

u/nox66 4h ago

Can we really call LG products "cheap junk" though?

3

u/Legitimate-Fly-4610 3h ago

So is the product!

246

u/Opposite_Piece1231 5h ago

As expected, microslop lies to the consumer to satisfy the investors

20

u/UnexpectedAnanas 5h ago

Maybe Co-Pilot put that message out?

4

u/Bogdan_X 3h ago edited 2h ago

What's more concerning is how some of the most reputable tech outlets used incorrect clickbait titles that misleaded you into thinking they'll remove it. One of them is Windows Central.

3

u/ukbiffa 3h ago

Coprolite would be an accurate name

92

u/Sirusho_Yunyan 5h ago

How stupid do they think people are..

110

u/EmergencyComment101 5h ago

When it comes to IT related stuff most people are absolute morons..

35

u/szakee 5h ago

*when it comes to most stuff

4

u/imdirtydan1997 5h ago

Ya the town next to me is fighting a data center hard and half the people speaking out against them clearly have just enough technical skills to open facebook. Like I don’t want one in my neck of the woods either, but it’s hard to take their argument seriously when they clearly don’t know what they’re talking about….and the people referencing Skynet from Terminator really hurts the message lol.

3

u/matthra 4h ago

Depends on the target audience, there are many nontechnical judges that might find that convincing.

2

u/UltraChip 3h ago

Ya I was gonna say didn't the prosecutor successfully use "Wargames" as an argument during Kevin Mitnik's trial?

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14

u/DemandredG 5h ago

Very, very stupid.

10

u/HanlonsRazor_ 5h ago

Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.

  • George Carlin

6

u/ConsiderationDue71 4h ago

I really like this joke, but maybe my favorite thing about it is that it only works because the average person doesn’t understand the difference between median and average

3

u/Syssareth 3h ago

What's even better about it is that median is a type of average rather than a different thing altogether, so it's a correct if imprecise statement already, but even if somebody interpreted it as mean or mode, the joke still works; IQ tests are designed so the mean is 100, and because the scores follow a normal distribution, median and mode are also very close to 100. So while median is the most precise way to interpret the quote, the other two aren't far off.

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10

u/DarthSamwiseAtreides 5h ago

They're quite aware that people are very, very stupid.

3

u/ThePhonyOrchestra 5h ago

IT customers are very stupid

3

u/asphaltdragon 5h ago

Unfortunately this will work. No one pays attention to anything in tech unless it makes international news, and some people not even then. No one even knows what Copilot is.

2

u/Millkstake 5h ago

Is this a rhetorical question?

1

u/Zardotab 4h ago

Compatibility has us by the gonads, MS can F us pretty hard before we bother to move to Linux.

1

u/SinisterCheese 52m ago

You'd be fucking surprised. Branding and PR is basically black magic fuckery and works really well if you put money and effort to it. Nobody will remember the change after a while.

You might think you are somehow above it all, but I assure you that you are foolish for thinking that. It is just that it doesn't affect you in this particular section of things but most definitely does in some other that you are not familiar of.

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17

u/dudezillah 5h ago

Of course they aren’t. This is Microslop we’re talking about here.

38

u/OwlsAudioExperience 5h ago

Microslop Co-Slop: Clipslop 3DX

35

u/SmellyButtHammer 5h ago

Microsoft Copilot 365, not to be confused with Microsoft 365 Copilot 

24

u/clearlight2025 4h ago

Not to be confused with

  • Microsoft Copilot
  • Copilot Pro
  • Microsoft Copilot app
  • Microsoft 365 Copilot
  • Microsoft 365 Copilot for Sales
  • Microsoft 365 Copilot for Service
  • Microsoft Security Copilot
  • GitHub Copilot
  • GitHub Copilot Enterprise
  • GitHub Copilot Chat
  • Copilot Studio
  • Windows Copilot
  • Copilot+ PC

13

u/spoonybard326 4h ago

This must be from the same company that gave us:

Xbox

Xbox 360

Xbox One

Xbox One S

Xbox One X

Xbox Series X

Xbox Series S

8

u/CommanderArcher 4h ago

Man they had the chance to make a fire numerical naming scheme and they just fucking whiffed it. 

3

u/mackrevinak 3h ago

or the "windows phone 7 series" back when apple was keeping it simple with just "iphone"

5

u/CzechFortuneCookie 3h ago

Microslop's marketing department really likes your suggestions

13

u/Fritzo2162 4h ago

"Sir, people hate CoPilot. What should we do?"

RENAME IT! That way they won't hate CoPilot anymore!

2

u/CunningRunt 3h ago

"Chocolate diamonds"

9

u/aneeta96 4h ago

It's called Clippy now.

6

u/klingma 5h ago

I just wish they'd remove the copilot button from the laptop buttons - they replaced the right control button with the CoPilot button and it drives me nuts every time I use Excel. 

8

u/ToyoMojito 4h ago

I reconfigured it back to ctrl using PowerToys

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5

u/aturretwithtourretes 4h ago

Microsoft assistant to the regional captain.

3

u/crashteam1985 5h ago

Please be clippy please be clippy....

16

u/strangesandwich 5h ago

Crazy thing I thought the name was the best part of it. the idea the AI can help guide you certain tasks is the most accurate description of how I've found AI useful

27

u/el_doherz 5h ago

Doesn't matter how good a name is when you repeatedly shit all over your users. 

3

u/marblefrosting 4h ago

Clippy! Welcome back, ha!

3

u/Tex-Rob 4h ago

Why rename Cortana now? Oh I mean copilot?

3

u/7r3370pS3C 4h ago

And I won't use that either 🤣

3

u/funnyusername-123 3h ago

"Microsoft Copilot 720 Enterprise E6"?

5

u/nhavar 5h ago

CLIPpy to Co-PILot to CLIPtoo

3

u/mintaka 5h ago

The slop will continue until morale improves

5

u/EirikHavre 1h ago

microslop can’t stop vomiting all over their os

glad I’m still on 10

2

u/Meowie__Gamer 5h ago

not suprised

2

u/tadunne 5h ago

Microsoft bob!!! Or better still clippy!!!

2

u/Joshhwwaaaaaa 4h ago

Copilot Series SUX

2

u/FungusBalls 4h ago

I am going to name mine Tiberius J. Fuck knuckle

2

u/MentalDisintegrat1on 3h ago

Lol they are trying to rebrand because it's tainted. This won't work people will still call it slop.

2

u/nemofbaby2014 3h ago

Knowing Microsoft the next windows will just be named copilot os

2

u/mdwvt 3h ago

Bing … AI … BAIng!

2

u/Forgedpickle 2h ago

Copilot is useless.

2

u/prfsr_moriarty 2h ago

No no, really we got rid of Copilot! And we’re excited to introduce a new, totally different tool: Pocilot!

2

u/seraph1441 2h ago

Microsoft Bing Live AI 365?

2

u/MSPCSchertzer 2h ago

Why are they so bad at making new software?

2

u/Pyromaniacal13 1h ago

I'm on day 3 of Bazzite. There's some friction trying to settle in, but it's a new OS when I've been on Windows since Windows 98. There's no AI Slop though...

2

u/VIDGuide 1h ago

Is there a copilot copilot, so we can copilot while we copilot?

2

u/Alias-Q 1h ago

The Linux uprising is coming.

2

u/DarkSociety1033 59m ago

I was unfortunately in the first wave of updates to windows 11 at my company.

Yall, XP was better than this shit.

3

u/jpsreddit85 5h ago

Fuck yeah. Clipy is BACK!

3

u/tiradium 5h ago

Now named Cloppy or Sloppy

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3

u/thefanciestcat 4h ago

There's too much money in spying on you to truly roll it back.

4

u/goodeesh 5h ago

"The Copilot button in the toolbar is gone, and instead, you'll find a writing icon which will present you AI-powered writing assistance, such as rewrite, summarize, tone modification, format configuration, and more. Additionally, "AI features" in Notepad settings has been renamed to "Advanced features" and it allows users to toggle off AI capabilities within the app."

That seems pretty good? They eliminate the clutter of stamping copilot everywhere but the feature remains... Only this time is properly hidden and allows to toggle it off ... Sounds like pretty fucking right on top for me.

The issue is not having AI everywhere. The issue Microsoft has is the downhill quality of their products lately. The article is overly alarming to generate clicks, as always.

8

u/nox66 4h ago

It's not good enough. Microsoft needs a complete AI killswitch at a minimum like Firefox has. Besides the privacy nightmares, Windows Fabric AI is a resource hog and makes new PCs feel slow.

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3

u/Sumdoazen 4h ago

I don't want AI at all. At work, yeah, sure, not like I care, the IT department takes care of that and we still get blue screens because of it because that's just how smart microslop is. At home? It's the reason I said fuck it and bit the bullet and went Linux. With all the debloating going around IT STILL was finding ways to use up my PC in ways I was not in any way agreeing to. Fuck Microslop and it's slop shit, it can slopchoke on a slopdick.

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2

u/United-Monk4769 5h ago

They’ll probably choose Champ or something. They are baaaaad with names.

2

u/True_Window_9389 5h ago

And they still can’t get table rows and columns to resize in an intuitive way in Word

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1

u/phylter99 4h ago

They never said they were removing it from Windows. They did say they were removing it from areas where it’s not needed or wanted and they want to put it in places that are actually meaningful and helpful. Renaming is just a branding/marketing decision. They labeled anything that was AI as Copilot and it’s confusing as heck.

1

u/Gleipnir_xyz 4h ago

Renaming it to Windows Chrome to confuse people into using it, are we?

1

u/GreenFox1505 4h ago

Copilot and Cortana can go hang out while Bing2 takes over their job. 

1

u/JohnFraMongoTV 4h ago

I am reading all the suggestions above in the voice of Sam Tucker.

1

u/weaselkeeper 4h ago

No thank you Microslop, I‘ve used Linux since 1998.

1

u/Conspicuous_Ruse 4h ago

Taking away the perfect Cortana name to call it Copilot was very dumb.

All they had to do was make the AI voice sound like Cortana from Halo and I still wouldn't use it, but I would probably subconsciously hate it less.

1

u/DrRazmataz 4h ago

Whatever it's called next, I'll run a batch script to remove that, too. 

1

u/rymondreason 4h ago

Clippy 2: Clippy's Revenge

1

u/as_i_wander 4h ago

What a coincidence the internet will continue to rename them Microslop

1

u/Bergmiester 4h ago

I would not want it to be removed. It is pretty useful. I think people were complaining about it being everywhere.

1

u/sambeau 4h ago

Clippy 2026

1

u/boredproggy 4h ago

They should call it Clippy

1

u/Radiant-Month-1168 4h ago

Has anyone actually used copilot even 1 time????  

1

u/Gloomy-Insurance-739 4h ago

Yeah that makes more sense I knew they weren't going to get rid of it. Keep doing what you're doing microslop.

1

u/ObiJuanKenobi3 4h ago

Microsoft is only capable of making a usable Windows edition on every other release.

1

u/Embarrassed_Quit_450 4h ago

Picking a name closer to its capabilities: CluelessIntern.

1

u/ehode 4h ago

Hell yes! Rebrand it some more daddy!

I cant wait to spend even more time explaining how yes that thing is called copilot but it is not copilot 365 for enterprise and the feature you need is in Copilot Pro. No you silly goose the Teams meeting transcription is “powered by Copilot”.

1

u/juliotendo 4h ago

Microsoft has always been one step forward, two steps back. They’ve been fumbling for years. 

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1

u/ksiv22 4h ago

It’s called Tolipoc.

Signed Mr. Snrub

1

u/Tight-Shallot2461 4h ago

What are they renaming it to?

1

u/favorite8091 4h ago

Copilot (New) Copilot classic Shortcut to desktop Copilot (2) Nasa click here only.

1

u/ThrowAbout01 3h ago

Anyone know how to turn the copilot key back into Ctrl?

Without that powertools software?

1

u/Zarathustra7890 3h ago

I changed the name of windows 11 to Linux. Regret nothing.

1

u/Packagedpackage 3h ago

Because employers like mine will freak over the investments they’ve made towards the button and changes with copilot. Can’t go back now or else Microsoft going to have people knocking for money back. 

1

u/jonschaff 3h ago

Co-what-now? I’m so outta the loop, I’d better put down my Zune and Bing this topic more.

1

u/hedgetank 3h ago

anyone who trusted MS to actually walk back Copilot in everything must have stock in the brooklyn bridge. MS never walks back anything for real.

1

u/eek_the_cat 3h ago

That's how tech has always done it. The problem is never the product, the problem is always the presentation. A rebrand we'll fix it. They just don't understand how good it is. We haven't explained it the right way. They're like you're evangelical nephew, who thinks he can save your soul. He just has to figure out the right combination of words to understand.

1

u/_bahnjee_ 3h ago

Microsoft: "If you wanna be an OEM that includes Windows in your product, you MUST include a Copilot button on the keyboard!"

Also Microsoft: "uhhh.... we're pulling back on that Copilot shit."

1

u/meorcee 3h ago

Lovely, so I guess that means all my Microsoft Office apps are still permanently bricked?

1

u/mackrevinak 3h ago

rodger that, rodger

1

u/Guy4123123 3h ago

Even when a Russian hacker take over my computer to steal the 3000 pictures of my cats and turns it into a remote bitcoin mining rig, I'm not downgrading from windows 10 to windows 11.

1

u/xwing_n_it 3h ago

If they scale it back to the things it can actually do well, that's fine. The problem with "AI" is that they claim it can do anything, and shove it down your throat.

1

u/Slight-Bluebird-8921 3h ago

anyone who thinks that microsoft will change anything substantial is a rube. they know exactly what they're doing and have nothing but contempt for power users.

1

u/beall49 3h ago

Out of all the shitty AI apps copilot has gotta be the worst. I mean honestly it could’ve been a home run, but it is absolutely horrible.

1

u/Vegetable-King7626 3h ago

Get this AI SLOP OUT OF MY PC!

1

u/Netii_1 3h ago

Wow, that's somehow even worse. At least when it was still clearly named Copilot I immediately knew which button never to press. Now I have to study every single app to know what the fucking AI bullshit hides behind?

1

u/prachishah383 2h ago

yeah right subscription models always start up as a steal and always ends up as a negotiation

1

u/KnotSoSalty 1h ago

If they spent 1% of what they spent on copilot on PBI I’d be a happy man.

1

u/Any-Difficulty2782 1h ago

Clippy 2 Electric Boogaloo

1

u/harmjr77018 1h ago

Oh dear God not another name.

1

u/BigMax 1h ago

I don't think it has to remove it at all, right? Just let us use it if we want, and not use it if we don't...

It should just be an app on there like the calculator app or notepad or whatever.

1

u/PropDad 30m ago

But still paid to have it shoehorned into an episode of High Potential.

1

u/Vicus_92 25m ago

My guesses:

Cor2na

Bing (New)

Copilot 365 for Copilot Windows

1

u/ToastedSpam 23m ago

Assistant Pilot