Copilot or else! (for OEMs...eventually)

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1_rick

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https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/202...oard-as-microsoft-adds-dedicated-copilot-key/

A quick Microsoft demo video shows the Copilot key in between the cluster of arrow keys and the right Alt button, a place where many keyboards usually put a menu button, a right Ctrl key, another Windows key, or something similar. The exact positioning, and the key being replaced, may vary depending on the size and layout of the keyboard.

We asked Microsoft if a Copilot key would be required on OEM PCs going forward; the company told us that the key isn't mandatory now, but that it expects Copilot keys to be required on Windows 11 keyboards "over time." Microsoft often imposes some additional hardware requirements on major PC makers that sell Windows on their devices, beyond what is strictly necessary to run Windows itself.
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Sounds awful, since it's not going to be reprogrammable (except probably on custom keyboards running software like QMK...although probably the number of those that add the Copilot key is probably going to hover around 0.)
 
I use the Windows key a bit. I never use the right click, menu button, or whatever you want to call it on the other side. If they replace that with something else I never use, I guess I wouldn't notice?
 
OFaceSIG said:
I use the Windows key a bit. I never use the right click, menu button, or whatever you want to call it on the other side. If they replace that with something else I never use, I guess I wouldn't notice?
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Fair enough. The question is, will the majority of people treat it the same way, or will MS convince them to use it? It kind of reminds me of the Bixby key on Samsung phones, when they were doing that.
 
1_rick said:
Fair enough. The question is, will the majority of people treat it the same way, or will MS convince them to use it? It kind of reminds me of the Bixby key on Samsung phones, when they were doing that.
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I wonder if they know few people are using that other key and are trying to make better use of the real estate? Also, Microsoft is desperately trying to make Windows more relevant and "wanted" with any new killer feature they can think of. If Co-Pilot becomes what Cortana never could, good for them. Windows being more popular benefits us all, I believe anyway. But only time will tell.
 
You have to love "the economics" (ship has sailed, we're all victims, so... just saying).

Let's say "the value" of my "search" is worth "one virtual dollar". And I make 1,000 searches a day. So, I got 1,000 virtual dollars of benefit.... which is "good".

But let's say in terms of real money, the entity behind my "search" makes a quarter of a dollar for every 100 searches, then multiplied out to billions of searches across the planet everyday, etc... Anyway, you can see the inequity of "give and take". Not saying that "good business" in general doesn't strive for "same", it's just that the difference in this case is absolutely ridiculously huge. We are all "feeding the machine".

Remember, that verbal only conversation you had with your friends last night resulted in targeted ads in your "feed" (whatever) this morning. (Hey) Google, Alexa, Siri, etc. only work if they are constantly "listening".

Indeed, we are sheep.

"AI" (quotes intentional).... might be for something else.... you know?
 
1_rick said:
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/202...oard-as-microsoft-adds-dedicated-copilot-key/



Sounds awful, since it's not going to be reprogrammable (except probably on custom keyboards running software like QMK...although probably the number of those that add the Copilot key is probably going to hover around 0.)
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The F1 key causes help menus to open up on a few pieces of software we use in engineering dept, this opening menu is obnoxious and wastes time, most of us just pop that key out of the keyboard. Dont really see it being that hard to do for this key once they do that. Used to do that for win key on my keyboards before it was just a quick click to disable.
 
Hopefully it will be open task manager to kill an errant procces faster than I've been able to manage since Vista.
 
I have made it to 2024 without even once using anything AI. (well, I did experiment with "stable diffusion" once for about 10 minutes. I didn't like it)

I'm hoping to extend that to making it to my grave without even once using anything AI.

Co-pilot will not change that. "I refuse".

The only thing that keeps me ever using any Microsoft product at all these days is my work machine, which I sadly do not control. Everything else I either already have transitioned to Linux, or could if I had to.

(actually, the one remaining thing I use Windows for is games. I haven't transitioned that over to Linux yet, but I am totally thinking about it)

Microsoft just seems to be trying their damnedest to make me hate their products more and more every year.
 
1_rick said:
Sounds awful, since it's not going to be reprogrammable (except probably on custom keyboards running software like QMK...although probably the number of those that add the Copilot key is probably going to hover around 0.)
Click to expand...

I don't know. Hopefully there will be a registry hack to make it disappear, much like how I never saw Cortana after the first few weeks of Windows 10.

Worse comes to worse, just use a registry based keyboard remapping tool to make that key do something else.

Or buy a nice keyboard, like WASD Keyboards CODE line, which is fully customizable/programmable.
 
sadsteve said:
Eh, I already remap 3 keys on my key board so what's one more.
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Article says it won't be remappable, although how you'd know that for sure unless MS came right out and said so, I don't know.

Edit: I swear I read that but now I can't find it. But laptop keyboards aren't usually remappable the way a QMK-powered one would be. Also, I'm thinking that most likely, this will just be a hotkey, like under the hood, it'll generate something like win+shift+alt+C, because there isn't really a "completely custom key" functionality in USB HID as far as I know from the small amount of searching I've previously done.
 
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The Windows Key...........the only key on your entire keyboard you have KBM'ed your way into actively avoiding touching, which translates into you honestly forgetting it's there and wtf it's supposed to be good for to begin with.
 
HeadRusch said:
The Windows Key...........the only key on your entire keyboard you have KBM'ed your way into actively avoiding touching, which translates into you honestly forgetting it's there and wtf it's supposed to be good for to begin with.
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I use the windows key all the time, to start the menu so i can type the first few letters of the program i want to run.
 
Im trolling but no one uses sysrq, scroll lock or that menu key.

And we could probably get rid of caps lock to calm those reddit kids down, make that the ai assist key :D
 
I use both the super and menu keys all the time.

That said, this pretty much cements the Framework family of laptops for me going forward.
 
Microsoft gave me a demo for Copilot not long ago.
The demo started with him fumbling with his documents going “oh bugger I seem to have lost the presentation for this meeting, oh well let’s just do this”
And he proceeded to use CoPilot, to build the presentation on why we should embrace CoPilot in the work place.
Right down to having it generate photos for the PowerPoint based on other stock images.

When done it had a rather impressive PowerPoint, complete with excel tables and graphs, in about an hour. Far faster than I could do by hand for sure.
 
HeadRusch said:
The Windows Key...........the only key on your entire keyboard you have KBM'ed your way into actively avoiding touching, which translates into you honestly forgetting it's there and wtf it's supposed to be good for to begin with.
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1_rick said:
I use the windows key all the time, to start the menu so i can type the first few letters of the program i want to run.
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Same. The left windows key gets constant use, but only as a trigger to start the search to type the first couple of letters of the program I want to launch.

Right windows key, and menu key, not so much. Mostly accidebtslly touching them in games and then cursing :p
 
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Menu key is the only way to navigate when mouse is unavailable (not that you can navigate without a mouse on windows lately anyway). Love that key, there is no alt except mouse emulation, and that sucks balls.
 
Nobu said:
Menu key is the only way to navigate when mouse is unavailable (not that you can navigate without a mouse on windows lately anyway). Love that key, there is no alt except mouse emulation, and that sucks balls.
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Hit alt and then tap arrow keys or respective letter? That is how ive always done it even on systems with no mouse. I honestly have never used the menu key.
 
Darunion said:
Hit alt and then tap arrow keys or respective letter? That is how ive always done it even on systems with no mouse. I honestly have never used the menu key.
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That doesn't open the context menu, that opens the app menu. You have to move the mouse cursor over the link, icon, etc, hit the correct mouse button on the numpad (hopefully you remember which one), and then you can select an item with arrow keys and enter.

Or you can use the menu key, which is much easier.
 
Axman said:
That said, this pretty much cements the Framework family of laptops for me going forward.
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I bought a Nuphy Air 75v2 specifically because it's designed to sit over a laptop keyboard (designed for Apples, will probably work with most others--works fine with my work Dell and personal Zephyrus.
 
1_rick said:
I'm this close to remapping caps lock on my keyboard, just not sure what I want to set it to.
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Backspace. One of the most useful keys and it's a super long reach. Caps lock, rarely used and in one of the best spots. They should be swapped by default.
It's the first thing I do when I get a new PC. You can do it with windows power tools now.
 
sharknice said:
Backspace. One of the most useful keys and it's a super long reach. Caps lock, rarely used and in one of the best spots. They should be swapped by default.
It's the first thing I do when I get a new PC. You can do it with windows power tools now.
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Interesting idea but that would mess with my muscle memory, especially when I'm on any other keyboard.

A quick thought about it just now suggested the 1 key, for gaming.
 
1_rick said:
Interesting idea but that would mess with my muscle memory, especially when I'm on any other keyboard.

A quick thought about it just now suggested the 1 key, for gaming.
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It won't take long to adapt, and you can leave the regular backspace alone and keep using it.

How often do you actually type on someone else's keyboard? I rarely do and it's not a big deal, I just realize I have to use the old backspace after toggling caps lock a few times. :)
 
It sounds like a 'Search' key. I guess if Cortana was still around, maybe they would've called it the 'Cortana' key.
 
sharknice said:
Backspace. One of the most useful keys and it's a super long reach. Caps lock, rarely used and in one of the best spots. They should be swapped by default.
It's the first thing I do when I get a new PC. You can do it with windows power tools now.
Click to expand...
That actually makes a lot of sense. Would be a nice change to all the layouts though. seriously how off is caps used.
 
OFaceSIG said:
I use the Windows key a bit. I never use the right click, menu button, or whatever you want to call it on the other side. If they replace that with something else I never use, I guess I wouldn't notice?
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I didnt even realize this button exists until right now. I dont think Ive ever pressed it.
 
Tengis said:
I didnt even realize this button exists until right now. I dont think Ive ever pressed it.
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I remember pressing it a couple of times back in ~1995 (I guess?) When these windows keyboards were new, and quickly determining it was useless, and moving on. Ove barely looked at it since.
 
Randall Stephens said:
It’s the “Install Linux” key
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:LOL:

That was literally my thought, outro, going into this thread.

If people (and not any on [H] of course :cautious: :sneaky:) need Copilot to find the control panel or something like that in which i've seen these AI-generated articles putting points on.. um, yeah - at risk from association, you can find me in Tabworks / 3.1.
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
I don't know. Hopefully there will be a registry hack to make it disappear, much like how I never saw Cortana after the first few weeks of Windows 10.

Worse comes to worse, just use a registry based keyboard remapping tool to make that key do something else.

Or buy a nice keyboard, like WASD Keyboards CODE line, which is fully customizable/programmable.
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As hard as they have made it to remove defender, it is possible so this also can be stripped too!
 
sharknice said:
How often do you actually type on someone else's keyboard?
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Well, I've got my work laptop, my personal desktop, and my personal laptop, let alone anyone else's, and schlepping a keyboard around--even a light one--is annoying.
 
sharknice said:
It won't take long to adapt, and you can leave the regular backspace alone and keep using it.

How often do you actually type on someone else's keyboard? I rarely do and it's not a big deal, I just realize I have to use the old backspace after toggling caps lock a few times. :)
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How often do you look at a man’s shoes?
 
Tengis said:
I didnt even realize this button exists until right now. I dont think Ive ever pressed it.
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I just now noticed on my wireless Logitech cheapy keyboard that I use when I WFH it doesn't even have the right click button. Logitech replaced it with a function key for alternate F key functions.
 

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