Katarzyna Petru
Microsoft has been pushing new artificial intelligence features in Windows 11 for months, but this time it had to back down. After a wave of criticism from users, the system has received the option to completely disable AI Actions – a tool that made its way into the context menu in May 2025 and… quickly began to annoy users there.
AI Actions is removed from the menu. Finally, it can be hidden
From version Windows 11 build 26220.7344, every user can disable AI Actions with a single click. Microsoft has finally met the community's requests, which has long complained that the feature is unnecessary, unsightly, and often displays blank fields in an already overloaded context menu. To disable it, just go to:
Settings → Apps → Actions
Here you can uncheck all integrations – including for Photos, Paint, or Teams.
From this point forward, AI Actions becomes completely optional. If you want it, leave it. If you don't want it, it disappears as if it never existed.
What exactly was AI Actions doing?
It was a set of quick AI-based tools, such as:
image search in Bing,
background blur in the Photos app,
removing objects from a photo,
background removal in Paint.
In theory: convenient. In practice: many people didn't want these options visible, especially if they didn't use Microsoft services on a daily basis.
Context menu to get more organisation
Disabling AI Actions is not the only change. Microsoft has also started tidying up other parts of the context menu:
a new submenu for files has been added, combining functions such as Compress to… and Copy as path,
all options related to OneDrive have been placed in a single category,
the aim of these changes is to simplify usage and eliminate the "cluttered" interface, which has long been one of the main criticisms of Windows 11.
This is a step in the right direction – users have more control, and the menu starts to look less like a noticeboard and more like a tool.
Unfortunately: Windows 11 is still drowning in errors
Although Microsoft is improving interface elements, the biggest problem remains unchanged. Windows 11 still experiences serious crashes, and subsequent updates often generate new errors. The most annoying problems concern:
File Explorer,
Start menu,
XAML-based applications - which are precisely the ones crucial for everyday use of the system.
Microsoft claims that the errors mainly affect corporate environments and to a limited extent. However, user reports from various regions indicate that the problems are not so marginal at all.
Summary: small victory, but the road is long
The ability to turn off AI Actions is a good and long-awaited change. Users are finally regaining control over what they see in the context menu. Microsoft is starting to listen to community feedback — and that's encouraging. At the same time, it’s hard not to notice that Windows 11 still struggles with fundamental bugs that the giant has been unable to fix for many months. As long as these issues remain, cosmetic fixes will be merely a stopgap.
Source: ithardware
