Windows 11 Finally Lets Users Remove AI Actions from File Explorer's Right-Click Menu

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

* 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. 4 Windows 11 features that make me regret upgrading These Windows 11 features are more of a nuisance than useful Posts 18 By Megan Ellis Feb 21, 2025 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.

Don't want AI Actions in File Explorer? Windows 11 will let you disable them

Microsoft seems to have heard the criticism against AI Actions in File Explorer and will let users turn them off if desired. Across the recent fall months, Microsoft added a number of AI features to Windows File Explorer, which not all users appreciated. We're talking features like AI-powered file search, various AI Actions in the Context Menu, and even AI integrations with third-party apps. Fortunately, it seems Microsoft has listened to the criticism -- at least in part. In the latest beta version of Windows 11, it's now possible to disable the "AI Actions" feature in File Explorer so that they're no longer visible in the Context Menu. This is great if you never use them. To switch off AI Actions, navigate to Settings in Windows 11 and select the "Apps" menu in the left panel, then select the "Actions" submenu in the main window. There you can uncheck the AI Actions associated with Microsoft 365 Copilot, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Teams, Paint, and Photos, reports Windows Latest. Microsoft goes into more detail on this -- as well as other features and improvements in this Windows 11 beta build -- in the recent Windows Insider blog post. Those new improvements include Quick Machine Recovery enabled by default on some PCs, the release of Windows MIDI Services, and native support for the Model Context Protocol that grants AI agents a standardized way to connect with apps and services. Further reading: Sick of AI in Windows 11? Here's how to get rid of it

Think AI actions in Windows 11 are pointless? Microsoft is letting you banish them from the right-click menu

This means there will no longer be an empty folder in the right-click menu for AI actions that have been turned off Windows 11 just got a change for the better in terms of AI - albeit only in testing for now - which removes some clutter related to the AI actions feature. That functionality pertains to File Explorer's right-click context menu, but it's more of a refinement to existing options than anything else (and I'll come back to why later). Even so, it's going to be well-received; you can count on that. Windows Central reported on Microsoft announcing a simple but functional change in a new Windows 11 preview (build 26220.7344): "If there are no available or enabled AI Actions, this section will no longer show in the context menu." This means that if there are no possible AI actions with any given file that you've right-clicked, you no longer see the (empty) folder relating to said actions (or lack of them). AI actions include things like asking Copilot to summarize a document or pulling off image-editing tricks on your photos (like erasing an object using AI). Essentially, this avoids the weird situation where you've gone into Settings and disabled all AI actions, and yet the AI actions option still appears in the right-click menu - even though when you mouse over it, it's empty. Which, of course, made no sense whatsoever, and really, this is more of a fix than a feature. You could previously disable these AI actions, in case you were wondering, so that isn't a new feature, although it is a relatively recent addition. The change here is Microsoft's removal of the AI actions entry in the right-click menu if there aren't any available AI shortcuts, as noted. All this is part of Microsoft's wider drive to declutter File Explorer's right-click menu, which is a welcome initiative.

Microsoft now lets users remove AI actions menu, here is how

Microsoft's relationship with the Windows 11 context menu has always been a little complicated. Every few months, the company adds something new, trims something old, or rearranges the whole structure in the name of clarity. And the latest Insider build, 26220.7344, has given users exactly what they have been asking for- the ability to make AI Actions disappear. The change was first spotted by a Reddit user digging through the release notes, where Microsoft confirms that the AI Actions block in the context menu will now vanish if none of the supported apps are enabled. Also read: Inside Sony PlayStation 5 booth at Delhi Comic Con 2025: Deals, discounts and more If you don't want to toggle each app individually, you can jump straight into Settings > Apps > Actions and simply untick everything in one go. Paint, Photos, Teams, and any other app tied to AI Actions will immediately stop occupying space in your right-click menu. Until now, even disabling these apps didn't remove the feature. Windows 11 would still show the AI Actions header, only without any actions listed under it. It resulted in an odd empty gap that served no real purpose and added to the clutter of an already crowded menu. For some people, quick shortcuts like Visual Search through Bing or background blur in Photos were genuinely useful. But for many others, the AI Actions panel did little more than add visual noise, padding out a menu that was already struggling with its own weight. Further, AI Actions never unlocked anything you couldn't already access through Open With. Microsoft pitched it as a convenient shortcut, but most of the time it led you to the exact apps you'd use anyway. Neowin's early screenshot from May highlighted this duplication clearly, showing Edit with Paint and Edit with Photos sitting right beside their AI-branded equivalents. In one example, the menu stretched to a staggering 18 items, and that didn't include the top strip of quick actions or the show more options overflow. Along with hiding AI Actions, the latest build introduces other small but meaningful cleanups. For instance, there is a new manage file sub-menu that gathers options like Compress to and Copy as path into a single home, reducing scattered entries. OneDrive's menu items are also being tucked into a single consolidated section. Even though none of these changes are dramatic on their own, together they point toward a Windows 11 experience that finally feels like it's learning to quiet the clutter.