back to article Windows keyboards to get a Copilot key – but how quickly will users jump?

Microsoft says a Copilot key will be coming to Windows 11 PCs, oddly exciting fanatics but confounding some others. Pressing the button will invoke the "Copilot Experience," according to Microsoft. The addition of the Windows key some three decades ago was the last time the company fiddled with keyboard hardware. The addition …

  1. This post has been deleted by its author

  2. OhForF' Silver badge
    Coffee/keyboard

    If i wanted to use something like Cortana or Copilot i'd be able to download and install a program or application (1) - no need to force that on me when i install the OS or an (security?) update to it.

    If i want to look at the latest news as aggregated by Micros~1 i am perfectly able to start the browser of my choice and point it to msn news - no need for any app feed in my taskbar.

    The worst offence is when they insist on preinstalled apps to show me the local weather - i can get way more current and accurate weather information by looking out the old fashined non computerized window.

    Are the decision makers at Micros~1 really stupid enough to believe i am going to pay for a new keyboard just to have a new button to more comfortably start Copilot?

    (1)Still haven't figured out the difference between a program and an application.

    1. NightFox

      "Are the decision makers at Micros~1 really stupid enough to believe i am going to pay for a new keyboard just to have a new button to more comfortably start Copilot?"

      No, but they believe as use of AI gets more commonplace, buyers of new computers are potentially going to be more inclined to favour a keyboard that provides instant access - and if that's part of the hardware it gives MS opportunity to link the key to CoPilot as the default, knowing that a large number of personal users will leave it at that, in the same way that they continue to use Edge as the default browser and the majority of iPhone users continue to use Google as their search engine.

      1. Little Mouse

        We've already seen plenty of keyboards that had dedicated buttons for applications that the average user actually gives a shit about - "Internet", Email, Etc. But those buttons never got used. By anyone. Ever.

        It's a dead-end idea from MS, and not even an original one at that.

        1. Julian 8

          One of my Logi ones has a "power" button that I frequently press. I now have paper wedged under them all to stop them from being pressed

          1. J. Cook Silver badge

            Yup; when I still had a logi keyboard, I ended up doing that with the power/sleep button.

            For various reasons, I'm using a different keyboard altogether now (a Keychron K8, which I'm much more pleased with.)

            1. cyberdemon Silver badge
              Coffee/keyboard

              All modern TV controllers

              Seem to come with a sodding Netflix button these days

              It's just bribery, isn't it?

              Hey logitech/ducky/dell/lenovo, redesign your keyboards for our new advertising campaign new killer feature that everyone will want to buy your keyboards for!

              We'll erm, make it worth your while.

          2. Martin-73 Silver badge

            that is not a bad idea, i usually end up tearing the keys off

          3. Alumoi Silver badge
            Joke

            Old man. 3D print yourself a nice cap that goes over that stupid row of media, mail, internet, power and whatever keys.

            1. MrDamage

              Duct tape works too.

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          My thinking is why add a specific button when you could have a key combo? I reckon "ctrl-C" would suit copilot pretty well, or perhaps "Alt-F4"...

        3. Richard 12 Silver badge

          Dedicated "Launch" keys are useful, as long as I get to choose what they launch.

          Eg I like having a hardkey to launch Calculator.

          You probably want something else.

          1. LybsterRoy Silver badge

            Autohotkey works for me.

          2. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

            Useful for some, no doubt. I've never had any use for them. I either ignore them or remap them.

            My personal laptop has that stupid Menu button mapped as the dead key for Wincompose, for example. (My work laptop doesn't have a Menu button, so I've remapped Alt-Right on that one. While I use menu accelerators frequently, I find the left Alt key suffices for that.)

            1. John PM Chappell

              I remap the "menu" key to Wincompose, too. It's the only actually useful thing I have ever found to do with it.

      2. Flocke Kroes Silver badge

        Re: they believe as use of AI gets more commonplace ...

        Another lawyer is in trouble for citing AI hallucinated cases. ChatGPT is getting even worse at diagnosis.

        It is hard to tell if this copilot button idea was sourced from AI - Micros~1 have a long history of stunning ideas that predate modern LLMs. Perhaps they will next change the name to 'Autopilot' to cash in on the association with self driving cars.

    2. hoola Silver badge

      Or better still simply not bother. Why do I need a Co-pilot key that pops up some screen where I can type in a question and get shite back for an answer?

      One could say there are already too many keys on a keyboard........

      1. yetanotheraoc Silver badge

        too many keys

        Indeed, far in the future your keyboard will have only one key, for summoning the AI.

      2. Dave559

        too many keys

        If I could go all meta for a moment, it sounds like you don't think this is a particularly super idea, and you'll be following Public Enemy's advice to "Don't believe the hyper"?

        (On the other hand, perhaps this recreation of "everything old is new again" might raise a slight smile (and some ancient muscle memory) among the remaining old space cadet hackers… Me, I'm still impatiently waiting for the <compose> key to become standard on keyboards again, although at least this otherwise useless new key would give another choice of key to map it to!)

    3. Alumoi Silver badge

      A program is a piece of software you wrote yourself. An application is a piece of software somebody else wrote and is asking you money for it.

      BTW, what's the difference between directories and folders?

      1. Falmari Silver badge

        @Alumoi Nice one :)

        The way I look at it program is a generic term, application is a specific term for a type of program. An application is a program but a program is not necessarily an application. A service would be a program but I would not call it an application.

        I would class an application as a program the user choses to call and interact with.

        "BTW, what's the difference between directories and folders?" An Icon? ;)

      2. doublelayer Silver badge

        "BTW, what's the difference between directories and folders?"

        The level of abstraction involved in the name. Both are pretty abstract, but "folder" was intended to represent to the user what the thing does, and "directory" was intended to represent to the user how the thing worked. The concept that they're doing is identical.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Actually a directory, directs you somewhere. It is not the place itself.

          Folder is correct usage for the place stuff goes.

          Directory is not correct usage.

          "dir" is correct, since it prints out a directory.

          Unix directories do not contain files. Instead, they contain the names of files paired with references to so-called inodes, which in turn contain both the file and its metadata (owner, permissions, time of last access, etc., but no name).

          So it was correct usage for the people who wrote unix, but it is not correct usage for modern man who regards them as the place files are kept.

          </ped>

          1. doublelayer Silver badge

            That's what I was saying. Folder represents the abstract concept at the user level because folders appear to contain files and more folders. Directory represents the abstract concept at the developer level because directories contain the name and location of other things. Both are abstractions to some degree because the directory is actually a linked list of strings which are serializations of objects which contain strings and integers which refer to filesystem-relative locations which are translated into disk-specific information* which can be used to locate linked lists of strings which can be concatenated to produce the big string the user put there before, but nobody wants to deal with the concept on that level unless they have to.

            * Or sometimes there are more levels in the middle, such as virtual disks, RAID arrays, filesystem redundancy, etc. Either abstraction is much nicer.

            1. Hugo Rune
              Coffee/keyboard

              I prefer Workbench Drawers.

          2. Updraft102

            They were called directories or subdirectories long before the iconic metaphor of a file folder was in common use. 'Folder' could not have been the "correct" term back then, obviously, as it wasn't a term at all in that context. The term that was correct back then was not just for the people who wrote Unix... it was widely understood across the industry.

            When GUIs came along, the file folder was used as a visual metaphor for the intangible concept of a subdirectory, but that did not change or invalidate the term "subdirectory" or "directory." Words mean what they mean, and these words already had established meanings that are equally as valid now, as that part of a filesystem has not changed. The term "Folder" is a higher-level abstraction of a subdirectory within a GUI shell. The thing it represents is still the same it has always been.

            If you're going to suggest that the GUI-related terms are somehow more correct than the established terms for which they are metaphors, then the term "directory" isn't something that directs anyone anywhere. It's not a term at all when it comes to GUIs. The GUI term for a list of files within a given folder is "file list" or something similar. Thus, if the term "directory" is used, it means what it meant before. The reason it was ever called a "directory" in the first place is neatly explained by the bit you cited. It still means the same now.

      3. J.G.Harston Silver badge

        A folder is a visual metaphor for a directory.

    4. nijam Silver badge

      > Still haven't figured out the difference between a program and an application.

      Having grown up in a family of medics, I can tell you that an application is a cream or ointment (usually having an upleasant colour or texture) applied topically.

  3. TrevorH

    *This* is what counts as innovation at Microsoft?

    1. Tom Chiverton 1 Silver badge

      Their afraid to touch the actual Windows code base in case they break WiFi or install printer nagware you don't need again.

    2. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      It just deletes Firefox and Chrome, sets Edge as your default browser and then subscribes you to O365

      1. xyz Silver badge

        Tsk tsk.... Edge is now AI browser (on mobile for now). Keep up at the back!

        1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

          They haven't renames it Explorer then ?

    3. Dan 55 Silver badge

      It was innovation in the late 90s (left windows, right windows, menu key, multimedia buttons, Internet buttons), so the same magic must work now!

    4. Steve Button Silver badge

      Let's be fair, Apple have been doing this for years. They have a sort of broken infinity and a +/- key, which I've never bothered to figure out what they hell it's supposed to be for.

      At least they let you remap CAPSLOCK to Ctrl though, where it should be to avoid overstretching the left pinky finger.

  4. Pascal Monett Silver badge
    Windows

    You need to ask the question ?

    How quickly will I jump ? I will jump as fast as I can - away from it.

    Here's a thought, Nadella : how about you suggest to everyone to modify the standard Windows keyboard to include, for example, six new keys disposed vertically on the left-hand side of the keyboard - keys that are user-definable. And provide a program that allows the user to choose what sequence of keys, or what pre-determined function the user could assign to which one of those keys. You could then include "Launch CoPilot" as one of the possible options.

    Wouldn't that be revolutionary ? Wouldn't that be empowering the user ? (hint: Logitech has already done it).

    Oh, silly me. You don't want to empower the user. You just want to empower your bonuses.

  5. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

    I look forward to the day when such keyboards are regarded as historical curiosities.

  6. Julian 8

    hands off the Ctrl key

    Leave the keyboards alone you retards.

    If you insist on doing it, do it as an FN function above another key, so I can happily ignore it knowing I will never press the key combo

    I wonder how long it will before the likes of Logi come out with a range with the copilot key realise it is not selling as everyone buys the no copilot version and drops it.

    1. Chet Mannly

      Re: hands off the Ctrl key

      110%

      As a lefty please stay the h*ll away from the right ctrl key!

  7. Ron1
    Coat

    Please return PgUp, PgDn, Home, End first

    Most laptops today lack dedicated PgUp, PgDn, Home, End keys - copying Apple, no doubt. ThinkPads are among the rare keyboards to still have these keys.

    Before adding new keys, please return the standard keys!

    Getting my coat with the missing keys in the pocket...

    1. Paul Herber Silver badge

      Re: Please return PgUp, PgDn, Home, End first

      Don't let them fob you off.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Please return PgUp, PgDn, Home, End first

      There should be at least dedicated buttons for Volume Up, Volume Down, and Mute.

      (instead of having to find and stretch out fingers between F'n and an F'Key to do so)

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Please return PgUp, PgDn, Home, End first

        I've got an annoying Dell laptop that you have to hold down the function key to get the "F1-F12" keys... Very annoying because I use software which assigns specific things to those keys (Zoom, pan, tilt, resize object to fit screen area etc...)

        1. yetanotheraoc Silver badge

          Re: Please return PgUp, PgDn, Home, End first

          `hold down the function key to get the "F1-F12" keys`

          Should be switchable in the BIOS. And switchable on the keyboard as well. On my keyboard the Fn+Esc combination is described as Fn Lock but is more like Fn Reverse Polarity.

        2. MrDamage

          Re: Please return PgUp, PgDn, Home, End first

          You can change that behaviour in the BIOS.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Please return PgUp, PgDn, Home, End first

        Apple has had those for years. Sure, you can press the fn key to have those do f10, f11, and f12, but nobody ever does that because nobody has used function keys since the WordPutrid days.

        1. MrDamage

          Re: Please return PgUp, PgDn, Home, End first

          >> "Apple has had those for years. Sure, you can press the fn key to have those do f10, f11, and f12, but nobody ever does that because nobody has used function keys since the WordPutrid days."

          And Apple fanbois wonder why we laugh at them when they ask for help on gaming forums.

  8. Omnipresent Bronze badge

    Anyone else notice?

    All the grammatical errors in major online publications like cnn lately? Even top breaking headlines will be embarrassingly missing or doubling words. Wonder why THAT would be?

  9. elsergiovolador Silver badge

    AI

    Isn't it where this is going? They are going to train their models on your data using your resources and you will be paying for it.

  10. Kurgan

    Another idiotic key to avoid

    Nice, another idiotic key to avoid. Useless and also probably hitting it by mistake will screw you while gaming, for example.

    1. Dan 55 Silver badge

      Re: Another idiotic key to avoid

      Perhaps a missing right alt/ctrl key to fit this new key in will screw you more while gaming. Or speaking a language where right alt/ctrl have different key selection functions to left alt/ctrl.

      1. Andy Non Silver badge

        Re: Another idiotic key to avoid

        I was annoyed when keyboards introduced the Windows key, right in the way of the keys I used when playing Doom. Took some time to relearn the required muscle memory, but it definitely reduced my gaming speed. Don't think I've ever even used the Windows key in all the years since... Just pressed it now... it brings up the menu on Linux Mint. :-)

        1. Falmari Silver badge

          Re: Another idiotic key to avoid

          I like the Windows key and use it regularly (win 7 - win 11), it fits the way I work with the start menu. I never use the start menu to launch programs as they can be difficult to find depending on how the developer chose to list the program. By program name, company name program name or in a sub folder with a suite name.

          So the programs I use regularly are pinned to the taskbar and for the ones that aren't I press the Windows key which brings up the start menu with focus in the search box. I then start typing the name of the program I want to run. A couple of letters is normally all that's required to find the program, much quicker than trying to find the program in the menu.

          Under Win 7, Win 10 and even Win 8 it worked great, yet MS have managed make it worse with Win 11 as now the search pulls up crap from the web unless you click the app button to restrict search to the start menu. But still quicker than clicking apps and then scrolling the start menu.

          That's right they have managed to make it worse than Win 8!

          1. J.G.Harston Silver badge

            Re: Another idiotic key to avoid

            "they can be difficult to find depending on how the developer chose to list the program."

            And what the **** has where the developer chosen to put something got to do with anything. It's *YOUR* Start Menu, put it where *YOU* want it.

            All my office tools go in Programs -> Office regardless of who wrote them, all my programming tools go in Programs -> Programming regardless of who wrote them, all my disk tools go in Programs -> Disk&File regardless of who wrote them, all my Internet apps go in Programs -> Internet regardless of who wrote them.

            1. Falmari Silver badge

              Re: Another idiotic key to avoid

              @J.G.Harston "It's *YOUR* Start Menu, put it where *YOU* want it." +1

              That's exactly what I did for a short while in Win 95 (home) and NT4 (work). I created folders in Programs, Dev Tools, games, etc and moved the shortcuts into them. I stopped doing that because of the install/uninstall problems moving the shortcuts caused.

              Uninstalling a program at best would not remove the shortcuts, at worst it would fail and rollback the uninstall. Upgrading to a later version of a program at best would have two menu items mine and and one chosen by the developer, at worst it would fail to install and rollback the uninstall.

              Actually the worst scenario would be the uninstall part would fail and not rollback leaving a partially uninstalled program. So I just gave up organising my start menu and resorted to find/search for the difficult to spot programs and now it is just second nature for me to ignore the start menu and search.

              Even today that problem of not finding a moved shortcut must still exist. It does with MSI the choice would be skip the unfound shortcut and carry on or rollback.

    2. elsergiovolador Silver badge

      Re: Another idiotic key to avoid

      Can't be more idiotic than having power button right next to backspace as I had it in one of keyboards at work.

  11. The Insuranator

    Great idea, but,,,

    I want a cardboard keyboard overlay instead so I can relive the good old days.

    1. David 132 Silver badge
      Happy

      Re: Great idea, but,,,

      Next Kickstarter idea - a 102-key PC keyboard manufactured in the style and colour scheme of the ZX Spectrum rubber keyboard. Or even the ZX81's membrane keyboard for real masochists!

      1. NotJustAStorageDude

        Re: Great idea, but,,,

        I’d love a QL style mech keyboard ;-)

      2. Dan 55 Silver badge

        Re: Great idea, but,,,

        Someone already tried that but it didn't get off the ground.

  12. Roland6 Silver badge

    Once again MS generating more unnecessary E-Waste…

    Let’s hope sensible governments/political unions demand MS process all the E-waste this will generate.

    Also give the “right to repair”, surely, this should be just a simple key cap replacement or even just a remap of one of the Fn keys.

    Personally, given what MS have done to the W11 menus, I am a little surprised they haven’t simply made Co-Pilot the default initial behaviour of the Windows key; requiring users to use a second key press or mouse to gain access to the previously normal functionality…

    1. Alumoi Silver badge

      Re: Once again MS generating more unnecessary E-Waste…

      Ye Gods, you had to say it out loud!

    2. Steven Raith

      Re: Once again MS generating more unnecessary E-Waste…

      "Personally, given what MS have done to the W11 menus, I am a little surprised they haven’t simply made Co-Pilot the default initial behaviour of the Windows key; requiring users to use a second key press or mouse to gain access to the previously normal functionality…"

      If they had any confidence in it, that's exactly what they would do - make Windows the "AI first" operating system

      That they aren't is fairly telling.

      Steven R

  13. El Duderino
    Linux

    Damn, I'll miss out on all that goodness

    After having switched completely to Linux Mint Cinnamon last summer to get rid of all the MS spyware, 'updates' (ha ha ha) and other bollocks.

    1. ITS Retired
      Linux

      Re: Damn, I'll miss out on all that goodness

      I did the same years ago. My keyboard is an IBM model M. Never did like the windows keys. Never used, or missed them, even when still working.

  14. Missing Semicolon Silver badge
    Happy

    Ha! Another key

    ... that I can remap to something useful!

  15. 0laf Silver badge
    Thumb Down

    Right now

    So it's appeared on my W11 laptop. We have it at work.

    TBH it's as good as Bing search. Which is shit.

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    placement would vary by OEM - Oh do fuck off

    just that really.

    Most of my time dealing with ****ing phones these days is trying to find out where the cunts have hidden or moved the features to. (That is of course assuming they haven't simply removed it).

    Case in hand was trying to find the slow charging setting on a Samsung. Even their support bod refused to believe it wasn't where they were telling me.

  17. Slions

    Out of touch

    The execs at Microsoft... Looking forward to see what their keyboards will look like if they add a new key every time they try to promote a new app.

    Meanwhile I've been using a giant Android tablet as a PC keyboard for almost a year and it's fair to say I'm never going back to physical keyboards.

    Still I wonder which HID usage code they will be using for it?

    Also saying keyboards have not changed in 30 years is rubbish. What about the whole media and app keys, pretty sure a lot of that happened since the Windows key.

  18. aerogems Silver badge
    IT Angle

    Cart Before The Horse?

    I'm largely ambivalent towards AI, but this just seems like Microsoft is putting the cart before the horse. There still hasn't been a single "killer app" type use for AI. It's still largely just a way of automating really complex tasks. There's little to no use cases for it that apply to the average user. I just can't shake the idea that this is a bunch of middle and upper managers at MS who have been there since the company made the huge tactical blunder regarding the Internet, and this is just a case of FOMA. Just like before, Microsoft is overcompensating in the hopes of catching up, only this time they're not really behind, they just seem to think they are or are deathly afraid they'll fall behind.

    They want to use a ML program to help fuzz the Windows codebase looking for security flaws... great! They want to use ML to sift through all the telemetry data they collect to identify common usage patterns among users to help focus their development efforts... go for it! But for Bobby and Susy Office Worker, what exactly does AI bring to the table? I can get useless search results even faster? What's in it for me and the millions of other average users?

    1. doublelayer Silver badge

      Re: Cart Before The Horse?

      "But for Bobby and Susy Office Worker, what exactly does AI bring to the table? I can get useless search results even faster? What's in it for me and the millions of other average users?"

      If you need to write an email but don't want to be bothered thinking or typing, then you can use this to create a message that looks like it answers a question but really doesn't. If the person you are sending it to isn't bothering to read it, then you've saved yourself some time. Otherwise, you'll end up looking like a person either being deliberately unhelpful or someone with reading comprehension problems. That appears to be the use case for office workers that AI companies have thought of. I'm sure some people will try doing that. I didn't say it would be a good thing.

      1. aerogems Silver badge
        Thumb Up

        Re: Cart Before The Horse?

        Actually, as someone whose career often has me answering stupid questions from people, that is actually a good one. Instead of an obvious stock response, it could be "tailored" a little to repeat back some of what the person said and make it seem like I give a shit. I can only upvote you once, but have an extra thumbs up NFT ------>

  19. Jason Hindle Silver badge

    Filed under oh FFS!

    The post is required, and must contain letters.

  20. ldo

    I Can Remember Back When Spacebars Were Wider

    Back in the days when there were fewer modifier keys, space bars were real space bars, worthy of being called “bars”, not the shrunken little things we have to put up with these days.

    Pity this is not a modifier key. Otherwise it could stand in for “hyper”, which is the only remaining Emacs modifier key (or is that X11?) that does not yet have its own key.

    1. Dan 55 Silver badge

      Re: I Can Remember Back When Spacebars Were Wider

      If you want to see how much the space bar could shrink have a look at a Japanese 109-key layout. If MS plugs a few more apps we'll be the same way.

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Fck ths sht

    There, I think I captured the general reg sentiment.

    Although if I’m honest it’s probably more the sentiment of legacy Inq user base who have nowhere else to go.

  22. JimmyPage

    Still, the great thing about keyboards ...

    is they are probably the most replaceable part of a system. And I already have a cache of perfectly functional Dell and HP keyboards accrued from *years* of hoarding.

  23. upsidedowncreature

    Decades ago?

    "The addition of the Windows key some three decades ago was the last time the company fiddled with keyboard hardware. "

    Really? Didn't they add the fantastically useful emoji key in 2019?

    https://www.tomshardware.com/news/emoji-key-featured-on-microsofts-latest-keyboards

    1. Dan 55 Silver badge

      Re: Decades ago?

      Unlike the Windows/Menu/multimedia/internet keys of yore, the Emoji key does send not a unique scancode so it's not a real key, it just sends a bunch of left keys + Space and the OS interprets it.

      change emoji key to ctrl in Microsoft designer keyboard with autohotkey

      Hopefully the AI key will do something similar instead of getting its own scancode, making it easier to ignore in the future... it might even just send Left Windows + c.

  24. cookieMonster Silver badge
    Trollface

    Lucky windows users

    are getting a clippy key

  25. FirstTangoInParis Bronze badge

    Shortcuts are an abomination

    I’m constantly bashing some key combination by accident and Windows decides I wanted to do something completely unrelated to what I’m actually doing. If I’m part way through typing a sentence at some speed, would I really want to do that? Perhaps the AI can sort that for me?

    I’ve always wanted a menu option to turn ALL keyboard shortcuts off.

  26. hoopsa

    Combine it with the what key?

    I use the Menu key so rarely I'd actually forgotten that it existed, and had to check my keyboard when the article mentioned it. Might now look into remapping it to something useful so thanks for the reminder!

  27. navarac Silver badge

    What right has Microsoft got?

    Why would Microsoft think that they have the right to dictate what keys are on computer keyboard. Windows key, Co-pilot key - what next? Microsoft does not own the right to inflict "their" keys on us.

    1. doublelayer Silver badge

      Re: What right has Microsoft got?

      They're not dictating it, they're just asking people to do it and those people are following the request. Maybe they're paying for it, maybe not, but you're treating this as a more significant action than it is. We all have that right. If you can convince people who make keyboards to put on another key and they do it, then we will have a new key.

  28. StudeJeff

    What is this Windows key...?

    On both my work and home desktops I use IBM Model M keyboards from the 90's.

    On occasion the Windows key comes in handy on machines so equipped, but somehow I've gotten by without it... and I'll get by without a Microsoft AI key.

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