Hands-On Windows 183: You Can't Spell Windows With AI - All TWiT.tv Shows (Audio)

Summary

Hands-On Windows 183: You Can't Spell Windows With AI
Aired: April 2, 2026
Host: Paul Veratto
Podcast Network: TWiT.tv

Episode Overview

In this episode of "Hands-On Windows," Paul Veratto delves into the growing presence of AI within Windows 11, focusing on tools, utilities, and settings that allow users to reduce or remove AI features—particularly Microsoft Copilot. He provides a practical walkthrough of using the Win11 Debloat utility, explores manual removal methods, and discusses the pros and cons of purging or retaining certain AI elements. The episode strikes a balance between criticism of unnecessary AI integration and acknowledgment of genuinely useful features.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Context: AI Proliferation in Windows 11

Paul reflects on the continual addition of AI features in Windows 11, noting that "there's more coming" and acknowledging user interest in controlling or removing such functions. (01:43)
He connects these developments to his ongoing work (and a book-in-progress) on "deinsurdifying" (debloating) Windows 11.

2. Win11 Debloat Utility Breakdown

Demonstration and Walkthrough

Paul demonstrates running Win11 Debloat as an administrator and explains the utility's interface:
- "As before, I'm going to go through the custom setup… And you should turn this on so it only shows the installed apps. You can use this to uninstall Copilot." (04:20)
Details on removing both Copilot and, where present, Microsoft 365 Copilot, clarifying:
- "What you're looking for... is something called the Office Hub. That's the old Office app which became the Microsoft 365 Copilot app." (05:00)
System Tweaks: The utility offers toggles for AI-related features, including:
- Disable Microsoft Copilot (removes app and background processes)
- Remove Windows Recall (for Copilot+ PCs)
- Remove Click to Do feature (which Paul admits is "really good," and doesn't recommend removing)
Removing AI features in Microsoft Edge is also available, but Paul skips turning it off initially to demonstrate its effects later.

Notable Quote
"I'll also point out that there is no way using this utility or otherwise to remove the AI features in... the Photos app. And if you have a Copilot plus PC... some of those capabilities are fantastic. I don't know why anyone would want to remove those features, but if you wanted to use a different image viewer, image editor, you could do that and then just uninstall Photos." (06:45)

3. Limitations and Inconsistencies

Paul highlights inconsistencies in AI feature management:
- Some features are easily removed, while others lack straightforward options.
- "It's a little irritating, frankly. I think you should do what you can do with win 11 debloat because it makes it easier." (09:29)
Specifics on removing or disabling AI in individual apps:
- Windows Recall: Sometimes must be toggled via Windows features control panel.
- Click to Do: Disabled via Privacy & Security settings.
- AI Actions: Toggled in Settings, but if all options are off, the empty menu persists "for now."
- Paint/Photos/Notepad: No built-in removal for AI in Paint and Photos; features can be "hidden" by uninstalling the app.
- Notepad: AI features can be removed directly within the app.

4. Deep Dive: Microsoft Edge AI Settings

Settings Navigation

Paul explores disabling AI integration in Edge:
1. AI Innovations – Toggle off AI capabilities.
2. Appearance > Copilot and Sidebar – "I could just… turn those off. I hate the sidebar. But you could turn on Copilot as a sidebar, right?" (11:45)
Insight: Even without Edge's Copilot, users can access tools like ChatGPT or Gemini in-browser, and extensions by other AI companies are forthcoming.
"If you do want to use Edge, but you don't want any of that… just turn all this stuff off. That's me, but obviously that's up to you." (13:20)

5. Broader AI Trends and Future Outlook

Microsoft is poised to add even more AI and agentic functions in Windows 11, which Paul calls frankly worrisome.
"There's more AI coming from Microsoft. That's just inevitable. There's that agentic functionality that is coming this year, which I'm borderline freaking out over, but you may or may not want that." (15:10)
Paul predicts, "as AI gets worse in Windows 11… the utilities that remove that stuff will only get better." (15:30)

Memorable Quotes

"Not that all of it is bad, we'll get to some of that... But just to give you a complete list of what you might want to uninstall, let you, you know, uninstall what you want to install. Right." — Paul Veratto (03:10)
"Always create a system restore point. And generally speaking, I do recommend restarting Explorer. I'm not going to do that here because we're recording but apply changes and so this thing will run like it did before." (07:45)
"If you have a Copilot plus PC, the options you see here are options that are available on all PCs… It doesn't actually remove all the features. You can see there were still three left. I've had mixed results with this. It removes some but not others." (06:15)
"You could also just not use this damn thing. Right? So Microsoft Edge certainly has its problems." (13:10)

Detailed Section Timestamps

| Segment | Time | |------------------------------------------|--------------| | Introduction to topic | 01:43–03:20 | | Win11 Debloat setup and Copilot removal | 03:20–07:50 | | AI in individual apps (Photos, Notepad) | 06:15–07:45 | | Manual/Settings-based removal steps | 09:29–12:20 | | Microsoft Edge AI/Sidebar walkthrough | 11:45–13:40 | | Paul’s perspective on AI’s future in Windows | 15:10–15:40 |

Takeaways & Episode Tone

Practical, Candid, and Slightly Sarcastic: The episode is hands-on, straightforward, and honest about both the annoyances and occasional benefits of Windows 11's AI features.
User Empowerment: Paul provides clear, step-by-step recommendations for reclaiming control of one's system.
Evolving Landscape: The overall message is that AI integration is accelerating, but so are the community-created tools to counter it—suggesting a cat-and-mouse dynamic for power users.

Transcript

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Paul Veratto (1:22)

Coming up next on Hands on Windows, I'm going to start discussing a topic that I think is near and dear to everyone's heart, which is getting rid of the AI in Windows 11

Leo Laporte (1:34)

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Paul Veratto (1:43)

Hello everybody, and welcome back to Hands on Windows. I'm Paul Veratto. Last week I discussed this book that I had started writing about deinsurdifying Windows 11. We went through this big update to the Win11 debloat utility, which is one of many utilities like that, but it's my favorite utility and I thought I would kind of expand on that a little bit this week and talk about one of the topics I think is top of mind for people when it comes to getting things out of Windows 11, in this case, Copilot, and the other bits of AI that are, you know, sprinkled liberally throughout the system. And, you know, there's more coming. We'll look at win 11 debloat again quickly. There is it has some capacity for getting rid of AI capabilities in the system, like other utilities. There's something called winslop and some other utilities I've seen out there. None of them are complete, but we're also in a period of Time where things are moving rapidly. New features are being added to Windows all the time. I feel like it might be a little while before we have a full handle on this. So this is maybe sort of an introductory to this topic, an introductory look at this topic, and then we'll probably expand on this again in the future. My Hope is that win 11 debloat or some other utility will arrive with a full suite of capabilities for removing all of the AI that's in Windows 11. Not that all of it is bad, we'll get to some of that. But just to give you a complete list of what you might want to uninstall, let you know, uninstall what you want to install. Right. So last time we talked about win 11 debloat, we can run that again. You run a terminal application. As administrator, I still have the address in the clipboard here. And the UI comes up. And as before, I'm going to go through the custom setup, right? Not the, the, you know, the settings the author wants necessarily. And there's two main pages as before, as there would be. And you should turn this on so it only shows the installed apps. You can use this to uninstall Copilot. Right. So Copilot is there, and I will remove that. There's also, depending on the type of PC you have, the type of sign in you use, you might see something called Microsoft 365 copilot. I feel like lately it's. You get one or the other. There was a period of time where you could have both. That app is not in this list and you won't see it in this list. But what you're looking for, and I don't have it installed, so you can't actually see it. But look for something called the Office Hub. That's the old Office app, which became the Microsoft 365 app, which became the Microsoft 365 Copilot app. Right. So in this listing, I think they're pulling it out of a manifest file, essentially, so you're not going to see that. So I do have Copilot right there, you can see. So I've checked that. I'm going to want to install that, but that's fine. And then when you get to the system tweaks page, there is this AI section. So he has a disable Microsoft Copilot option that will do the same thing as getting rid of the app like I did in the previous screen. It removed some background processes and so forth. But that's something you can do these next two options are only for copilot plus PCs. I know that Windows Recall has kind of a bad rep. If you want to disable, it's fine. It's not actually on by default anyway. But you could disable that. Click to do is one of the features I actually think is really good. So I don't recommend getting rid of that. But you could and I will just go through and let's get rid of some of these at least so we can see how this happens. And then disable AI features in Microsoft Edge. I'm going to leave that one unchecked just so we can go look at what that means later. But I suspect I've already gotten rid of it actually. But we'll see what that looks like. And then these two options here are a little bit controversial, right? So for two reasons. One is that actually I think most of these features are really good. And if you look at something like Paint, I am running this on a Copilot plus PC. Let me minimize that terrible whiteness. Most of the AI features are listed under this menu. Okay, so I've already run this utility. This is. I apologize. There are normally more options here. If you have a Copilot plus PC, the options you see here are options that are available on all PCs. So it looks like I've already done this work. You can also access the Remove background functionality over here. The issue with this option in win 11 debloat is that, sorry, this option is it doesn't actually remove all the features. You can see there were still three left. I've had mixed results with this. It removes some but not others. I'll also point out that there is no way using this utility or otherwise to remove the AI features in Bloat, the Photos app. Right? And if you have a Copilot plus PC in particular, some of those capabilities are fantastic. I don't know why anyone would want to remove those features, but if you wanted to use a different image viewer, image editor, you could do that and then just uninstall photos. Right? So that would be one way to get rid of that and then disable AI features in Notepad. I'll just. We've probably gone over this, I'm sure, but that's this thing here. So you've got this Copilot icon. I happen to have a Microsoft 365 family account. I don't have anything in here to do anything to, but if I did, I would get options for, you know, summarizing, making longer, shorter, changing the tone, et cetera. You can just remove this directly in the app. So I mean, if you don't like that stuff, just get rid of it. You know, like that's actually just built in. It's kind of nice. So you could do it here. I'm not going to. All right, well, let me just click through this before we take a little break. So again, apply to the current user. I typically do this for the current user as well. Removing the apps. I mean, it's up to you, obviously. Always create a system restore point. And generally speaking, I do recommend restarting Explorer. I'm not going to do that here because we're recording but apply changes and so this thing will run like it did before. So remember, I removed one app, I removed Copilot essentially in two different ways, I guess. I think I removed windows, recall, etc. It says everything's fine. You can see everything's fine and get rid of it. And now when I search for Copilot is gone. So there you go. That's that. All right. But we have more and we'll be right back after this.