Microsoft will let you remove AI Action from the Windows 11 context menu

Microsoft may wish that things were different, but not everyone is as enamoured with artificial intelligence as the company is. Windows 11 is gradually becoming infested with endless AI components, and it is not something that all users are happy about.

One particular bone of contention is the AI Actions entry in the context menu. Even people who are fans of AI sometimes struggle to see the value in its presence, and it is actively loathed by many. Microsoft is, it seems, finally listening to feedback and giving users the option to hide it.

The AI Actions menu is home to various AI-powered tools to allow for quickly AI-ifying files. Images can be blurred, background removed, and much more. What you see in the menu depends on the type of file you are clicking on.

With these options already easily accessible from places such as Paint, their inclusion in a dedicated submenu seems completely pointless, especially when the context menu is already such an unwieldy bloated mess.

If you have gone hunting through the Settings app to see if you can get rid of it, you will have been disappointed – but this is about to change. In the last few days, Microsoft released Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26220.7344 to the Dev and Beta Channels, and this includes an important change.

Look to the File Explorer section of the release notes for this build, and Microsoft says:

• If there are no available or enabled AI Actions, this section will no longer show in the context menu.

So now if you head to the Apps > Actions section of Setting and flick all of the toggles to the Off position, the AI Actions menu will no longer be displayed. Previously, even if you disabled all of these entries, the empty – and therefore even more pointless – AI Actions entry would remain visible in the context menu serving no purpose whatsoever.

If this change does not yet work for you (assuming you are signed up for the relevant Insider channel), it should just be just a matter of time before you have access to this very pleasing option.