Copilot Out of the Way

Ever since Microsoft jumped into the AI force-feeding frenzy, logging in to Office365 on the Web has been super annoying. When you went to office365.com, your main screen used to have some predictable content in the middle and an Apps menu on the left. That's where you could get to OneDrive, Sharepoint, Outlook's Web app, or any other of your Office apps. Now Copilot is usually in front of everything.

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To get to your apps, you have to dismiss Copilot (how to do this is not immediately obvious). This annoys me every time I’m looking for an app. Especially since I haven’t found a way to make Copilot very useful. Usually when I ask it to do something for me, it tells me how to do it. This doesn’t seem like good “Copilot” behavior. I thought the point of a “Copilot” was someone who could take the rudder if the pilot had to, I don’t know, use the toilet.

To make matters worse, the interface seems unpredictable. The one time I was actually looking for Copilot, it wasn’t around and I couldn’t find it. This is giving Spirit Airlines.

A search with Google on “how to reliably dismiss Copilot” and things of that ilk turned up more than one method, suggesting that, in typical Microsoft fashion, there are several solutions to a problem and none of them work reliably.

Except one Instead of logging in to office365.com, go directly to office.com/apps. Bookmark this and use it every time and you will never have to spend time pushing Copilot out of the way.

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