Microsoft pauses Copilot rollout on Windows devices
Microsoft has temporarily stopped automatically installing the Microsoft 365 Copilot app on Windows devices, excluding customers in the European Economic Area (EEA).
Announced in March 2026, the pause followed criticism from users and businesses about the forced installation/rollout of the Microsoft 365 Copilot app.
The original plan was to roll out Copilot to more users by December 2025.
If you already have Copilot, nothing changes
If you already have Copilot, nothing changes. It keeps working as usual.
IT admins can still add the app manually through the Microsoft 365 admin center, CDN, or Microsoft Store.
Copilot brings AI tools to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint to help with things like summarizing documents or generating content.
Why the pause?
Enterprises pushed back on having AI apps installed automatically.
Microsoft listened and decided to slow things down for now, especially since Microsoft is reportedly reevaluating Copilot integrations in apps such as Notepad and Paint.
Admins can block or remove the app if needed.
What's next?
Microsoft says this is just a temporary pause: the guidance for deploying Copilot is still live.
So expect more updates as they figure out how to roll out these AI features in a way that works for everyone.