Microsoft Edge has evolved into a highly complex browser, featuring a prominent, permanent Sidebar located on the right-hand side of the screen. This sidebar houses quick access links to tools, shopping features, and most notably, the Microsoft Copilot AI assistant. While some users enjoy having an AI assistant permanently docked next to their web pages, many professionals find the colourful sidebar highly distracting and a waste of valuable screen real estate.
If you prefer a clean, minimalist browsing experience focused entirely on the webpage you are reading, rather than the browser’s built-in widgets, you can completely disable this right-hand sidebar and remove the Copilot button.
Disabling the Sidebar in Edge Settings
You can turn off the entire sidebar experience directly from the browser’s main settings menu.
- Open the Microsoft Edge browser on your computer.
- Look at the top-right corner of the window and click the three horizontal dots (the Settings and more menu).
- Scroll down the dropdown menu and select Settings.
- In the left-hand navigation sidebar of the Settings page, click on Sidebar.
- Under the “App and notification settings” section, locate the option labelled Always show sidebar.
- Click the toggle switch next to it to turn it Off.
The main sidebar containing the tools and shortcuts will immediately disappear. However, you may notice that the bright blue Copilot icon still remains anchored to the top-right corner of your browser.
Removing the Copilot Button
To completely sanitize your browser interface, you must remove the Copilot button as a separate step.
- While still in the Sidebar settings menu, look under the “App and notification settings” section again.
- Click on Copilot.
- You will see a setting labelled Show Copilot.
- Click the toggle switch next to it to turn it Off.
Your Microsoft Edge browser will now look like a traditional, clean web browser, with the entire right-hand side of your screen dedicated solely to the content of the websites you visit.