Keep AI Out of Your Microsoft Office

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[Drcard:))]

Microsoft Office has an Artificial Intelligence (AI) app that is totally different from the Windows AI app called co-pilot. It is being pushed thru Office updates. I’ve seen some mention of it, but have not seen a solution to keep AI from loading and running in Microsoft Office Apps. This is the solution I use.

This method to prevent AI in Microsoft Office is not about if you should use AI or not; but rather an option to not use AI in your Office setup, which is not an option provided by Microsoft. Yes, there are Privacy Settings but that doesn’t stop AI from loading and using resources. I read reports at several web sites (sorry, don’t remember the exact sites) that since Microsoft Office AI has been updated many users report numerous slow downs and the Office Apps hanging and crashing so much as to prevent the use of the apps on some systems.
It is easy to see the impact on your system: Close all Office Apps. Open 1 blank Word document. Right click the Start menu icon and select Task Manager. See your Microsoft Word running. Notice the number in parenthesis () is the number of Apps running associated with this document. Click the > to the left of Microsoft Word and see all the processes AI is loading and running – only 1 of those is the actual document. It is easy to see that this requirement of resources AI could stress less robust systems and cause apps to hang due to lack of enough resources.

I have tested the various solutions to prevent AI from loading and using resources and present what I believe is the easiest, most complete, and long lasting solution to prevent Microsoft Office AI from loading, running, and using any resources.

The instructions (with screenshots) is in the attached pdf file.

Keep-AI-Out-of-Your-Microsoft-Office

HTH, Dana:))

• This topic was modified 1 year ago by Drcard:)).

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Jim Wooden, AusJohn, DKThompson, jburk07, TechTango, Mr. Austin, Cybertooth, windbg

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Wow.

Human, who sports only naturally-occurring DNA ~ oneironaut ~ broadcaster

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Hello Drcard:))

I have results from my first test of what you suggested. Using Agent Ransack I found two directories, each containing the files AI.exe and AI.Mgr.exe.

(1.) C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\vfs\ProgramFilesCommonX86\Microsoft Shared\OFFICE16\

and

(2.) C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\vfs\ProgramFilesCommonX64\Microsoft Shared\OFFICE16\

As you suggested I ran the .BAT file on the X86 directory. That process didn’t delete either the Ai.exe or AI.Mgr.exe files in that directory.

The OS is Windows 11 Pro 64-bit version 22H2. Microsoft Office Home & Business 2019 stand-alone license.

Might you have any further suggestions? Thank you.

Human, who sports only naturally-occurring DNA ~ oneironaut ~ broadcaster

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DrCard,

It would appear that only Word and PowerPoint are currently “infected”!
Word:

PowerPoint:

Not “infected” yet!
Access:

Excel:

Outlook:

Thanks for the heads up!

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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RetiredGeek wrote:

It would appear that only Word and PowerPoint are currently “infected”!

Not a lot of overhead at less than 20 MB of memory.

 

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ONG,

Remember that’s with a blank document and blank presentation loaded. I’m sure the CPU usage would increase if large files and/or multiple files were loaded.

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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RetiredGeek wrote:

that’s with a blank document and blank presentation loaded

Of course…that’s what the OP suggested as a test.

I haven’t seen anything specific as to how much it uses.

It would be interesting to see the threads it creates in Sysinternals Process Explorer.

 

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DrCard,

Some additional information for Office 365:

My version:

Location of AI.exe:

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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Sorry for the delay in answering.. currently RVing where time and internet connection dictate my responses.

The two ai.exe in the Program Files X86 and X64 folders are 32 bit and 64 bit installs of the same app.  My setup was just the 32 bit apps.  Simple solution is add commands to my bat file to delete the ai.exe, aimgr.exe, and ai.dll files from the X64 folder in addition to the X86 folder.  It would be the same commands replacing X86 with X64.

Don’t know when time and connection will allow me to respond again.

I’m off to hike to view old petroglyphs.

HTH, Dana:))

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Mr. Austin

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Simple for you. Although I could do it with lots of time, these kinds of batch files are outside my wheelhouse. If there are any experienced people who could do this I’d say put up a donations page and I’d pay for it. It would be a similar service to O&O ShutUp 10++ or Fluff-Busting Purity.

Paid volunteers, anyone?

Human, who sports only naturally-occurring DNA ~ oneironaut ~ broadcaster

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I might put this on Upwork and pay someone for it.

Human, who sports only naturally-occurring DNA ~ oneironaut ~ broadcaster

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Retired Geek, your directory paths are the same as mine. Although I own a stand-alone license of Home & Professional 2019 Microsoft now states it is Office 365 on my machine.

Human, who sports only naturally-occurring DNA ~ oneironaut ~ broadcaster

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FWIW, I’m running Windows 11 Pro build 22631.3296 and Office 365 Version 2402 Build 16.0.17328.20124 64-bit. The AI host runs as a separate background process for Outlook, Word, and Powerpoint. Currently, Excel and Access do not start an instance of the AI host.

--Joe

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Joe,

You must be on the Current Channel for updates of O365. Looks like I’ll have to take steps when the next Semi-Annual Enterprise version comes out.

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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Mind you only if you are licensed for Copilot Pro or M365 Copilot will those actually do anything.  My recommendation at this time is to stay on the semi-annual channels of Office.  Microsoft does not support copilot unless you are on the current channel.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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https://windowsreport.com/ai-exe/

Is that truly AI or offloading of the spellchecking function?
When you run this, does grammar and spelling still work?

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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b

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Good questions. Who is willing and capable of answering them correctly? And if I don’t like Microsoft’s usual surreptitious and imperiously arrogant attitudes in this, which private coder has the expertise to write the batch files I’d use to selectively disable whatever I choose?

I’d pay them. I reason there will be many others like me who’d want to do the same.

Microsoft’s Word smell-check has been abysmal for some time. I don’t expect it to improve. I anticipate the converse. I’ve already started using a third-party spell-checker.

Human, who sports only naturally-occurring DNA ~ oneironaut ~ broadcaster

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Mr. Austin wrote:

which private coder has the expertise to write the batch files I’d use to selectively disable whatever I choose?

Not batch file, but..

https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/bloatynosyai-2-0-remove-ai-bloat-in-windows-10-11/#post-2651985

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Mr. Austin

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Susan Bradley wrote:

When you run this, does grammar and spelling still work?

Yes, grammar, spell check, and auto correct all function perfectly with this bat file running.

Mr. Austin wrote:

Hello Drcard:)) I have results from my first test of what you suggested. Using Agent Ransack I found two directories, each containing the files AI.exe and AI.Mgr.exe. (1.) C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\vfs\ProgramFilesCommonX86\Microsoft Shared\OFFICE16\ and (2.) C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\vfs\ProgramFilesCommonX64\Microsoft Shared\OFFICE16\ As you suggested I ran the .BAT file on the X86 directory. That process didn’t delete either the Ai.exe or AI.Mgr.exe files in that directory. The OS is Windows 11 Pro 64-bit version 22H2. Microsoft Office Home & Business 2019 stand-alone license. Might you have any further suggestions? Thank you.

The Path to those files on Windows 11 differs due to a name difference in the main Program Files folder.

A slight change in the commands will work on your Windows 11 setup.  Follow the instructions of the PDF that I posted BUT use the following set of commands for the bat file.

del "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\vfs\ProgramFilesCommonX86\Microsoft Shared\OFFICE16\ai.exe" & del C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\vfs\ProgramFilesCommonX86\Microsoft Shared\OFFICE16\ai.dll" & del "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\vfs\ProgramFilesCommonX86\Microsoft Shared\OFFICE16\aimgr.exe" & del "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\vfs\ProgramFilesCommonX64\Microsoft Shared\OFFICE16\ai.exe" & del "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\vfs\ProgramFilesCommonX64\Microsoft Shared\OFFICE16\ai.dll" & del "C:\Program Files \Microsoft Office\root\vfs\ProgramFilesCommonX64\Microsoft Shared\OFFICE16\aimgr.exe"

The above is copied aa s single (very long ) line.  I wrote the commands from your Path to those files, but I don’t have a Windows 11 to test for myself, but the commands should work.

Traveling and will check back when internet access is available.

HTH, Dana:))

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Mr. Austin

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Thank you very much for your reply!

So… I created the AI.bat file according to your instructions in the PDF, using the new string your provided. This image is via Notepad, and I added some returns to make it more quickly legible. But the NoAI.bat file does not have word-wrap as does this text file:

Then I selected the AI.bat file to test run it, by right-mousing it in Windows Explorer, and ran it twice. Then searching the computer with Agent Ransack using the string “ai.*.*” I got these results below. The relevant results are highlighted in light grey. I don’t know how to keep the blue highlighting I saw in Agent Ransack when I copied its UI using ShareX:

So if the NoAI.bat file was supposed to remove the .exe, .mgr, and .dll files it seems it didn’t. What did I miss?

Human, who sports only naturally-occurring DNA ~ oneironaut ~ broadcaster

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Mr. Austin wrote:

And if I don’t like Microsoft’s usual surreptitious and imperiously arrogant attitudes in this,

You could dump Microsoft Office and go to LibreOffice if it works for your use cases.

Does for us.

 

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Alex5723

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Then I selected the AI.bat file to test run it, by right-mousing it in Windows Explorer, and ran it twice.

Did you select Run as administrator to run the bat file?  The bat file has to be ran with administrator’s privileges.
If you did, then a security setting may stop it from working.

Try this:

Open an Administrator command window by opening a Run box (WinKey + R), enter cmd, and press Ctrl + Shift + Enter keys at the same time.  Click Yes for the UAC window.  Copy the one line command from my post above.  Click the command window to make it the active window.  Place the mouse pointer at the prompt and right click.  This will paste that long command into the command window.  Press the enter key.  If the prompt returns and appears that nothing happened, then those file were deleted.  If the Command responds with and error, copy the error and post the error here so we can see why it is not deleting those files.

HTH, Dana:))

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Mr. Austin

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Thank you, Dana,

Yes, I’d used Run as Administrator inside Windows Explorer. Just now I opened the NoAI.bat file I created (before) from your string. Then I followed your instructions to copy and past the string inside an Administrator CMD window. Here’s a vid of the results:

And after that, below’s the search screen inside Agent Ransack for “ai*.*”. It looks identical to the prior one to me.

Merci,
Mike

Human, who sports only naturally-occurring DNA ~ oneironaut ~ broadcaster

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Thanks for the video.  That indicates that ai.exe was not at that location which was not there before the command was ran, but no error for the other delete commands means the commands were executed and the files were deleted.

The post Agent Ransack search is identical to the prior one which makes me think it is showing you a previous search and not a current search.  Do the search with Windows, or Go to the folder location to the ai.exe that Agent Ransack says is there and see if it is there, or start a Word document and see if ai.exe starts in the Task Manager.

 

HTH, Dana:))

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1. After a cold boot, AI.exe was found *only* in this path:
   C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\vfs\ProgramFilesCommonX64\Microsoft Shared\OFFICE16\ai.exe
2. I next ran your AI.bat file as an Admin.  I copied the (immediately) above path and put into Windows Explorer, and the Ai.exe file is still in that same directory. Agent Ransack agreed via my “Ai*.*” search, *and* that was the only Ai.exe file found, meaning it wasn’t also found in an X86 directory.
3. I opened a Word 2019 doc. The AI.exe was seen for a fleeting moment in the Task Manager’s programs, but then it mysteriously disappeared. I again opened two other, different Word docs, and the AI.exe was not seen in Task Manager’s list of programs running.

Human, who sports only naturally-occurring DNA ~ oneironaut ~ broadcaster

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Mr. Austin wrote:

It looks identical to the prior one to me.

You might download and run the search tool Everything by voidtools, and compare results.

 

 

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Thanks. Long ago I’d tried Everything. This time when I installed and tried it the results look the same as Agent Ransack, and I like the Agent Ransack GUI better. So I again uninstalled Everything.

Human, who sports only naturally-occurring DNA ~ oneironaut ~ broadcaster

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Drcard:)) wrote:

The post Agent Ransack search is identical to the prior one which makes me think it is showing you a previous search and not a current search.

The Agent Ransack search was made carefully. It was closed both times before I used it again. It is showing the same results because those results are real. Using the search function in Windows Explorer is an abysmal process, and it no longer uses the same Boolean operators as it used to, before Microsoft broke it, i.e., I can use Ai*.* to search only files beginning with the string Ai. Windows search brings up every file it can find with the string Ai, and that makes it both useless and glacial.

Human, who sports only naturally-occurring DNA ~ oneironaut ~ broadcaster

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Mr. Austin wrote:

After a cold boot, AI.exe was found *only* in this path: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\vfs\ProgramFilesCommonX64\Microsoft Shared\OFFICE16\ai.exe I next ran your AI.bat file as an Admin.  I copied the (immediately) above path and put into Windows Explorer, and the Ai.exe file is still in that same directory. Agent Ransack agreed via my “Ai*.*” search, *and* that was the only Ai.exe file found, meaning it wasn’t also found in an X86 directory. I opened a Word 2019 doc. The AI.exe was seen for a fleeting moment in the Task Manager’s programs, but then it mysteriously disappeared. I again opened two other, different Word docs, and the AI.exe was not seen in Task Manager’s list of programs running.

Thanks for all the info.  When I wrote those commands I did not consider the situation where one of the ai files was not there.  The ai.exe in the X86 folder is not there and this stopped the rest of the commands from running.  The reason the AI is not running in the Word document is because ai.exe in the X86 which is the 32 bit version of the AI app is not there.  The flash of the AI in Task Manager is the orphans of AI trying to run but can’t because ai.exe is not there.  This is why I delete the aimgr.exe and ai.dll files to prevent these AI orphans from trying to run.

Now for the fix:

Try this command in an Admin Command window:

del "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\vfs\ProgramFilesCommonX86\Microsoft Shared\OFFICE16\ai.*" "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\vfs\ProgramFilesCommonX64\Microsoft Shared\OFFICE16\ai.*"

After examining all the AI files, using the * wildcard to delete all ai files accomplishes the desired results and makes for a shorter command.  If that command removes all those files, then this is the command to save as a batch file.

As you have seen, deleting the ai.exe file in the X86 folder stops the AI function.  Did not concern myself with the ai.exe in the X64 folder as far as I have not seen the 64 bit function of the AI appear in the Task Manager.

Check back when I can.

 

HTH, Dana:))

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Merci Dana,

This time, I checked Agent Ransack and got these results for “Ai*.*” –

Next, I ran as an admin your modified, shortened command line (del “C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\vfs\ProgramFilesCommonX86\Microsoft Shared\OFFICE16\ai.*” “C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\vfs\ProgramFilesCommonX64\Microsoft Shared\OFFICE16\ai.*”) via a .BAT file. Here’s Agent Ransack after that run –

Soooo… it looks the .Bat file nuked the AI.exe and left the other files with the AI prefix alone in that directory. Does that look correct to your very self?

Human, who sports only naturally-occurring DNA ~ oneironaut ~ broadcaster

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Merci Dana,

This time, before I did anything, I checked Agent Ransack and got these results for “Ai*.*” –

Next, I ran as an admin your modified, shortened command line (del “C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\vfs\ProgramFilesCommonX86\Microsoft Shared\OFFICE16\ai.*” “C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\vfs\ProgramFilesCommonX64\Microsoft Shared\OFFICE16\ai.*”) via a .BAT file. Here’s Agent Ransack after that run –

Soooo… it looks the .Bat file nuked the Ai.exe and Ai.dll files, and left the other files with the AI prefix alone in that directory. Does that look correct to your very self?

Human, who sports only naturally-occurring DNA ~ oneironaut ~ broadcaster

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The command ran correctly.  With ai.dll not there it should prevent aimgr.exe from launching AI orphans.  Check an open Word document in Task Manager and see if any AI ‘s try to start.

If you want the aimgr.exe deleted with the other ai files then use the following slightly modified command:

del "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\vfs\ProgramFilesCommonX86\Microsoft Shared\OFFICE16\ai*.*" "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\vfs\ProgramFilesCommonX64\Microsoft Shared\OFFICE16\ai*.*"

The above commands will delete all files in those two folders that start with ai.

 

HTH, Dana:))

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Dana! Thank you! You’re brilliant and patient!

I first checked Agent Ransack and had this result:

Next, I ran as an admin the text CMD you made:
del “C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\vfs\ProgramFilesCommonX86\Microsoft Shared\OFFICE16\ai*.*” “C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\vfs\ProgramFilesCommonX64\Microsoft Shared\OFFICE16\ai*.*”

Third, I checked Agent Ransack and noticed this result:

Now, I’ll schedule the .bat file to run every time the machine boots!  (Virtual wiping together of hands to remove dust).

Blessings to you, Yours, and us All!

Mike

Human, who sports only naturally-occurring DNA ~ oneironaut ~ broadcaster

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OFFICE16 ai.exe – Microsoft Community

There’s a good write up there as to what ai.exe is.  Interesting to note that it’s not new code and is not related to Copliot.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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lmacri, windbg

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Use Image File Execution Options – this will change ai.exe to calcold.exe and will remove this “feature” from Office 365.

Note that this is for the 64-bit version of Office 365.   The FilterFullPath would be x86 for the 32-bit version.

 

REG ADD “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\ai.exe”

REG ADD “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\ai.exe” /v “UseFilter” /t REG_DWORD /d “1” /f

REG ADD “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\ai.exe\ai.exe.path”

REG ADD “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\ai.exe\ai.exe.path” /t REG_SZ /v “FilterFullPath” /d “C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\vfs\ProgramFilesCommonX64\Microsoft Shared\OFFICE16\ai.exe” /f

REG ADD “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\ai.exe\ai.exe.path” /v “Debugger” /t REG_SZ /d “calcOLD.exe” /f

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There is a command that can be run that disables and turns off Copilot, and removed the AI functions in office. It’s a simple copy/paste into the terminal. Takes like 10 seconds to do.

 

See: https://www.reddit.com/r/Outlook/comments/1ell65e/remove_office_ai_and_copilot_via_simple_terminal/?ref=share&ref_source=link

 

 

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Merci. I’d already turned off Microsoft’s heinous Copilot with O&O Shutup 10++. But if I later decide I need revisions or changes I’ll come back to this thread.

Human, who sports only naturally-occurring DNA ~ oneironaut ~ broadcaster

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Thanks; unfortunately it was deleted 3 months ago.

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AusJohn wrote:

Thanks; unfortunately it was deleted 3 months ago.

*What* was deleted 3 months ago?

Human, who sports only naturally-occurring DNA ~ oneironaut ~ broadcaster

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Right click Start, select “terminal (admin)”, ‘yes’ to UAC prompt, then simply copy and paste the following code blocks into the terminal, and then push the keyboard ‘enter’ key. That’s it.

**#remove/turn off copilot**

[c]REG ADD “HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsCopilot” /v TurnOffWindowsCopilot /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
REG ADD “HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Search” /V BingSearchEnabled /T REG_DWORD /D 0 /F
taskkill /f /im explorer.exe
start explorer.exe[/c]

**#remove office AI**

[c]taskkill /f /im outlook.exe
taskkill /IM ai.exe /F
cd “C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\vfs\ProgramFilesCommonX64\Microsoft Shared\OFFICE16”
Del ai.exe
Del ai.dll
Del aimgr.exe
Del aitrx.dll
cd “C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\vfs\ProgramFilesCommonX86\Microsoft Shared\OFFICE16”
Del ai.exe
Del ai.dll
Del aimgr.exe
Del aitrx.dll
cd “C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\root\vfs\ProgramFilesCommonX64\Microsoft Shared\OFFICE16”
Del ai.exe
Del ai.dll
Del aimgr.exe
Del aitrx.dll
cd “C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\root\vfs\ProgramFilesCommonX86\Microsoft Shared\OFFICE16”
Del ai.exe
Del ai.dll
Del aimgr.exe
Del aitrx.dll[/c]

# ______

Restart PC. Done.

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Cybertooth

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MS and their AI are for where no NI exists. Secondly their AI is a USA manner to impose their cultural approach to expression, it alo use AMERICANISH… with all sorts of canned way to speak and write.

The USA and their AI they can stuff it with their back ends.

They MUST put an option to opt out …. or at the first opportunity I have to delete them from my systems I will…

Cultural Imperialism…. the USA they think they always know better than other these famous WEALTHY HEALTHY ELITES… treating the rest of us like donkeys.

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ROGER BERTRAND wrote:

They MUST put an option to opt out

They must put an option to opt-in.

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Cybertooth

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