Microsoft to auto-launch Copilot in Edge whenever you click a link from Outlook

Microsoft has announced that its Edge browser will automatically open the Copilot side pane when users open links from Outlook. The feature appeared on the Microsoft 365 roadmap on February 25, with a rollout due to start in May 2026. According to Microsoft, the update will "provide contextual insights and actionable …

[Fruit and Nutcase]

Sanitaryware

Hope Microsoft does not do joint-venture with one of the sanitaryware companies - Copilot[CraPilot] will be popping up like Clippy, "looks like you are going to..."

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Sanitaryware

Hurrah!! Another reason not to use Edge.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Another reason not to use Edge.

Better still...

Another reason not to use ANY Microsoft Product. We all know that it spies on you 24/7. For your own sanity, give them the middle finger.

[ICL1900-G3]

Re: Another reason not to use Edge.

Sadly, though WE know MS spies all the time, your average non-techy punter probably doesn't. Until this becomes front page news in the Mail/Mirror/Express, MS can realistically do what the hell they like.

[elsergiovolador]

Scene

That reminds me of a scene from Friends with a mystery switch.

Well, it's interesting that Microslop is showing so much restrain here. Surely they should stop pretending and let Coidiot take over the mouse cursor and do whatever Coidiot things user wants done.

[Swiss Anton]

Re: Scene

Please, don't give them any more stupid ideas.

[anonymous cat herder]

Re: Scene

What's next, OpenClippy in the spirit of OpenClaw?

[JimboSmith]

Re: Scene

I’m now genuinely curious as to how this will work on my company laptop. I disabled NoPilot on my Edge browser the second I got the thing back to my desk. That was the second thing I did after fixing the position of the start button on the taskbar back to the left hand side*. Are Microsoft going to re-enable NoPilot on my copy of Edge when they push this out?

*Ideally I would like the taskbar vertically on the left hand side of the screen too but Microsoft have not yet seen fit to allow that.

[mcswell]

Re: Scene

I see you're trying to move the Task Bar to the left-hand side... Would you like me to bork your computer?

[Dan 55]

Well that lasted long

They talk about nobody wanting slop and reducing AI in Windows but carry on full steam ahead.

I'm unsure as to the thinking behind this, if any.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Well that lasted long

Profit. Microsoft's model is like what I heard the model for selling drugs is: the first shot is free (or in Microsoft's case, at most a discount - avoid validating the Open Source idea). Once you have the dependency you can crank up the prices.

The problem that all the AI bros have is creating that dependency. Now the "you can sack a lot of people" sales argument has been proven to be rather optimistic it's descending into the "free crackers with every purchase" model, yet they still go and build more and more power/water absorbing data centres for it. It's the dot con era all over, but with much thicker cables.

[Red Ted]

Re: Well that lasted long

The "AI bros" have sunk an awful lot of money are are desperate to show some use for all that investment.

MS have the captive audience that they can force it on to and then they show uptake in it because they'll count all the link-clicks that have caused Co-Idiot to launch as an interaction.

[DoctorPaul]

Re: Well that lasted long

Well, probably not that fussed as they've used the OPM principle. (Other People's Money)

[MonkeyJuice]

Re: Well that lasted long

Checks out. To both Microsoft and drug dealers- customer = user

[paluster]

Re: Well that lasted long

"With much thicker cables" and much thicker people

[LBJsPNS]

Re: Well that lasted long

Just for the record, the only drug dealers who ever gave away the first hit were tobacco companies. Drugs are expensive, mmkay? It's like the people claiming kids are being given edibles on Halloween. People are too cheap to give out a full sized candy bar, and you think they're giving away edibles?

[Benegesserict Cumbersomberbatch]

Re: Well that lasted long

Drugs are actually really cheap. It's all the smuggling, medium to high level corruption, violence, internecine vendettas and second-order societal cost that's expensive.

[Dave K]

Re: Well that lasted long

Problem is that they risk the opposite. AI fatigue is real, they run the risk of people getting so sick and tired of AI interfering and being so obtrusive that they refuse to use Copilot out of principle. I'm one of them! It has its uses, but it's so unbelievably annoying when you're stuck with it on a corporate laptop that you take great pleasure in giving it the middle finger.

In short, they're attempting to boost uptake by ramming it down your throat and don't seem to realise that this will result in many people gagging and throwing up rather than swallowing it.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Well that lasted long

What else would be expect from OpenSatnad

[Guido Esperanto]

Re: Well that lasted long

Microsoft unveils it's new operating system.

Introducing Microsoft wAIndows.

You don't need to do anything, as MS wAIndows will do it all...better than you.

[dryphb]

Re: Well that lasted long

It's Microslop, d'you think they think?

[Doctor Syntax]

This just confirms my choice not to use Windows nor even the Linux version of Edge. It is beyond my comprehension why Windows users, or at least those who know there are alternatives, continue to tolerate this abuse. Yes, I know - this thing for which you think it's essential or that thing. But do they really justify putting up with it all?

[may_i]

Most of us don't have a choice. My employer mandates the software that I run on their laptop and the operating system.

[cyberdemon]

In that situation, I would start looking for a new employer

[Anonymous Coward]

If it was always this easy..

[cyberdemon]

Surprising number of downvotes for that one..

What I meant was: If I personally were in the situation where my employer was forcing me to use MS sodding Edge, and I was being forced to use its shitty AI antifeatures such as the one in the article, (either because MS won't let anyone turn them off, or because the Boss/BOFH has disabled the setting via Group Policy), then I would be voicing my complaints to the Boss. Should those complaints go unheeded, then I would be updating my CV, perhaps printing a copy on the printer by the HR office, and checking my prospects with the nearest recruitment agent.

Sure I understand that finding a new employer who doesn't force Microsoft AI crapware onto its staff may be nontrivial, but the longer people simply tolerate this shit just because it's "company policy", the longer the boss will go on deluding himself that "It's great and everyone loves it".

[Patrician]

If it's a company machine and MS software is corporate policy, then it's company data and not mine that MS are scraping . The only loser will be the company after all.

[cyberdemon]

May the artificial dementors feed on your æternal soul, then.

I refuse to use AI, at work or otherwise. It is too damned creepy. It can clone your voice, your visage, your writing style, your management style, and your coding style. Fuck it all to hell. I am employed to do a job for my company, not to be a data-teat for Microsoft.

And I assume you have seen the automatic integration with LinkedIn inside Office and Teams? Everything you do with a Microsoft product at work or at home is tied to your identity, whether you are logged in to LinkedIn/GitHub or not.

[mistersaxon]

Deny, deny, deny

My work laptop camera shutter is permanently closed, as is the lid. I connect to it - if I ever have to - via RDP. Normally I only open it up to let it load patches, which there always are, of course (today we are updating the BIOS before anything else - good job I don’t need it to do anything urgent because it is NEVER available on demand). It’s annoying (because Teams is intrinsically a piece of s#it) but hey, it pays the bills. Mostly I use RDP on my own machine to connect to the servers where I do the actual work they pay me for. Email etc is just admin IMO.

[Cliffwilliams44]

If your company identity is also your identity at LinkedIn, That's not a Microsoft problem, that's a YOU problem.

I so wish my company would implement a policy that if you use your company identity for anything not internal to the company, that's a disciplinary offense. They won't!

Re: GitHub, if it's enterprise GitHub, why do you care? If it's personal, I revert to my original point!

[mcswell]

The Sixth Day

But think: if it can clone all these things, you could send it to those mandatory meetings--and then get things done yourself!

[Benegesserict Cumbersomberbatch]

I work in an industry where I am personally responsible for the confidentiality of my work, with legal sanctions if I fail to maintain it. Not everyone can Pontius Pilate this intrusion.

[Steve Davies 3]

Beware the AI Spy in your pocket

that might be telling your boss that you are looking for another job.

Time for a burner phone and a totally separate email address (please, not Gmail or Hotmail)

Send all the usual suspects crapware to the great bit bucket in the swamp.

[David Hicklin]

Re: Beware the AI Spy in your pocket

Always keep work and personal devices well apart from each other!

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Beware the AI Spy in your pocket

Absolutely. Hedge trimmers and work laptops just don't mix.

:)

[David Hicklin]

> If I personally were in the situation where my employer was forcing me to use MS sodding Edge

Welcome to the real world and corporate policy. The drive for a long time has been to lock down work PC's as much as possible including getting rid of any need for Admin mode, so you have no other choice than to use the company mandated stuff.

And when the Board degree that you will use Agile and AI, then tough - you have to go along with it as they are paying your salary and providing the equipment to run it on. No one is forcing you to work there.

You are of course free to try your luck somewhere else but FOMO at other employers will limit your choice, well at least until the bubble bursts.

[cyberdemon]

> No one is forcing you to work there.

Er, my sentiments exactly?

[ComicalEngineer]

Several of my larger customers PCs are locked down by their IT departments.

Only company mandated software is installed and users have no admin privileges. No non-approved software can be installed, and all software must be approved by the IT department.

In all of these companies it's Outlook / Office 365 / Teams like it or lump it. If you have a need for CAD it's AutoCAD or if you just need to look then you just get Autodesk viewer.

Several of my customers even have corporate login and lock screen images and company standard backgrounds and colour schemesThere are many among us who simply don't have the choice and are effectively the IT equivalent of Dilbert.

[Anonymous Coward]

Mine has put a hard block on it, and that's mandated by its largest shareholder.

To get anything more than some AI in your browser it has to get an approval from an almost stratospheric level because they sensibly worry about compliance and IP risk. For once nobody takes chances or shortcuts, so I wonder why. Maybe they weren't invited to expensive dinners?

[MattieD]

Often it's the suppliers

Quite often those mandates don't come from the IT department, they come from suppliers who will refuse to support their products if they're used with another other than Edge.

Rather than beating a clue into each and every supplier who supplies such an edict, it's easier just to get everyone using Edge.

That said, it sometimes is the IT department. It's easier to roll-out configurations using Group Policy or Intune to Edge than to Chrome, Firefox, etc. and keeping an entire business on one browser makes internal support easier.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Often it's the suppliers

Ah yes, Edge.

Which depends on Chrome. Which has appeared to be very Microsoft compatible in that it has so many security problems that Microsoft's derivative got THREE updates in as many days, the first to 145.3800.58 (last Thursday), then ~65 (last Friday), then ~70(last Saturday).

I think they have finally managed to actually fix the latest problem.

For now.

[Cliffwilliams44]

Re: Often it's the suppliers

This is absolute nonsense!

This harkens back to when vendors would demand:

It needs a dedicated server

It needs a dedicated SQL Server

The service account needs Domain Admin rights

The user must be a local Administrator

Even back in the day these requests were met with a stern NO!

And a reminder that if they want the contract with our company then well, they had better find a way around those requirements.

Yes, I have come up against the inevitable, "but we already signed the contract", which results in, "well we are still not giving in to these demands, so you need to negotiate this with the vendor."

When you threaten to withhold the cash, it's amazing how fast these demands are not so "non-negotiable" after all!

And the days of "it only works in X browser", are long gone!

[Doctor Syntax]

"Most of us don't have a choice. My employer mandates"

You don't have a choice but your employer made one, even unthinkingly.

[EdSaxby]

That's it in a nutshell. The user is not the customer of Microsoft, the enterprises are and the senior managers are so captured by Microsoft they just go along with it.

Home users are just a blip in Microsoft's revenue share, so whether they like the changes or not doesn't matter in the slightest.

In my last few roles, every enterprise architect threw out solid technology solutions (where we were seeking upgrade funding) just to replace everything with a full Microsoft / Azure stack. No thinking whatsoever, just brainwashed...and on to their next gig to do the same.

[Cliffwilliams44]

It never changes!

Late 20th century: "No one ever got fired for choosing IBM!"

In the 21st century: "No one ever got fired for choosing Microsoft!"

For middle managers it's all about CYA, they can fall back on that argument, that they chose Microsoft because they are the biggest.

I've had this argument with some managers re: cloud services. AWS is clearly superior (and cheaper) but they want to go with Microsoft. When you press them for why they are making this decision their only answers can be summed up as "because Microsoft!"

[Slant Four]

VM it!!!

I worked for my last employer for 15 years (before retirement), a shop with ~400,000 employees and a global presence....so not a Mom and Pop.

I was a Unix/Linux dev so windows wasn't a good fit so whenever they gave me a new laptop,I would:

1- clone the windows image with the vmware cloner

2- install centos and vmware player

3- copy back vmware clone

4- happily worked inside LInux with windows minimized in the background

5- this config passed all the employers security audits

This also meant I could throttle the resources windows sucked out of my PC cpu/ram

Bluck

[Throatwarbler Mangrove]

For work, I have little choice. At home, I have toyed with Linux, but it doesn't offer enough advantages and presents enough annoyances that I've chosen to stick with Windows, although the creeping crud is nudging me in the direction of trying harder to overcome my issues with Linux. Honestly, though, most of the annoyances highlighted here have passed me by. I don't use Edge, since I'm a Firefox and LibreWolf man, and I've disabled Copilot on my home PC. At work, I actually do find Copilot useful (heresy, I know!), since it has helped me to assemble reference material for projects I'm working on.

And that, I think, highlights the blinkered quality that a lot of critics manifest. They see the changes in Windows as so obviously malevolent that they overlook the fact that Windows users still have an abundance of choice regarding which browsers and features they want to use. Certainly, I'm not a fan of all of them, but I'm also not a fan of a lot of the changes which have crept into Linux (or failed to creep into Linux), so I don't see the decision of using Linux vs. Windows as being so black and white as it's often made out to be.

[paluster]

Black and white for me, but then I was a system admin cross trained on mainframes, unix and linux, so the choice of software at home was a no brainer. Also it let me buy xheaper kit. I've consistently run ex lease business kit for consumer level costs.

The corporate desktop and supporting servers were wall to wall Microshaft, but that was a different team's problem.

What you have to remember is that most businesses are not in the IT business so they are dependent on other people's decisions. We had a case (and we were in the IT business) when we ported an application from unix to linux. One of the third party components was only fully supported on Solaris (where we were running it) HP-UX (where we had no intention of going) añd Red Hat so that chose the linux distro for us (my preference would have been SLES, but pragmatism won out).

[JimmyPage]

Linux version of Edge.

Presumably sold alongside motorbike ashtrays and chocolate teapots ?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Linux version of Edge.

I suspect that'll be blocked by default in SE Linux :)

[David 132]

Re: Linux version of Edge.

Don't worry, its functionality will be included in a future Systemd release.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: functionality will be included in a future Systemd release.

If so, then the service can be stopped, disabled and deleted. Three commands and you are good to go.

Actually, I'd prefer that it was in Systemd. At least then we'd know about it rather than it being hidden away in some shaky spyware nook of the OS.

[Ken Shabby]

Re: Linux version of Edge.

An inflatable dartboard?

[MiguelC]

Re: inflatable dartboard

And why not?

[mihares]

FTFY

> "This experience helps users quickly understand content, take action with fewer steps, and get more value from Copilot while extending productive browsing time in Edge."

This data scraping operation helps us quickly hoard user information, forcibly inflate Copilot’s user base, and pull the investrors‘ leg a little bit longer while figuring out how to swallow the huge losses we are making on this ridiculous AI system.

Use decent software and don’t be a part of this.

[find users who cut cat tail]

Re: FTFY

Yeah, my reaction to this sentence was ‘who could write such bullshit?’ But here the answer is obvious…

[IamAProton]

Edge can be uninstalled

if your system 'country' is set to an EU member during installation.

Or perhaps the language.

I did install it in english US so i had to fiddle with Vivetool (IIRC) to be able to uninstall edge

[David 132]

Re: Edge can be uninstalled

Is that a true uninstallation, or just a superficial-to-placate-the-regulators game of "hide the icon from the desktop and start menu"?

[Scotech]

Re: Edge can be uninstalled

So far as I was aware, it's incredibly difficult to perform a complete uninstallation of every instance of Edge from Windows as that would necessitate removing Edge WebView, which portions of the system use to render HTML content. Not that many of the OS use-cases are actually of any value - I always hide the widgety stuff - but other apps often have it as a dependency thanks to it being the default method for rendering web content in most .NET applications. As with most core elements of the Windows OS, removing WebView is certainly possible, but with the caveat it can break things and it could get reinstalled at any point. Of course, WebView doesn't include Copilot. Yet.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Edge can be uninstalled

Wouldn't it be fun to replace the actual executable with a small bit of code that opens up a window saying "This browser intentionally left blank"

[IamAProton]

Re: Edge can be uninstalled

well, at least it doesn't bother me anymore, so it's definitely somethign more than removing the icon from menus

[rmullen0]

Re: Edge can be uninstalled

The only way to be sure, is to nuke it from outer space. Failing that, wipe the disk clean and install Linux.

[Gavsky]

That's okay, I rapidly dumped Edge shortly after launch because it was illogical bullshit (IMHO). Click at the bottom of a window to open a new tab? What genius thought of that one? I only accidentally open Edge these days & its little quirks still irritate me, far more than they should.

On the plus side, U2 wouldn't be the same without it: amazing guitar work is absolutely part of their success...

[Blackjack]

Who uses Edge anyway?

[LBJsPNS]

U2. See the comment above yours.

[LateAgain]

There are edge cases for it's use :-)

[dryphb]

You dropped your coat, I've picked it up for you

[Naich]

I use it to download Firefox.

[Wolfclaw]

Pushing Co-pilot everywhere, is that not anticompetitive and when will the powers at be start the investigation for the next round of dirty brown envelopes stuff with cash to be offered to policy influencers?

[that one in the corner]

This experience helps users ... get more value from Copilot

Well, it is damn difficult for Copilot (or any of the other in-your-face 'bots) to be of *less* value than they are now; even the energy you expend on swearing at the bloody useless box full of garbage text will reduce[1]

[1] it takes a while, and can be disrupted by sudden changes in the environment[2], but humans do unconsciously learn to literally stop seeing things that are ever present but can be safely ignored, as that maximises the attention we can give to important stuff, like avoiding the sabretooth. Hence the common enough experience of a visitor coming into your living room, spotting 'odd' things and asking you about them: "oh, come to think of it, it has been like that for years, I don't notice it any more". In our case, unless we consciously look, or someone comments on it, we don't see the plastic peal that is still protecting (well, hiding) the pointlessly glossy black surround on the telly set, however many years it has been since we got it (well before the analogue shutdown). And it took me a moment to come up with that example, despite the fact that I'm still in the gogglebox appreciation chair.

[2] and now you know why random pointless UI changes occur so often; like, oooh, making Outlook do something different to/with the browser

[Mage]

Remove Outlook?

I know some have to use it for meetings, but for years we removed all versions of Outlook. Always been poor security.

You haven't needed it for over 20 years for Exchange Email.

[ZedaZ80]

My hunch is that the vast majority of daily users are in a corporate setting, and having copilot this ingrained can't end well.

[Noodle]

Recently discovered Vivaldi and it rocks.

[Hubert Cumberdale]

Rather than "rocks", I'd say that Vivaldi probably Baroques. I suppose you could say it's a browser for all Four Seasons.

[captain veg]

Vivaldi

It's a browser for those of us who consider that the user agent should do what we want, not (necessarily) what what they need.

-A.

[Hubert Cumberdale]

Re: Vivaldi

I'm disappointed by your lack of punning. You could have at least said something like "it lets you orchestrate your own settings", or "you can fiddle with the composition of its tabs" or something. Are they good? No. But at least I'm trying.

[Ropewash]

At this point..

They should just set aside the clumsy foreplay and drop everyone straight into clippy at boot time.

"I see you're trying to use your computer, would you like some help with that?"

[A2Wx8]

A useless waste of resources

It'd be one thing if they added a button to do it for the handful of people who still somehow think Copilot isn't a useless train wreck. To automatically pipe every link click through to it? C'mon. Outside of the potential data privacy mess, since it's one of a few bots that has been caught leaking sensitive data, this is also just a pointless waste of tons of energy and compute resources since it's now forcing every link through an inefficient and power-guzzling LLM whether the user wants it or not.

It's dumb enough that Google now auto AI-summarizes all my email threads, even if they are a single reply long. It seems we're now into the "we need to justify the billions spent so you're going to have AI like it or not!" era.

[Always Right Mostly]

Please stop, for God's sake, please!

Everything Microsoft has been doing for at least the past three years has made life a hellscape of stuff that makes what use to be doable if not easy, predictable if not totally reliable into a grotesqe babel of new and ever changing product names that are just latyer upon layer of brittcle crap to congure and maintain. Now with AI everywhere. Leave us alone, leave things be. Go count your money and be happy with it. Oh, and one more thing: fuck Nadella.

[Anonymous Coward]

Back to the 00's

Just call it Bonza Buddy and get it over with.

I'm guessing there might be as much beer money to be made for junior techs removing Coprolite as I made removing Bonza and other PUPs in the 90s and 00s.

[BahnStormer77]

You're a month early for this sort of bad joke!

Honestly this is going to make it even more clunky and ensh!ttified... I already avoid even booting into Windows as it's so sluggish... and it's a heavily CTT debloated version (no co pilot / telemetry /edge), it's faster than before, but feels so sluggish compared to Linux!

[rmullen0]

This ish is 100% whack

WTF is wrong with this company (Microslop)? They literally have to ruin every aspect of their software. Switching to alternative software isn't even optional at this point. It is required. The people running that company need to be fired immediately.

[captain veg]

Where to start

"This experience helps users quickly understand content, take action with fewer steps, and get more value from Copilot while extending productive browsing time in Edge."

Right.

In reverse:

I don't want to use Edge at all, but if I did I wouldn't consider "productivity" any kind of metric.

I find no value whatsoever in Copilot.

I understand perfectly the content of the pages I browse because I am a human being and I chose to read that content.

Thanks, and fuck off.

-A.

[BPontius]

Microsoft, shove Edge and Copilot with a continuous bitwise, non-parity, unmasked operation up your most significant bit!!! Comprehend?