Microsoft has fixed a bug causing the March 2025 Windows cumulative updates to mistakenly uninstall the AI-powered Copilot digital assistant from some Windows 10 and Windows 11 systems.
Redmond warned customers of this bug days after releasing this month’s Patch Tuesday cumulative updates, saying it applies to all users who install the KB5053598 (Windows 24H2) and KB5053606 (Windows 10 22H2) released last week.
“We’re aware of an issue with the Microsoft Copilot app affecting some devices. The app is unintentionally uninstalled and unpinned from the taskbar,” the company explained in updated support documents. “This issue has not been observed with the Microsoft 365 Copilot app.”
Microsoft has updated the advisories to say that the bug has been fixed and “the affected devices are being returned to their original state.”
Those who don’t want to wait for the changes to be reversed are advised to reinstall the app from the Microsoft Store and manually add it back to the taskbar.
In the meantime, Redmond has yet to explain why Copilot was automatically removed and acknowledge this known issue on its Windows release health dashboard—where it usually notifies customers of ongoing problems affecting supported Windows versions.
Copilot was first introduced in September 2023 and is now enabled by default on Windows 11 devices. In November 2023, Microsoft also began rolling out the AI assistant to eligible non-managed systems running Windows 10 22H2.
In June 2024, Microsoft had to remove a Copilot app that had been “incorrectly” added to Windows 10 and Windows 11 systems in April by buggy Microsoft Edge updates.
At the time, the company clarified that the accidentally installed Copilot app didn’t collect or relay any data to Microsoft servers, as it was only designed to prepare some devices for the future enablement of Copilot.
Months earlier, Copilot was added to some Windows Server 2025 preview builds, but Microsoft removed it after widespread backlash from Windows admins.
More recently, Microsoft started rolling out a new native Copilot app to Windows Insiders via the Microsoft Store and announced a press-to-talk feature enabling users to interact with Copilot using their voice when holding the Alt + Spacebar keyboard shortcut.
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