Microsoft finally caves and lets us remove "AI Actions" from File Explorer

Summary

• Windows 11 hides the AI Actions entry in File Explorer when all AI tools are disabled.
• Previously, the AI section stayed visible and just showed no suitable tools on hover.
• Nice win for now, but expect Microsoft to push Copilot harder over time.

If you've even dipped a toe within the Microsoft ecosystem recently, you'll already know that it's currently full of AI tools. It's not just Windows 11, either; everything from Microsoft 365 to the Game Bar has gotten a dash of Copilot. But as eager as the Redmond giant is to get everything using AI tools, some people don't want to do that, even if Microsoft cannot possibly fathom why.

Fortunately, it seems that Microsoft is (currently) allowing people to opt out of using AI tools within File Explorer. Now, as part of a recent Windows 11 update, Microsoft has finally allowed us to get rid of the "AI Actions" entry in the right-click menu altogether, which was presumably not implemented because the company couldn't imagine someone not wanting to use Copilot to edit their files.

Microsoft finally lets us get rid of the "AI Actions" menu from File Explorer 

As spotted by Windows Latest, Microsoft previously didn't let us remove the "AI Actions" section of the right-click menu. The company has allowed us to customise which tools we see in this menu, but there was one problem: if you disabled all of the possible entries, the menu would refuse to go away. If you moused over it, it would just tell you that there are no suitable tools for the job.

At first, I felt this was deliberate; given how Microsoft is going big on making Windows 11 an agentic operating system, I believed that the company felt it was important to inform users that they had all the relevant tools disabled. That way, it would subtly prompt the users to re-enable them. However, in the latest Windows 11 Dev and Beta builds, there's this one single nugget:

If there are no available or enabled AI Actions, this section will no longer show in the context menu.

Well, Windows Latest got to testing that claim, and sure enough, when you disable every single possible AI tool and then right-click something, the "AI Actions" entry completely vanishes.

While this may feel like a win for now, I'm hesitant to claim that the users 'won the war' over controlling AI tools on their PCs. Windows is really going all-out on Copilot, and while it may be bowing to our needs to begin with, I have a nasty feeling it'll slowly begin turning up the heat once people get comfortable with Windows 11. Here's hoping Microsoft continues to respect that not everyone wants to use AI tools, even if the company has no idea why someone would opt out of them.

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