How to get rid of useless keys in Windows and turn them into something helpful In the era of laptops and tenkeyless keyboards, many of us are living with fewer keys than we had years ago. But even on a small keyboard, you'll find keys that you just don't need. The Copilot key on many new laptops is a great example of hype over help. And in 2025, how many of us still use Scroll Lock, type with Caps Lock …
I still don't understand how Microshaft can hijack keyboard keys for their own self-serving crap. Any keyboard (or laptop) that arrived with it (copilot key) on would be rejected by me and returned to seller. FFS. Just a matter of principle you understand, as I don't use Microshaft crap of any description. Any other keys that are generally unused are, at least, generic.
Micros~1 hijacked the keyboard 30 years ago when Windows and Menu keys appeared on both side of space bar. People have taken Windows keyboards for granted quite some time now. Are you returning those keyboards as well?
What this article doesn't say it that Micros~1 is apparently replacing the Menu key with this Copilot key which is a Really Stupid Idea. I use the Menu key all the time in many applications and I'd expect many others use it as well. Should I end up with a Copilot key in my computer I would expect to remap it as well. (unless Copilot gets useful - very unlikely)
My choice of keyboard remapping software is PowerToys which comes with couple other enhancements I really dig as well.
Oh I'm so absolutely fed up of the context menu key disappearing from various places the past few years. I'm already used to mapping that to something unused, though I've noticed doing so can sometimes make the resultant context menu appear in a slightly different place on-screen to where it would have otherwise. Laptops have been bad for removing the key for ages, but the keyboard that I bought recently also had nothing mapped to it and I had to poach one of the unused "option" keys to get a keycap that made any sort of sense for it.
You can blame it on Microsoft's Natural Keyboard released on 1994 that had a Windows key. With Windows 95 becoming a big hit everyone and they mothet copied the stupid Windows key and here we are today with useless pilot and other stupid keys that most people actually don't use.
"I still don't understand how Microshaft can hijack keyboard keys for their own self-serving crap."
They can't, and they haven't.
Did you not read the fine article? You are in charge of the keys on your PC keyboard, not Redmond. Or Cupertino, for that matter. Or RedHat. Or Ubuntu. I've been remapping the keys on my keyboards since the early days of DOS ... For example, I can't remember ever using my personal computer without the useless CAPS key being remapped to <CTRL> (I use a Model M, and have since they hit the market)).
I hate Microsoft as much as anyone (maybe more), but don't blame them for your own failures. That's a cop-out.
Not on MS but *nix. Got myself a new lappie recently, which came with W11 (never booted, immediate dd), and that one too has ever more "special" keys that seem to have been supplied to increase my intelligence.
Funny thing though: when I run xev to get their specifics so I can reassign, I get nothing back at all. A key press just does nothing. Generates no xev response. So it is not resting. It's dead. Bereft of life. A stiff. Gone to meet its maker.
Anybody here seen this before? Suggestions to have that key join the happy family (again)?
Unfortunately because the copilot key is a macro and not a keycode sending key, none of the remapping methods actually work properly. In many cases the key still does it's stupid thing even with it disabled through various remapping methods. At least when they added the windows and meny keys they assigned keycodes which meant you could map them to whatever you wanted since they were normal keys. I have it configured to do nothing, but if I accidentally hit the copilot key instead of alt when trying to hit say alt+c, I get color picker and copilot launched because of the idiotic combination of keys actually being sent when you hit the copilot key. It is stupid, and should never ever have been done.
Thanks, @https://www.theregister.com/Author/Avram-Piltch - My work laptop has a compact keyboard, with half-sized arrow keys so I frequently hit PgUp or PgDn while trying to use them. Those keys are getting disabled now...
I use a lot of Ctrl- keyboard shortcuts, but Ctrl-P is getting repurposed using AutoHotkey too...
"I frequently hit PgUp or PgDn while trying to use [the arrow keys]. Those keys are getting disabled now..."
Even better, remap each one to the arrow key you're typically aiming for. That way, whichever key you end up hitting will give the desired effect.
I've done something similar, and for the same reason. I remapped F1 to be another Escape key, because I'm a vim user who got tired of help screens popping up at inopportune times.
Keyboards are getting annoying, especially USA ones sold as UK, because they have one less key.
On Linux I have CapsLock as Compose and the WIn Key allows dragging a window, but otherwise a waste of space. The Windows Menu Key is mouse Right Click Context Menu.
Fortunately I don't have a keyboard with a Copilot key,
The Chromebook Keyboard is far more annoying than anything else with its lack of keys. Especially with Linux programs.
There were better layouts than what IBM chose for PC, which dates to 19th C. typewriters via teletypes (not much change on US Layout 1928 to 1978).
On Wordprocessors the Tab key ought to be next word navigation by default and not tab character.
Scroll should toggle between normal web or text editing (which is a scroll) and paginated.
A wonderful Microsoft world is the old Windows versions, I've been using them originally when Windows appeared and now have several laptops running Windows 7, all working perfectly with no problems and working with the old Office versions everything is easy with no problems.
The only problems I've seen for years now have been Microsoft updates, so I've stopped all updates to continue keeping everything working so much better than the current world.
I use Scroll Lock to read stuff that's gone off the top of the screen while in console mode, in X Windows I use CapsLock as the Compose key and in both modes emacs uses Insert to toggle between insert and overwrite.
Windows? I've heard of it. Never actually used it.
Keyboards with the full complement of function keys are still available brand new from Unicomp—but F13‒F24 emit a modifier and F1‒12 rather than the actual USB keycode, possibly because 5250 emulators don't support a 122-key keyboard. Perhaps you could get a custom board that does; you could definitely buy a keyboard and roll your own controller for maximum fidelity, rendering the icon choice even more apropos.
I have both a Linux and a Windows machines.
The Linux desktop allows defining a 'compose' key, which is fine when you prefer a qwerty keyboard for programming but use accent letter within your native language.
And on Windows, I installed WinCompose to get the same feature.
Et voilà ! ©
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2025
