This feels exactly like back in the early 2000s when I used to physically rip the windows key off my keyboard because I’d accidentally hit it when playing a game and it’d mess everything up.
A new Copilot key to kick off the year of AI-powered Windows PCs
21–30 of 88 posts
Re: A new Copilot key to kick off the year of AI-powered Windows PCs
#22Unless it can be used as a more or less generic modifier key, I don't really see the point of a key dedicated to this one function. The placement on the keyboard in the photo would suggest that either the space bar is shrunk down or one of the keys to its right is removed to accommodate the new key. That doesn't seem optimal to me. Maybe the dedicated context menu key can be removed, which is equally useless as it replaces just a single mouse click (and feels less predictable than that click, as it's not as obvious where the menu will appear).
Ignoring the marketeer drivel of how "excited" they are and how a single key on a keyboard would make AI any more useful, I have to wonder how many people would actually use it. People who see AI as a threat or distrust it (or just don't think it has a place in an OS) will likely ignore it, disable it, or be annoyed by it. People who are enthusiastic about it would probably be just as likely to simply put it in a prominent spot on the task bar for easy access.
Feels like, just because ChatGPT and Dall-E etc are the "hot (semi-)new thing", this is just an effort to jump on to that bandwagon. I wouldn't be surprised if Copilot (at least insofar as it is integrated in Windows) will meet the same fate as Cortana.
As a practical question (I've not got Win11 and haven't experienced Copilot on there): what does it [i.e. Copilot] actually bring to the Windows desktop experience? Does it make anything more efficient, easier or more discoverable? I can't for the life of me think of a reason I'd need an AI to do any of the stuff I use my desktop OS for. At least the Bing chatbot (while creepy) in Skype makes some sense for the interface, but that doesn't seem to have its tendrils deep into the OS.
Re: A new Copilot key to kick off the year of AI-powered Windows PCs
#23Neat! Hopefully this means we get an extra remappable key on Linux!
Knowing Microsoft they'll probably rebind their Office key/right Windows key rather than adding a new key to the keyboard. I'm honestly a bit surprised we're still not seeing the emoji key on more keyboards, given how popular emoji are. Do that many people use the right Windows key? Or even the AltGr key in English-speaking locales?
Winkey-fullstop is the Windows shortcut. It’s close enough.
Re: A new Copilot key to kick off the year of AI-powered Windows PCs
#24Seems like finally the year of the linux desktop has come.
Re: A new Copilot key to kick off the year of AI-powered Windows PCs
#25Neat! Hopefully this means we get an extra remappable key on Linux!
Knowing Microsoft they'll probably rebind their Office key/right Windows key rather than adding a new key to the keyboard. I'm honestly a bit surprised we're still not seeing the emoji key on more keyboards, given how popular emoji are. Do that many people use the right Windows key? Or even the AltGr key in English-speaking locales?
It seems that is exactly what they've done just looking at the prop image in the video.
Re: A new Copilot key to kick off the year of AI-powered Windows PCs
#26MS has previously been experimenting with replacing Right Windows and Context keys (with Office and Emoji keys): https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/11/20909475/microsoft-offic... Copilot key doesn't sound all that useful, but still will be much better than Office key
After having gone very far down the rabbit hole of custom keyboards and custom layouts, it's insane how slow innovation is around the "standard" keyboard. I get that backwards compatibility is of utmost importance, but surely we can do better than that.
Re: A new Copilot key to kick off the year of AI-powered Windows PCs
#27This feels exactly like back in the early 2000s when I used to physically rip the windows key off my keyboard because I’d accidentally hit it when playing a game and it’d mess everything up.
there were software solutions to this, even then.
I look forward to being able to remap this key to something that I don't associate with extreme fatigue. to me, a copilot button is like having an "advertisement" button, or something. absolutely useless.
Re: A new Copilot key to kick off the year of AI-powered Windows PCs
#28This reminds me of that video where LGR reviewed a keyboard with a PIZZA keyboard key. Probably more useful of a usecase than this really... (https://youtu.be/USQxZc9nmtE)
Re: A new Copilot key to kick off the year of AI-powered Windows PCs
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
I only have a left Windows key, in the right I have a menu key.
So that’s what that does. I have to press the FN key as modifier, and it does indeed open the menu. Never felt the need to press it before ;)
Shift-F10 is an alternative shortcut for the context menu as well.
Re: A new Copilot key to kick off the year of AI-powered Windows PCs
#30Thanks to perplexity it looks like they are adding a new key to the PC keyboard to open copilot. That's the summary I got.
They're replacing the right Windows key with a Copilot key.
that sucks. right-win + L quickly locks the computer. going to have to figure out an autohotkey solution for this.