back to article Copilot invades Microsoft 365 Personal and Family for an extra three bucks a month

Copilot is coming to Microsoft 365 Personal and Family, and Vulture Central has had some hands-on experience with the generative AI assistant's attempts to be helpful. There is a price to be paid to have the generative AI assistant shoved into the personal productivity apps – an extra $3 per month. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella …

  1. Mentat74
    Flame

    So...

    It's opt-out again instead of opt-in ?

    And only adding the settings to turn that shiat off AFTER they've turned it on for everybody ?

    Anything to make an extra buck I guess...

    1. Hubert Cumberdale Silver badge

      Re: So...

      I rolled back my version of Word as soon as the piss-poor and fucking annoying "modern comments" feature was thrust on me without warning, totally breaking my workflow. Since then, I've prevented it from updating at all, just in case. While I'm aware that this may expose me to potential vulnerabilities, the alternative certainly will expose me to shit like this. I use my desktop as the prod environment, and my laptop is the canary for this sort of thing. So far, the changes I've seen through the upgrades are nothing but shit on a stick.

      1. Gordon 10 Silver badge

        Re: So...

        Modern comments. Just thiinking about that shit show raises my blood pressure.

    2. rgjnk Silver badge

      Re: So...

      There's so much demand from customers for the AI cruft they have to force it on them, then hope they can't work out how to not pay for it by swapping to the alternative plans.

      Doubly annoying if the feature you didn't ask for actively gets in the way of normal use and can't be turned off.

      Sooner or later the high running costs & lack of actual customer demand will kill this but there'll be a lot more desperate attempts at forcing it before then.

    3. PCScreenOnly

      Re: So...

      no opt-out. just shafted

  2. breakfast Silver badge

    Path to profitability

    AI will finally become profitable when companies realise people will pay extra not to have it and start charging extra for "Classic" versions.

    1. hoola Silver badge

      Re: Path to profitability

      I suspect not as for the majority of users they will not even notice.

      The subscription just renews, as long as what is included does not drop below what they actually use of consume they just keep paying.

      The individual amount is low enough for most to not even notice.

      I would also surmise some nasty surprises if you are using a custom email domain. Change your plan and suddenly what you have configured no longer works. I do wonder how long this is going to function as it is. You cannot make any changes since 2023 or setup a new one.

      The Microsoft response is "buy a business subscription".

      Now wherever you get that from it is a heck of a lot more expensive than the Personal or Family subscriptions.

      Yes I know load on here will say that you should not use O365, use Libra Office or something, run your own mail servers etc. For 99% of the population this is not an option. Microsoft provides a convenient solution that people are familiar with.

      1. klh

        Re: Path to profitability

        I agree that MS provides a convenient option, but I can't understand how people didn't jump ship when they "modernized" the UI at some point while LibreOffice had an actually familiar interface.

        Granted, MS fought very hard by making docx files hard to work with, but 90% of the population never used the features that didn't work.

        MS users are doing it to themselves, even if alternatives are free, easy to find and better.

        1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

          Re: Path to profitability

          I regularly get docx files of posters to open in LO, turn into a PDF & then into a JPEG. They pose no problem except that she usually seems to add sufficient newlines to run over the page... The odd thing about this is that although they come from a Windows user she actually uses LO to create them. Maybe LO just creates better docx files. And can't LO on Windows create its own PDFs?

        2. Colin Bull 1
          Unhappy

          MS users are doing it to themselvest

          Not true.

          I am fairly tech savvy. I needed to get a new laptop because the old one has a screen faulty about 3 years.

          I wanted to get a fairly recent AMD processor to stop by balls burning. I hunted high and low for a laptop WITHOUT Windows. I could not get one. Dell was supposed to sell non windows machine for I spend hours on their web site and could not find one.

          There IS NO way the general public can get anything BUT WINDOWS. I got a Lenovo that has soldered RAM and soldered SSD even though I did want them AND windows.

          1. SundogUK Silver badge

            Re: MS users are doing it to themselvest

            Ubuntu only:

            https://www.entroware.com/store/laptops

          2. AgentMyth

            Re: MS users are doing it to themselvest

            Here are some sensible options with current hardware, usually from Tongfang or Clevo factories re-branded.

            I'm on my second XMG so far and I had no problems with a failed drive that needed replacement - I'd only recommend them to tech-savvy folk because you may have to replace components yourself.

            I particularly like being able to choose premium components rather than accepting the defaults.

            https://bestware.com/en/xmg-evo-15-m24-ultrabook.html

            And also

            https://laptopwithlinux.com/

      2. PCScreenOnly

        Re: Path to profitability

        to be fair, you can't miss the bugger

      3. hoola Silver badge

        Re: Path to profitability

        To those downvoting - I am talking about the majority of users - not people on El Reg who hate Microsoft.

        There is a huge user base out there who simply use M365 because they are familiar with it and in most cases are paying £79 annually for a family subscription. hey cannot be bothered or do not have the understanding to setup other stuff. The cost is lost in the noise.

    2. Inventor of the Marmite Laser Silver badge

      Re: Path to profitability

      Don't give them ideas, for Petes sake

  3. Andy Non Silver badge
    Coat

    It looks like you are writing

    a letter to your boss, asking for a pay rise. Would you like me to insert a paragraph saying what a di*k head he is for not promoting you yet?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: It looks like you are writing

      Or perhaps a few sentences that AI is cheaper than you.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    They'd need to pay me a lot more than three bucks a month.

  5. JamesTGrant Silver badge

    I’ve only just (re)installed Libreoffice for Mac having a (now) read-only MS Word. And… it’s totally fine, actually easier to find things on the menu bar, and that’s after using ‘ribbon’ UI for years.

    And, no subscription, no telemetry, no annoying MS pop ups. It’s totally fine - and that’s just great!

    1. Chet Mannly

      I did the same last year when I got a new laptop and MS refused to activate my "perpetual" Office licence on the new machine.

      Interface isn't quite as polished but does absolutely everything MS Office does, and with a lot less fuss.

      1. SundogUK Silver badge

        I don;t know about the other apps but the Excel replacement in LibreOffice certainly cannot do everything Excel can. I am putting up with it because I refuse to pay the Microsoft tax any more but it is frustrating.

  6. sanwin

    Aaarrrrgggghhhh!

    Thanks for the heads up - just discovered it on Word as described.

    Probably means I have to kill Copilot again too!

    1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

      You might need a wooden stake.

      1. M.V. Lipvig Silver badge

        Hey now, a stake doesn't always work. Some must put a lemon or a clove of garlic in.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Mmmmm... steak with lemon and garlic...

      2. Wade Burchette

        At this point, I don't think even the fires of Mordor can properly kill the unhelpful, unwanted, unloved copilot / gemeni / apple intelligence menace.

        1. Jellied Eel Silver badge

          At this point, I don't think even the fires of Mordor can properly kill the unhelpful, unwanted, unloved copilot

          I'm wondering about the fires of Brussels instead. No, not roast sprouts, but Net Zero.

          So I recently got a 'smart' meter to test the theory that it would save me money. This, of course turned out to be a lie.. Sort of. I also had to build a couple of PCs over Xmas and now have the 'smart' meter sitting on the desk with my own PC. Then I amused my self attempting to de-cruft my copy of Win11 to see what difference that made to the power load. Getting rid of garbage like Copilot, MyPhone, Xbox and all the other stuff I don't need or want. Which reduced the basic power drain by around 50-75W.

          It's always amazed me just how badly behaved and unoptimised Windows actually is for something claiming to be an OS. Things like hitting the close button not actually closing apps, but just shunting them to background where they still consume resources and energy. Or why it periodically spins up the DVD drive, even though the same DVD's been there for over a week. But MS simply must scan it for.. reasons.

          Then there's more obvious stuff. Like yes, my PC runs Crysis, and when it does with the graphics cranked up, it'll go over 500W. But then other oddities, like so does ARA: History Untold, which is a Civ-alike and wasn't expecting to be so power hungry. Especially when good'ol Factorio is handling 4 factories spread across 4 planets, with many cthulhu-belts, bots and biters zooming around. So whether that means Factorio is just much better optimised than ARA.

          But many articles written about AI datacentre power drain, fewer about the power drain thanks to unwanted feature creep across millions of Win11 PCs in Europe. Regulators might be able to do something about that, especially when Win11's power settings has an 'Energy recommendaations' section that doesn't give the option to create a bare-bones OS with all the power hungry garbage turned off until needed.

  7. GlenP Silver badge

    We took out a couple of subscriptions to Copilot for testing purposes - they have not been renewed!

    If you could have it in Word as and when you wanted it I could see some possible benefits, although I'm not convinced that overall it would save any time I did find it useful once or twice for giving a starting outline to a document, however to have it take up a significant part of the screen all the time and interfere with general work was just annoying.

  8. ACZ

    And this will be appearing when my kids are doing their school homework?

    I'm a bit pi**ed off about this. My kids have to use Word to do school homework. I don't know if it's just the desktop version or the web version as well (my kids have to use the web version to prepare homework submissions), but I really don't want Word offering to do their homework for them.

    As much as I love LLMs/AI (and my kids' school encourages the use of AI as a learning tool), I do need my kids to be required to use their own brains.

    :(

    1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

      Re: And this will be appearing when my kids are doing their school homework?

      Report the school for child abuse.

  9. Like a badger Silver badge
    Holmes

    Proof that marketeers have heads full of air

    "The most interesting piece of feedback we learned is that there are times where our users want to turn off Copilot."

    1. I am David Jones Silver badge

      Re: Proof that marketeers have heads full of air

      Next quote: “we will deploy education centres for these troubled users to emphasise the benefits of Copilot. In *all* situations. *No* exceptions.”

    2. Rich 2 Silver badge

      Re: Proof that marketeers have heads full of air

      I was going to post the same thing

      MS really do live in a parallel universe. People want to switch this crap off? REALLY? Are you sure? Well if they must, I suppose…

      It just proves what we knew already - they really don’t take a blind bit of notice to their user’s comments. If they did then we wouldn’t see quotes like this

      1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

        Re: Proof that marketeers have heads full of air

        There's probably nobody there who remembers Clippy and how much it was hated.

        1. David 132 Silver badge
          Thumb Up

          Re: Proof that marketeers have heads full of air

          I initially misread your comment as "nobody here" and was about to give you the quickest and angriest downvote ever :)

        2. This post has been deleted by its author

      2. hoola Silver badge

        Re: Proof that marketeers have heads full of air

        Not just Microsoft, seemingly any big tech company now incorporates loads of bloat and useless features that are of no use and cannot be turned off.

    3. Bebu sa Ware
      Facepalm

      Re: Proof that marketeers have heads full of air

      "Air?" Something more excretory I should think.

      "The most interesting piece of feedback we learned is that there are times where our users want to turn off Copilot."

      I suspect the chap was being a tad modest... "the most interesting piece of feedback" was likely what the users would like to do with copilot to disable the blight.

      A previous comment "shit on a stick" is clue I imagine.

  10. NotJustAStorageDude

    The final nudge to move to desktop Linux

    There’s a certain inconvenience to moving away from MS, however this is the straw that has broken this camels back. Just experienced it today on a time sensitive job and it’s so maddening and rage inducing…

    1. Irongut Silver badge

      Re: The final nudge to move to desktop Linux

      An issue with a Word processor is causing you to change your OS? Do you change your car when the old one runs out of fuel?

      1. M.V. Lipvig Silver badge

        Re: The final nudge to move to desktop Linux

        Changing the car when it's out of fuel would be better than being forced to the side of the road every week for an engine rebuild that reinstalls parts you removed last time the engine was forcibly rebuilt

      2. jdiebdhidbsusbvwbsidnsoskebid Silver badge

        Re: The final nudge to move to desktop Linux

        "Do you change your car when the old one runs out of fuel?"

        The problem is that Microsoft Office is so integrated with Windows that it's like having to change the engine oil every time you run out of fuel, because the fuel tank and oil sump are the same part and every Tuesday an update that you never asked for causes the fuel filler flap to be welded shut again.

    2. M.V. Lipvig Silver badge

      Re: The final nudge to move to desktop Linux

      I just made the switch last month. I haven't needed to open Libre yet but have used it in the past. It was not quite as polished as Word was then, but since then Word's polish has been stripped off by a sand blaster after being soaked in chemicals. If Libre is at least as good as it was 20 years ago, it'll be way better than today's Word which I must use on the job.

      You can install it as a dual boot just in case it doesn't work out for you.

  11. Apocalypso - a cheery end to the world
    Angel

    Press Alt + I

    > Press Alt + I

    I see what you did there! High-five to the marketing team for coming-up with that: I hope you awarded yourselves Friday off for being so awesome!

    Could I also suggest adding "Alt + R" for removing it? Even better would be Alt-R bringing a remove feature option for all of the items you've added over the years. Advertising in the task bar would be a good first candidate.

  12. original_rwg
    Joke

    Rubbish

    Blasted Generative AI. Worse than useless. We asked it to generate a picture of a pole-dancing Donald Trump having dollar bills slipped into his thong by MAGA-hat wearing men.

    It refused. Guard rails or some safeguards or whatever. These tech companies have spent billions on this stuff and it refuses to co-operate. We want to mock!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Rubbish

      Why do you need the image AI generated? Such a photo probably exists for real somewhere.

      (Now where is the mind bleach?)

      1. Evil Scot Silver badge

        Re: Rubbish

        Any bleach for the bucket under my desk.

  13. Jou (Mxyzptlk) Silver badge

    Already noticed, will test Applocker rule on Monday

    Wednesday I saw that "what's that ai.exe running here? From the office installation folder? Oh no..." on my work Laptop.

    I've already added a few Applocker rules to block various MS-things from running, works quite well. But I did not have the time yet to test on that one, how much office will complain or fail.

    If you want to play with Applocker: Let it add the default allow rules before you activate "enforce". And then block. Block overrides allow, but if the default allow rules are missing everything you try to start gets blocked. Your OS is done for if you are not lucky to have a powershell with admin rights open and your browser still running to find out how to recover from that. Guess how I know. (Yes, there are other way to revert that :D, which require reboot and/or boot from external drive).

  14. anthonyhegedus Silver badge

    Typical microsoft arrogance

    Apart from the obvious annoyance at having something you don't want, the response Microsoft gave that they will be introducing a feature to turn off the bloody thing is TYPICAL. It is exactly how that shitshow of a company do things: Introduce something half-baked with the most obvious features missing. They do this with just about every product at the moment. Never mind the monopolistic way of waving their massive penis around acting like their in charge of our computers, what about some oversight into the quality of the 'apps' they peddle?

    Our users (customers) are sick and tired of these seemingly never-ending changes invading our working lives. It's frustrating enough when you're doing something for yourself, but when you're trying to run a business and suddenly there's a new thing, it's a total waste of time. Microsoft pays lip service to productivity gains that their software gives you, and what little there is is eroded by having to learn about new changes every other month.

    Come back clippy, all is... no actually it isn't.

    1. Rich 2 Silver badge

      Re: Typical microsoft arrogance

      Using the words “Microsoft” and “productivity gains” in the same sentence is an oxymoron

      1. anthonyhegedus Silver badge

        Re: Typical microsoft arrogance

        You're absolutely right come to think of it. Any productivity gain inherent in their products is just some feature to help you get over all the obstacles they put in your way. They seem to have absolutely no control over their codebase whatsoever.

  15. Gordon 10 Silver badge
    FAIL

    I cant see this catching on

    The one good thing about 365 Copilot is semi-automated knowledge management. It knows how to find that document you wrote 3 years ago thats buried somewhere on Sharepoint and copy it forward and update it as a draft for your new use case.

    Thats really quite powerful - and utterly irrelevant to the average home use as for some reason OneDrive on Personal accounts isn't integrated in the MS Graph API that does all the hard work for the AI in the same way Sharepoint is on Enterprise accounts.

    In summary - 365 Copilot without Sharepoint is pants....

    1. IGotOut Silver badge

      Re: I cant see this catching on

      So you say Copilot is required to make SharePoint less shit?

      1. Jou (Mxyzptlk) Silver badge

        Re: I cant see this catching on

        It will only chance the shade, not make it better.

  16. b0llchit Silver badge
    Black Helicopters

    Info stealer unleashed

    This is the ultimate information steal operation yet. Opt-in everybody to have their data sent to an opaque "AI" to spew bullshit at the users and copy"learn" from everything the user uploads, types and otherwise does.

    It is any and all TLA agency's wet dream to be part of that game!

  17. PCScreenOnly

    mother fscker

    bollox, that crap is on my M365. Was hoping that it would not do that if I didn't purchase the M365 version going forwards

    Fuckers

    1. FirstTangoInParis Silver badge

      Re: mother fscker

      So I've just noticed that my Family MS359 subscription just went up from GBP 80 to GBP 110 because MS now want to claw back investment on a tool nobody wants. And in fact if you want to know how to write documents and slide decks, effing learn because you'll get zero respect in an office enviroment for relying on AI.

      Fortunately I followed the advice to cancel the subscription and it went oh don't go, have this cheaper one instead which is what you already had.

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Bandits

    So once again, they increase the price, then change the contents of your current subscription.

    You're now opted into something you didn't want and didn't want to pay for and, it's you're fault for not noticing there will now be a classic version without the ai garbage and exactly what you originally subscribed to.

    Ohh M$ loves that bottom line, having to find a way to pay for it all.

  19. Homo.Sapien.Floridanus

    "We asked one of Microsoft's other Copilots how to turn off the feature. "

    copilot: What are you doing, Dave?

  20. ComicalEngineer Bronze badge

    How crap can M$ office apps become before mass desertion?

    1. Rich 2 Silver badge

      Infinitely. Apparently.

      I was complaining about some other MS shitware the other day at work (can’t remember which particular pile of steaming turd was the subject of my wrath) and a colleague of mine gave me a withering look and said something doing the lines of “oh it’s not that bad…”

      The thing is, it IS that bad. It’s just that there are STILL many many people who think this kind of shit is “normal” and “acceptable”. Someone else a few weeks ago even pointed out to me that “Windows is good”. What can you do with that? Compared to what? An actual turd? Could you tell the difference?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        There's that concept that was brought up around the time of the Twitter move called the trust thermocline, where the drop in customers happened not gradually, but suddenly, often irreversibly and without warning, or perhaps, insufficient warning.

        Now, granted, with Microsoft there's plenty of structural advantage it can be leverage to slow that defection, but it does point out a way it's decline will occur — slowly, and then suddenly and without warning.

  21. Jflynn007

    MS somehow made this work without having to buy a new Copilot PC. WOW.

    Seriously, we are done. They are charging for a solution looking for a problem.

    I will have to test this if I can ever find Word on the Windows 11 start menu.

  22. IGnatius T Foobar !

    That's refreshing.

    Given how hard Microsoft has been trying to force-feed copilot to everyone, one would think that they'd charge extra NOT to have it.

  23. Mage Silver badge
    Facepalm

    Clippy 2.0

    Clippy, Clippy a bush kangaroo.

    Really this is stupid and abusive.

    I'll stick to LO Office.

  24. Jamesit

    Fuck off M$. It's my computer.

  25. Mike Flex

    Remove from MS Word

    At the moment in Office 365 Word its File - (More, if needed) - Options - Copilot. Untick Enable Copilot.

    To get the Copilot icon out of the Home ribbon, right-click on the ribbon, select Customise the Ribbon and remove the section containing Copilot (you can't remove it individually).

    1. Angry IT Monkey
      Terminator

      Re: Remove from MS Word

      Until it's re-enabled by an update.

      It appeared on my PC and I don't even have Orifice 365 installed, I just randomly noticed the logo on the start menu. Henceforth Patch Tuesday shall be known as Copilot Uninstall Tuesday.

      Now, where did I put my Linux migration plan...

  26. Mike Flex

    $3/month?

    If you have a family Office 365 subscription in the UK Microsoft will charge you an extra £25 pa for their unwanted AI.

    To prevent this you need to go to your accounts - subscription page and choose to end recurring billing. You will then get an option to renew with a classic subscription without AI at the current amount (£80). (This only becomes visible once MS have dumped copilot on your PC.) Microsoft will put through a £0.00 credit card transaction to verify this then actually bill you at your next renewal date.

    More help possibly at:

    https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/account-billing/turn-recurring-billing-on-or-off-for-a-microsoft-subscription-66f40aee-2317-f74b-40f9-2be7e92f0167

    1. Steve K

      Re: $3/month?

      I tried that but that option wasn’t available to me.

      1. Mike Flex

        Re: $3/month?

        Has copilot been installed on your PC yet? The option to drop back to classic office 365 only becomes visible once it has.

    2. Big_Boomer

      Re: $3/month?

      Thanks Mike, just changed to the Classic myself.

      I find it hilarious that MS think that £25 per year is what their AI is worth.

      If they reduced my subscription cost by that much I still would not want to use it.

    3. PCScreenOnly

      Re: $3/month?

      Why do recurring ?

      Wait for back friday, xmas new year or .any other sales and somewhere, you will find a family option for arouind £50-£60 - maybe with an AV too.

      Get the license and apply to your account and forget about it for a bit

    4. X5-332960073452
      Alert

      Re: $3/month?

      I really, really, really, hope this 'increase' in subscription cost breaks UK consumer law. (not that the fine will hurt MS)

    5. minuteye

      Re: $3/month?

      Here in Canada the increase is $25 CAD, also. Which isn't as bad as in pounds, but still a lot more than $3.

      Thank you for the information on prevention, the customer support at Microsoft straight up lied to me that it wasn't possible to switch to classic yet.

    6. It depends.....

      Re: $3/month?

      Thank you Mike for posting this. Now also switched to the "Family Classic" subscription model.

  27. The Central Scrutinizer Silver badge

    The smugness meter here at Linux Towers just goes higher and higher when reading articles like this one.

    1. Bebu sa Ware
      Coat

      Linux Towers...

      For the rare occasions I need to use a word processor it's Libre Office but for tortuous and ultimately futile reasons I also have legitimate Office 2016 installation media and keys, so I am wondering whether it could run under Wine (specifically Codeweavers Crossover.)

      I imagine running Windows applications under Wine on Unix/Linux platforms might evade MS AI crap completely and the dreaded monthly Tuesday (inexplicably the blighted autocorrect on my tablet corrected to Turday - if AI develops a sense of humour I shall be worried.)

  28. David Hicklin Silver badge

    Old Fasioned local installation

    I am so glad that I have a locally installed version of office (2010) that they can't mess with.

  29. minuteye

    Fyi, I just contacted Microsoft support about switching to a Personal Classic subscription, as the article says is possible. I was told that it's not possible to switch right now, but that 30 days before my subscription renewal, I'll be sent an email informing me of the change, and given the option of agreeing to the new price or switching at that point. At the moment, it's not possible to switch, or opt out of the copilot features at the subscription level.

    Based on advice from other users, it is possible to turn off the copilot features temporarily at the level of the account or Word (there are some relatively easy-to-find boxes in settings).

    1. spitfire31
      Pirate

      I have just implemented a two-step surefire method of sitching off CoPilot_

      1) Erase everything to do with Microsoft on your computer.

      2) Download LibreOffice and breathe easier.

  30. CopilotTHIS

    Shut up and listen, dont argue, you're lucky I give you feedback. I am complaining.

    * I didnt ask for this

    * You seem kind of desperate

    * This isnt a convenience, or an upgrade, at all. You are uploading all my content. It doesnt add any value.

    * You are not good at being me. Instead you want me to be you.

    * If you had 100% of the data in the world, you would still face the same hurdles. My data is not going to fix your implementation problems. Do your investors really buy that it will?

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