Windows 11 now ships with over a dozen AI features baked into the operating system, from Copilot in the taskbar to AI-powered image generation in Paint and local language models on Copilot+ PCs. If you would rather reclaim your storage, reduce background resource use, and keep your PC focused on what you actually need, Microsoft has finally started giving you official switches to do it — though you will need to flip quite a few of them.

The upcoming August 2026 Patch Tuesday update (KB5101684, rolling out August 11) adds a new option to uninstall the Image Generation AI model from Copilot+ PCs via Settings > System > AI Components. It is the first time Microsoft has let users remove a local AI model through the normal Settings interface. But that is just one component among many. Here is how to strip out or disable every major AI feature in Windows 11 right now.

Uninstall AI models on Copilot+ PCs

If you have a Copilot+ PC — one with a Qualcomm Snapdragon X, Intel Core Ultra, or AMD Ryzen AI processor with an NPU — Windows downloads several AI models locally. These include Phi Silica (about 2.5 GB), Image Generation, Image Processing, and others. They power features like Recall, Click to Do, and local image creation.

To manage them, open Settings > System > AI Components. You will see a list of installed models with their sizes. After installing KB5101684 on August 11, you will be able to click on the Image Generation model and choose to uninstall it. For now, only Image Generation has the uninstall option — the others are listed but cannot yet be removed through this page.

If you do not see the AI Components page at all, your PC likely does not have the NPU hardware that runs these local models. That is normal — skip to the next sections, which apply to every Windows 11 PC.

Uninstall the Copilot app

The Copilot app is pinned to the taskbar by default. To remove it completely:

  1. Open Settings > Apps > Installed apps.
  2. Search for Copilot.
  3. Click the three-dot menu next to it and select Uninstall.

If you only want to hide the taskbar button without uninstalling, right-click the taskbar, select Taskbar settings, and toggle off Copilot.

Remove Copilot from Windows Search

Even after uninstalling the Copilot app, Windows Search may still show AI-powered suggestions. To disable these, you need a registry edit:

  1. Press Win + R, type regedit, and press Enter.
  2. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer. If the Explorer key does not exist, right-click the Windows key, select New > Key, and name it Explorer.
  3. Right-click the right pane, select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value, and name it DisableSearchBoxSuggestions.
  4. Double-click it and set the value to 1.
  5. Restart your PC for the change to take effect.

Turn off AI features in Paint

Paint now includes Image Creator, Generative Fill, and Cocreator — all AI-powered. Microsoft does not provide a simple toggle for these, so you need the registry again:

  • Image Creator: Create a DWORD value named DisableImageCreator under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Paint and set it to 1.
  • Generative Fill: Same location, create DisableGenerativeFill and set it to 1.
  • Cocreator: Same location, create DisableCocreator and set it to 1.

Disable AI in Notepad, Edge, and other apps

Several built-in apps now have their own AI toggles:

  • Notepad: Open Notepad, click the Settings icon (gear), and toggle off AI Features under the Copilot section.
  • Microsoft Edge: Go to Settings > Appearance > Copilot and Sidebar and disable the Copilot button. Also check Settings > Languages and turn off “Use Copilot for writing on the web,” and Settings > AI innovations to disable Copilot Mode.
  • File Explorer: Open Settings > Apps > Actions and toggle off the AI actions for Paint, Photos, and Teams.

Disable Recall and Click to Do

Recall, the controversial feature that takes periodic screenshots of everything you do, can be fully removed on Copilot+ PCs:

  1. Open Settings > System > Optional features.
  2. Click More Windows features.
  3. Uncheck Recall and click OK.
  4. Restart your PC.

For Click to Do, which analyses on-screen content, go to Settings > Privacy & security and toggle off Click to Do.

What you should know before removing AI features

A few honest caveats. First, Microsoft may re-enable some of these features after major updates — you might need to check your settings again after each feature update. Second, the registry edits for Paint are undocumented and could stop working if Microsoft changes how Paint stores its settings. Third, removing AI models from Copilot+ PCs frees real storage (the Phi Silica model alone is about 2.5 GB), but uninstalling Image Generation may disable local image creation in supported apps.

The bigger picture here is worth noting: the fact that it took Microsoft until August 2026 to add even one uninstall button for a local AI model — and that disabling the rest still requires scattered registry edits across half a dozen locations — says something about where Microsoft’s priorities lie. Users who want a clean, focused operating system without AI features they did not ask for are still treated as an edge case rather than a legitimate preference.

Sources: gHacks, Pureinfotech, Windows Latest