Microsoft’s newest Patch Tuesday replace is a vital one, patching 57 safety vulnerabilities (together with seven zero-day flaws). It is an replace I might encourage all Home windows customers to put in as quickly as doable, particularly as these zero-day vulnerabilities pose a severe safety danger to anybody utilizing a PC.
Because it occurs, this replace comes with an additional patch that Microsoft did not initially disclose, or, for that matter, intend: eradicating Copilot from Home windows.
Copilot disappears within the newest Home windows replace
Some customers, after putting in KB5053598 (Home windows 11) or KB5053606 (Home windows 10) on their PCs, will discover the replace not solely unpinned Copilot from the taskbar, however uninstalled the Copilot app as nicely. Microsoft hasn’t disclosed why this challenge is current within the newest Home windows updates, however says it hasn’t seen the bug within the Microsoft 365 Copilot app, the model of Copilot straight built-in into Microsoft’s workplace suite.
The corporate says it’s engaged on a brand new replace to repair the issue, and, presumably, restore Copilot entry to affected Home windows customers. In the event you’re lacking Copilot and need it again earlier than Microsoft points a brand new replace, you may reinstall the app from the Microsoft Retailer and pin it again to your taskbar your self.
Nevertheless, it is doable you do not need to reinstall Copilot. In spite of everything, there are a variety of customers on the market who’re trying to find methods to disable Copilot, and there are even instruments on the market that enable you to take away it from Home windows. Maybe Microsoft truly did you a favor right here. There may be an irony to the scenario, that the corporate pushing its AI instruments so exhausting—whether or not you need them or not—simply eliminated them in your behalf as a part of a software program patch.
That is to not say Copilot is ineffective: There are plenty of potential advantages the AI instrument gives Home windows customers (and, now, even Mac customers). But when you have not discovered any advantages to those instruments in your work or private life within the two-and-a-half years since ChatGPT launched this generative AI revolution, you may be content material with Microsoft’s inadvertent resolution to take away its flagship assistant.