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How to Turn Copilot Cowork on or off in Microsoft Edge on Windows 11

Copilot Cowork's action permission in Edge is a Settings toggle, but an administrator policy can lock it. Here is how to change it, how to recognize a locked setting, and how to tell it apart from a missing Copilot button.
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Copilot Cowork’s permission to take actions for you in Microsoft Edge is a Settings toggle: turn it on to let Cowork act on your behalf, or off to stop it. If the toggle is greyed out or cannot be changed, an administrator policy named CopilotCoworkToolActionsEnabled is almost certainly controlling it. Microsoft’s policy page does not spell out the exact Settings subpage or label for this toggle, so the steps below show how to find it rather than a fixed menu path.

Turn Cowork actions on or off in Edge

  1. Open Microsoft Edge and select Settings and more (the three-dot menu at the top right), then select Settings.
  2. Use the search box at the top of the Settings page and search for “Cowork” or “actions”. Microsoft’s documentation places the user control on the Settings page without naming the subpage, so if search returns nothing, browse the Copilot-related sections of Settings.
  3. Switch the Cowork action control on to allow Cowork to take actions on your behalf, or off to prevent them.
  4. Close and reopen Edge if the change does not appear to take effect, then confirm the state before relying on it.

When the setting is locked

If the control cannot be changed, the browser is probably managed by an organization. Microsoft’s policy page for CopilotCoworkToolActionsEnabled documents the two possible states:

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Policy state What the Settings page does Who can change it
Not configured The user can turn the setting on or off. The user
Configured to allow Cowork actions The setting is fixed on and cannot be changed on the Settings page. An administrator
Configured to block Cowork actions The setting is fixed off and cannot be changed on the Settings page. An administrator

Microsoft’s policy page states: “If you don’t configure this policy, users can turn this setting on or off on the Settings page.” The policy page lists Windows Edge version 152 or later as the supported version, so an older build may not honor it. To see what is applied, enter edge://policy in the address bar, select Show policies with no value only if you need unset entries, and search the page for CopilotCoworkToolActionsEnabled. If it appears there with a value, the setting is managed and the change has to come from the administrator who set it.

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When the Copilot button or sidebar is missing

A missing Copilot icon is a separate problem from the Cowork action permission. Microsoft’s troubleshooting guide for a missing Copilot icon or sidebar points to this sequence:

  1. Enter edge://settings/appearance/copilotAndSidebar in the address bar.
  2. Confirm that the sidebar is enabled and that Show Copilot button on the toolbar is turned on.
  3. Enter edge://policy and look for restrictions that affect the sidebar or Copilot.
  4. Update Edge, then check that your account, region, and work or school tenant support Copilot in Edge.

Restoring the icon does not confirm that Cowork actions are enabled. Check the action setting separately.

Controls that are easy to confuse

Edge and Microsoft 365 expose several switches that sound similar. They control different things, and changing one does not change the others.

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Control What it governs Who controls it Can an administrator lock it?
Cowork actions in Edge Whether Cowork may take actions for you in the browser You, unless a policy applies Yes, through CopilotCoworkToolActionsEnabled
Copilot button and sidebar Whether the Copilot entry point appears in Edge You, through edge://settings/appearance/copilotAndSidebar Yes, through policy
Allow Copilot to read context clues on the web Whether Copilot can use the current page, title, open tabs, or browsing history in its responses You, in Edge’s Copilot settings Not addressed in the cited support article
Cowork access and browser use for an organization Whether the organization can use Cowork and its browser capability at all Tenant administrator Administered at the tenant level

The context-clues setting is a privacy control. Microsoft’s Copilot in Edge getting-started article describes it as governing page and history context. It does not say it switches Cowork actions on or off, so do not use it as a substitute for the action setting.

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Requirements for Cowork in Edge

Microsoft’s Cowork setup article lists these prerequisites:

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  • An active Microsoft 365 Copilot license.
  • Cowork enabled in the Microsoft 365 environment.
  • Usage-based billing in place.

Cowork can be used in a browser and in other Microsoft Copilot apps, and Edge is the recommended modern browser. App access and Edge’s permission for Cowork to take actions are related but separate, so an account that can use Cowork in one place may still need the Edge action setting changed in another.

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Organization-managed Cowork

In organizations, Microsoft’s Cowork admin guide says access is granted through spending policies that select Cowork. A separate Cowork Browsing tenant setting turns browser use on or off for the organization, and Edge browsing policies continue to apply on top of it. If you are an end user and cannot change anything, the cause is more likely a policy than a missing license, but the administrator is the only person who can confirm which layer is in effect.

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Troubleshooting checklist

  1. Confirm you are signed in to the intended Edge profile, since settings are per profile.
  2. Open Edge Settings and search for the Cowork action control.
  3. If it is locked, open edge://policy, search for CopilotCoworkToolActionsEnabled, and ask your administrator to review it if the device or profile is managed.
  4. If the Copilot entry itself is absent, use edge://settings/appearance/copilotAndSidebar, then check policies, Edge updates, account type, region, and tenant enablement.
  5. Treat a missing icon and a disabled Cowork action permission as two separate problems.

Microsoft’s documentation was last updated for the policy page on 29 July 2026 and for the sidebar troubleshooting page on 12 March 2026. Edge interface labels change between releases, so if the Settings wording differs from the steps above, search the page for “Cowork” and “actions” rather than following a fixed path.

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