9 ms·
A new Copilot key to kick off the year of AI-powered Windows PCs
- Bouncingsoul1 3y agoSeems like finally the year of the linux desktop has come.
- ceejayoz 3y agoWell, that's one way to keep the branding teams from tinkering with the logo.
- llimos 3y agoThe Windows logo changed even after they introduced the Windows key
- thyrox 3y agoThanks to perplexity it looks like they are adding a new key to the PC keyboard to open copilot. That's the summary I got.
- ceejayoz 3y agoThey're replacing the right Windows key with a Copilot key.
- badkitty99 3y ago[dead]
- xnzakg 3y agoHope that's what is happening and that they aren't replacing the right control key.
- DeathArrow 3y agoI only have a left Windows key, in the right I have a menu key.
- Semaphor 3y agoSo 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 ;)
- rzzzt 3y agoShift-F10 is an alternative shortcut for the context menu as well.
- WirelessGigabit 3y agoIt's not the same. Because Shift-F10 includes shift you get the extended context menu: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20110809-00/?p=9943 https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20110809-00/?p=99...
- bryanlarsen 3y agoIt appears like they're replacing the right control key, not the windows/menu key.
- ceejayoz 3y agoHmm, I was looking at the extended keyboard layouts previously had doubled Windows keys; that's a pretty clear spot to put it there. Looks like a lot of laptops don't have the doubled-Windows keys?
- naikrovek 3y agothat sucks. right-win + L quickly locks the computer. going to have to figure out an autohotkey solution for this.
- maximus-decimus 3y agoDoesn't do the exact same thing as left-win + L?
- cesarb 3y agoDepending on the size of the keyboard and on the size of your hands, using the left modifier for that shortcut might need two hands instead of just one; it's very convenient to be able to quickly lock the desktop with only one hand.
- maximus-decimus 3y agoI just tested and,on a full size model m, I can still stretch 2.5 inches after reaching the left+win from my pinkie and l with my thumb. And I have average hand span for a man.
- xnzakg 3y agoNeat! Hopefully this means we get an extra remappable key on Linux!
- chrismorgan 3y agoI’m cynical: my guess is it’ll just emit Super+C. My laptop has its row of function keys and their alternative functions are mostly separate keys for controlling the device, but three feel more application-level: ASUS’s “Aura” button is XF86Launch3 (yay!), but the screenshot and presentation mode changing ones are just Super+Shift+S and Super+P, so you can’t do anything novel with them. I’m guessing Copilot will use Super+C, as I presume Cortana’s successor.
- cesarb 3y ago> but the screenshot and presentation mode changing ones are just Super+Shift+S and Super+P For the presentation mode key, it used to be its own independent key, but Microsoft changed its mind and told manufacturers to make it send Win+P instead. Some laptop manufacturers made it depend on the Windows version (through the ACPI _OSI method), so if you pretend to be an older Windows version, it'll have the former behavior instead of Win+P (though doing so could have other negative consequences, see https://mjg59.livejournal.com/85923.html https://mjg59.livejournal.com/85923.html). Unfortunately, this was long ago enough (or the search engines got bad enough at searching old stuff) that I'm not finding the place where I originally read about that; the most I could find was a StackOverflow answer (https://askubuntu.com/questions/62319/is-there-an-equivalent-to-win-p-switch-video-output-hotkey/62598#62598 https://askubuntu.com/questions/62319/is-there-an-equivalent...).
- jeroenhd 3y agoKnowing 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?
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- Hamuko 3y agoThey should just have it say "Copilot" instead of the weird logo they have for Copilot. That way it'd be future-proof for all of the future (AI) products also called Copilot that Microsoft will launch.
- pzmarzly 3y agoMS 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-office-key-emoji-key-keyboards 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
- fouronnes3 3y agoAfter 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.
- Hamuko 3y agoThe Office key is apparently just CTRL + SHIFT + ALT + WIN, as Office Key + W is advertised to open Word and Office Key + L is advertised to open LinkedIn, but you can perform both of those actions in plain Windows by just using CTRL + SHIFT + ALT + WIN + W and CTRL + SHIFT + ALT + WIN + L respectively. https://www.theverge.com/2023/9/15/23874798/microsoft-windows-linkedin-onenote-keyboard-shortcut https://www.theverge.com/2023/9/15/23874798/microsoft-window...
- Fire-Dragon-DoL 3y agoI'm well aware since I wanted to bind tgose shortcuts and of course windows has crap there too
- Findecanor 3y agoThere's a hack for it: <https://github.com/acook/OfficeKeyFix https://github.com/acook/OfficeKeyFix> The Office key shortcuts get bound by Explorer when it starts. If you bind the keys when Explorer does not run, you own them and can then free them after Explorer has started.
- LorenDB 3y agoIt sounds like they are putting fresh paint on the search key that some keyboards already have, whether in the function layer or as a standalone button.
- asgeirn 3y agoWow. Betcha keyboards with the Official Copilot key®™© will cost plenty of extra.
- naikrovek 3y agoI don't know why someone would think®™© that.
- prepend 3y agoI used to use windows a few hours a day. Almost every day I would have to track down a rogue process that pegged my cpu and sometimes disk and would bring other programs to a halt. It was almost always Cortana or index service or disk defender or something Microsoft added with very good intentions. And I would deprioritize it, or tune it, or disable it if it was optional. And every time, Microsoft would turn it back on against my configuration settings and wishes and it would start messing up my system. The most frustrating part of this was googling and debugging and finding many other people struggling with this, for years; and Microsoft not fixing it. And it seemed like they would gaslight by saying it didn’t happen, or shouldn’t happen, or it is acceptable that it happened. I expect that this new feature will suck so hard. I’m glad I rarely use windows these days.
- xg15 3y ago> with very good intentions. As if.
- naikrovek 3y ago> As if. You may find it difficult to believe, but the people who work at Microsoft are people just like you. They have goals and get caught up in the whims of management, who are also people who get caught up in the whims of various things at various times.
- jacquesm 3y agoNo, sorry. If you work for Microsoft you've lost me. That takes a departure from any kind of ethics. I'm fine with it, people want to get paid. But you do this sort of thing if you don't care about the world of software or where it is headed. This isn't exclusive to Microsoft, but it definitely applies to them.
- Xeamek 3y agoWhy?
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- NamTaf 3y agoThis 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.
- naikrovek 3y agothere 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.
- stabbles 3y agoHitting that key in-game will increase the difficulty as the computer can leverage more AI
- Findecanor 3y agoThat is such a common nuisance that keyboards marketed specifically to gamers typically have a "Windows lock"/"Gaming mode" that disables the Windows key.
- shdon 3y agoUnless 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.
- ryanklee 3y ago> 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. If the key can flexibly consume whatever content is in the current context -- images, audio, text, selectable files -- and potentially have access to RAG, it seems to me that the number of potential use cases is very high. Of course, everything hinges on "flexible" -- if it's mono-modal and doesn't access context in an intuitive way, it'll be tough for it to find a place in people's workflows.
- shdon 3y agoMy question wasn't about the key per se (which is just a trigger for Copilot, it seems), but about what Copilot itself brings. Can it do any of the stuff you describe?
- jariz 3y agoThis 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 https://youtu.be/USQxZc9nmtE)
- jacquesm 3y agoMicrosoft is just aiming to revive their monopoly but this time through AI. Beware. You think Google is bad? It is. But wait until MS can get their hooks into you with AI products that know just about everything about you and that tattle your every action back to the MotherShip in order to make it that much more sticky.
- apwell23 3y ago> But wait until MS can get their hooks into you with AI products Is this already priced into their stock price ?
- jacquesm 3y agoIt would be funny if it were, especially if a large regulator makes a move.
- LegitShady 3y agobut its not just MSFT doing this. It's literally everyone. Google had such a strong position for so long, and LLMs so suddenly breached that position, that everyone is racing towards the LLM future where they have as much data as they can get their hands on. Google, apple, microsoft, etc.
- jacquesm 3y agoIt's definitely not just MSFT doing this. But MSFT is the one I worry about most because they've shown in the past that they don't hesitate to employ really shady tactics if they think that it will get them an advantage and they can get away with it. Arguably of a slightly worse shade than Google and Apple, though the latter have plenty in the skeleton cupboards as well.
- Xeamek 3y agoHow is microsoft worse then any other of the tech giants?
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- baz00 3y agoI really wish they would just piss off with this. I have found no actual real world life improvements on the windows ecosystem from the integration of copilot at all. Anything that it has attempted to do actually removed the determinism I had in the existing process or did something to piss me off. It's like having Mr Clippy shoved down your throat constantly and being told it's a good thing without a single use case making sense for me at all. Literally I can't think of an actual use for it and I've tried. It's like pair programming with a chimp. I'm still bitter that the menu key seems to have disappeared from the keyboards recently.
- dreamcompiler 3y agoMicrosoft is obviously making up for their huge mistake of not adding a Bitcoin key ten years ago.
- tonyedgecombe 3y agoYou can imagine how this came about. Nadella issued a decree that every division has to come up with an idea of how to integrate AI into their product. The keyboard people thought they would add another key. I dread to think what the mouse designers are planning.
- unraveller 3y ago>what the mouse designers are planning I predict the trailing mouse effect will stop following the cursor and go on its own adventures with occasional cursor privileges, that's when amazon will invent Just-Hover purchasing and your AI mouse gf will spend all your cash.
- dreamcompiler 3y ago"We just bought ten billion dollars worth of dog food and you are all by god going to eat it."
- da4id 3y agoIf you want to see how something like this might work, I made a fun project where I added a single board computer (SBC) into a keyboard. When you press the 'AI' button, the SBC would send inputs to the LLM on the SBC and output keystrokes to the PC. Demo below if you're curious. https://youtu.be/BbMSWZKrrcI?si=T_3XIWEtrS8lvxP3 https://youtu.be/BbMSWZKrrcI?si=T_3XIWEtrS8lvxP3
- ourmandave 3y agoWhat's the Copilot shortcut on a Surface tablet?
- TheRealDunkirk 3y ago"You pass butter."
- hubraumhugo 3y agoA good example of why AI favors big tech incumbents. They have all the distribution advantage and can now natively integrate AI into their products.
- Xeamek 3y agoCan't wait for an LLM query-and-response taking less time then it takes a file explorer to open. Trully a well designed user experience
- uxp8u61q 3y agoSome people in this thread need to calm down. It's just a new icon for the "super"/windows key. Not a huge conspiracy.
- maximus-decimus 3y agoI plan to use it just as much as my Bixby button on my Galaxy phone (not at all)
- Xeamek 3y agoYou can rebind it to the normal 'hold-to-shutdown' behavior. Also you can assign custom action under quick double press.
- perryizgr8 3y agoYou can also download good lock and make it do whatever you want. It functions as a macro key too.
- maximus-decimus 3y ago> You can rebind it to the normal 'hold-to-shutdown' behavior. Why would someone do that when there's already a power button?
- Xeamek 3y ago? We are taking about that exact power button
- maximus-decimus 3y agoI have a power button on one side, then volume and bixby on the other. You can see an illustration here : https://voicebot.ai/2018/08/28/its-happening-again-samsung-bixby-avoidance-syndrome-reemerges/ https://voicebot.ai/2018/08/28/its-happening-again-samsung-b...
- butz 3y agoProbably Ctrl+Shift+Alt+Win+C was already taken, so all that's left was adding a new key to keyboard.
- MikusR 3y agoThat's exactly how the Office or Linkedin keys work. Alt+Shift+Ctrl+Win for Office. Alt+Shift+Ctrl+Win+l for linkedin.
- juancn 3y agoThey seem to be replacing the right CTRL key rather than adding a new one.