I have an ACER AI laptop (please do not ask - it was a gift ) and until now I have at least been able to tame it to a certain degree with firewall and scripts from privacy.sexy. Unfortunately with the latest updates it seems like nothing is working anymore and the AI components aoperating no matter what. And privacy.sexy does not seem to work either, even with simpe things like “uninstall Solitaire” it does not work, the app is still there. I have tried adding some registry values but nothing is helping. The laptop is signaling on the touchpad whenever AI features are being used, and the light is going up all the time, particularly when Windows search is being used.
Does anyone know how to disable all these new AI components even after the latest Windows update?
Well, that is what I did…even erased the whole SSD. And now with the new Windows setup it looks like even more AI integrated and privacy.sexy does not work any longer.
Regarding Linux: not that simple. Linux is a lot better for privacy, but it has security issues that are difficult to manage.
I have seen this, as well as Windows Shut Up tool and another one specifically for AI stuff on Github, but i am very hesitant to simply use one of these for security reasons. Are they really safe?
The Titus tool is auditable, you can go on the website and see the powershell script for each function.
IIRC the Shut Up tool is an official Windows partner.
EDIT: It is.
Microsoft Partner and NATO supplier
O&O Software GmbH has been a certified Microsoft Partner for 10 years now. As a result of outstanding performances in developing software for Windows, O&O was made a Microsoft Certified Partner/ISV in 2003, the highest possible accolade for an independent manufacturer.
What AI features does the laptop provide to windows? I’m not familiar with it. If it’s just extending the default AI features like Recall and Copilot, try following PG’s community wiki on windows group policies.
To change policies, the guide states that you will require Pro edition or better. If you do not have that edition installed, I suggest you reinstall with it. Education edition is also viable, as it is “equivalent to Enterprise.”[1] However, I believe you will not have the option to disable Recall with Education edition. Maybe it’s because that edition already does not have Recall? Someone else will have to confirm this. Here are the relevant policies if you do not want to look at the guide:
Open gpedit.msc
To disable shitpilot, navigate to: Local Computer Policy → User Configuration → Administrative Templates → Windows Components → Windows Copilot → Turn off Windows Copilot
2a. Select Enabled and click OK
To disable shitcall, navigate to:[2] Local Computer Policy → Computer Configuration → Administrative Templates → Windows Components → Windows AI → Turn off saving snapshots of Windows
3a. Select Enabled and click OK
This post from ElevenForum is more recent (2025/12/24) and seems to have some additional policies to change, if you want to look at it.
There seems to be some disrepancies as to what the shitcall policy is called. That ElevenForum post sees it as Allow Recall to be enabled while PG’s community wiki sees it as Turn off saving snapshots of Windows. Maybe they are different policies, or maybe they are the same policies and one of them is an outdated name. I can’t confirm since I am running Education edition, not Pro edition.
As mentioned above: if you are running Education edition, this will probably not pop up. I am running that edition and this is nowhere to be seen for me. ↩︎
Well, currently after the new installation and with the latest updates there are 4 AI components installed: AI Content Extraction, AI Image Search, AI Phi Silica, AI Semantic Analysis. There are no buttons to unstall these. I don’t think Recall or Copilot ae still installed/running as I added registry entries and also uninstalled these (Windows does provide options to uninstall Copilot). I also noticed that Recall was not checked when looking in the system configuration.
Before the new Windows installation the lights on the touchpad which light up when AI is being used never lit up due to all the changes and debloating. But now after the new installation they light up whenever anything is entered into the Windows search bar and sometimes also when booting the computer.
Unfortunately I do not have the option for Windows Pro, only Home, so no group policies
@Tux there are many threads on this, for example this one.
@leahh88g4 may I ask why you are sticking with Windows at this point? Is it preference, required for work, compatibility issue, or something else?
In my view, there is no real way to permanently remove this stuff without it becoming a never ending job. In the 90s we all had fear of hackers writing code to breach our data and in the 20s were fearing the same but from Big Tech. In many cases I would recommemd you isolate your personal compute to OSes that aren’t designed to extract your work and activities and only use the windows installation for the activities it is required for and let the bloatware bloat. If you are deeply integrated in the windows ecosystem, I think the best use of your time in a privacy sense are slowly making choices to demicrosoft the applications you use so that switching off of Microsoft will become a viable option.
In the meantime if there are clear simple options that will increase your privacy do so as others suggest, but know that staying on windows in the long term for personal use is a going to be a lot of continued and likely increasing amount of work.
Ah thanks I must have missed this. That said, I would say most of the dangers this poses can be mitigated through community consensus.
Evil maid attacks require physical access so for most this shouldn’t be an issue. That said I don’t know you or your situation, but I would say this is a marginal area of concern reserved for journalists, government workers and politicians, or just very powerful or known people”
The lack of sandbox and exploits will be quickly brought up in community watering holes, and any app you install on Linux you can do some validation on some forums. Even Microsoft can be vulnerable to these in the same way, remember that xz backdoor that Microsoft employee found a malicious maintainer contributed over like two years!? What we know about the xz Utils backdoor that almost infected the world - Ars Technica
That’s why having open source gossip networks makes me a lot less nervous about these lacking features. With Microsoft, you’ll never really know if you’ve turned all the data valves off and have to monitor any updates that may cause new ones to appear or old ones to open back up. You also don’t know when the scripting and other measures you take will eventually brick the OS from functioning. At least in open source land you fight a couple trolls and efforts make you more resiliant and able to keep yourself safe. With Windows you’re literally fighting Microsoft who stands everything to gain from removing your actual consent and has way more means to do so than random hacker person. Their ability to game the OS and your behavior has been something they’ve worked on since they took IBMs lead in the 80s. The company knows how to exploit behavior en masse.
) and until now I have at least been able to tame it to a certain degree with firewall and scripts from privacy.sexy. Unfortunately with the latest updates it seems like nothing is working anymore and the AI components aoperating no matter what. And privacy.sexy does not seem to work either, even with simpe things like “uninstall Solitaire” it does not work, the app is still there. I have tried adding some registry values but nothing is helping. The laptop is signaling on the touchpad whenever AI features are being used, and the light is going up all the time, particularly when Windows search is being used.