Microsoft accidentally wipes out Copilot in latest Windows 11 update

Microsoft’s Copilot app for Windows is being “unintentionally uninstalled” on some Windows 11 devices thanks to the latest monthly Windows update. The Patch Tuesday updates that started rolling out on March 11th have led to Copilot being unpinned from the taskbar and uninstalled.

“We’re aware of an issue with the Microsoft Copilot app affecting some devices,” admits Microsoft in a support document for the March update to Windows 11. Microsoft says it’s working on a fix for the issue, and that affected users can simply reinstall the Copilot app from the Microsoft Store and manually pin it to the taskbar in the meantime.

While this is clearly a bug with the latest Windows update, some Windows 11 users who aren’t interested in Copilot will undoubtedly see it as a feature instead. Microsoft is in the middle of rolling out a native version of its Copilot for Windows app, nearly a year after turning it into a basic web app. The new Copilot app has an improved UI and is also getting a press-to-talk hotkey so you can talk to Microsoft’s AI assistant like you used to be able to do with Cortana in Windows 10.

Microsoft is also working on additional updates to Copilot that it’s planning to unveil at a special 50th anniversary event on April 4th. Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman will be on stage next month to announce new Copilot features, amid rumors that Microsoft is developing its own in-house AI reasoning models to compete with OpenAI.