Microsoft Adds Copilot Key to Keyboard Specs

[Monkey Dust]

10 hours ago, Needfuldoer said:

Why? I use it all the dang time.

 

They should replace the useless Scroll Lock or context menu / "right click" key instead.

I'm firmly in the 'from my cold dead hands' camp on the Windows key. But the problem with replacing the scroll lock key instead, or any of the other almost useless legacy keys, is that these are already absent from laptops.

 

The space to the right of the space bar is at a premium already, on smaller keyboards. Many are already missing a right Ctrl & win in favour of function shift keys. It seems like a really stupid place to try to place in an extra key.

[Beskamir]

Well this seems as useful as the windows or caps lock keys. Even the menu key gets more use for me than either of those useless keys.

[Ydfhlx]

1 hour ago, Beskamir said:

Well this seems as useful as the windows or caps lock keys. Even the menu key gets more use for me than either of those useless keys.

Caps lock is useful for programming.

 

The only keys I don't use are right control and print screen. I use Windows key, as others said, for opening apps very easily.

[Nimoy007]

6 hours ago, Kisai said:

Fn folds down the F1-12 keys into the the number row.

Fn varies wildly by keyboard, it's not as straightforward as you've put it. In fact, I'd say that most of the time these days, it just adds more functionality to the function row.

[StDragon]

6 hours ago, Kisai said:

...where as many games have been forbidden from using the CTRL, ALT, and SHIFT as "input buttons" in Windows because they trigger things in Windows. (eg the cursed sticky keys trigger.)

That hasn't been true for a long time. Once the app is in focus, keys get mapped to it until closed.

[Doobeedoo]

Finally dedicated AI button for when I feel dumb.

[Nimoy007]

4 minutes ago, Doobeedoo said:

Finally dedicated AI button for when I feel dumb.

If it is anything like Cortana (it isn't), you might feel more dumb afterwards.

[WereCat]

18 hours ago, Forbidden Wafer said:

Replace the damned windows button...

Absolutely not. I use it all the time for shortcuts... on both Linux and Windows.

[Mark Kaine]

"useless keys" are a godsend cause that's the only ones i can use for custom shortcuts...

[Mark Kaine]

1 hour ago, StDragon said:

That hasn't been true for a long time. Once the app is in focus, keys get mapped to it until closed.

that never happens... Windows key will always open the damn windows menu... even in "exclusive" full screen, at least in the games i play lol.

 

ps: might depends on what you consider a long time, im on w10 1809, which i find very recent (i wish i could still be on vista, the GOAT *sobs*)

1 hour ago, Ydfhlx said:

The only keys I don't use are right control and print screen

the most important key imo! 

 

 

1 hour ago, Ydfhlx said:

I use Windows key, as others said, for opening apps very easily.

i always click on this... its faster and decades of muscle memory means it will never not be faster to me ... i find keyboards clunky anyway ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

 

 

[whispous]

Yea, this isn't going to catch on with OEMs and keyboard makers except for some "Microsoft certified" special products.

[WereCat]

10 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

 

the most important key imo! 

I use win+shift+s instead of PrintScreen as I don't have to move my hand across the keyboard to the right or let go of my mouse.

[Mark Kaine]

3 minutes ago, WereCat said:

I use win+shift+s instead of PrintScreen as I don't have to move my hand across the keyboard to the right or let go of my mouse.

i use "option" (thats how its called for some reason) + plus a weird dedicated screen shot button

 

 

 

but sometimes print screen is the only one that actually works, so as a last resort button,  its imo the most important one.

 

but i get it,  this varies wildly for people and all the different keyboard layouts. 

[StDragon]

1 hour ago, Mark Kaine said:

that never happens... Windows key will always open the damn windows menu... even in "exclusive" full screen, at least in the games i play lol.

 

Sticky keys and the Windows key is an OS function. But Shift, Ctrl, and Alt keys can be mapped to the app in focus. FPS games use one or more of these keys.

[divito]

On 1/4/2024 at 3:41 PM, Forbidden Wafer said:

Replace the damned windows button...

I use it all the time for shortcuts.

[FlyingPotato_is_taken]

The issue are OEM keyboards. For example on the German Lenovo ThinkPad keyboard this would replace the [print screen]  which is far more useful than a stupid AI button.

 

Btw. Lenovo has already released a device this year (X1 gen. something) where the prtscr is moved to the FN+F[0..9] key combo and the old key is the fingerprint sensor ... (insert insult of your choice)

TL;DR DON'T TOUCH MY PRTSCR!

 

 

6 hours ago, whispous said:

Yea, this isn't going to catch on with OEMs and keyboard makers except for some "Microsoft certified" special products.

I think Microsoft has nice arguments: Would be bad if something happens to your volume key Windows licence contract.

[Forbidden Wafer]

1 hour ago, divito said:

I use it all the time for shortcuts.

It was a joke... Since they are shoving damned copilot everywhere... Might as well replace the Windows key...

[Nimoy007]

1 hour ago, Forbidden Wafer said:

It was a joke... Since they are shoving damned copilot everywhere... Might as well replace the Windows key...

>is joke = TRUE
>repeat "joke"
>is joke = FALSE

Sounds like you hate the Windows key, my friend.

[Kisai]

10 hours ago, StDragon said:

That hasn't been true for a long time. Once the app is in focus, keys get mapped to it until closed.

Nope, it remains true. Especially for games played in the browser.

You must explicitly turn it off, every time you reinstall the OS. Usually the first time you even realize it's there is when you repeatedly hit the shift key in a FPS to run or crouch or whatever it gets mapped to.

 

That said you are right in a way, if the game is actually using the correct API to access the keyboard, then it won't trigger the sticky keys and other OS "help" shortcuts. But this is rarely the case, and often the fault for this problem is the developer designing the game for the controller and not having rebindable keys. So a game you might get that uses Electron/Cordova/nw.js as it's "engine" will always trigger it because to the OS this is a web browser.

 

In Windows XP thru to 10, activating sticky keys by accident was something that happened all the time, and it was absolutely worse to accidently activate in Windows XP, because it would fire off even in something like notepad.

[jagdtigger]

Guess the market will be flooded with solutions to somehow render that button inoperable...... (to avoid the thing starting in case of an accidental push)

[Forbidden Wafer]

5 minutes ago, jagdtigger said:

Guess the market will be flooded with solutions to somehow render that button inoperable...... (to avoid the thing starting in case of an accidental push)

Yeah, just like Bixby, Google Assistant, "Hi, I'm Cortana", etc.

[PowerPCFan]

On 1/4/2024 at 5:08 PM, Failure 101 said:

At that point I don't think the shortcut saves time

I agree... my typing is fast enough that I could just Ctrl+T to open a web browser tab, type in lin, and it should autocomplete to Linkedin. Then you hit enter. I could see the Office key being useful for older or less tech-savvy people, but for me, it seems useless. 

[PowerPCFan]

11 hours ago, Kisai said:

Nope, it remains true. Especially for games played in the browser.

You must explicitly turn it off, every time you reinstall the OS. Usually the first time you even realize it's there is when you repeatedly hit the shift key in a FPS to run or crouch or whatever it gets mapped to.

 

That said you are right in a way, if the game is actually using the correct API to access the keyboard, then it won't trigger the sticky keys and other OS "help" shortcuts. But this is rarely the case, and often the fault for this problem is the developer designing the game for the controller and not having rebindable keys. So a game you might get that uses Electron/Cordova/nw.js as it's "engine" will always trigger it because to the OS this is a web browser.

 

In Windows XP thru to 10, activating sticky keys by accident was something that happened all the time, and it was absolutely worse to accidently activate in Windows XP, because it would fire off even in something like notepad.

I still have it on because Shift is my sprint key (I play Minecraft and Fortnite) and Ctrl is crouch, but I should probably turn it off to avoid "wOULd yOU LIkE tO tUrn On stIcky kEys?" in the middle of cranking 90s. Thanks for the reminder!! It's never happened to me though, so I'm guessing they must have used the right API for keyboard input. Guess it's not a problem! 

 

want to hear something that haters of "sticky keys" will hate? my mom's old laptop (Idk what model) had a STICKY KEYS BUTTON ON THE KEYBOARD!!! (where the context menu is normally placed) It wasn't a special computer or anything, they just decided to put a sticky key button! 

[PowerPCFan]

On 1/4/2024 at 6:51 PM, Beerzerker said:

It will probrably be like Cortana was, they obviously want it on your machine and will undoubtedly set it up in the OS so it's not disabled/removed so easily as in it will be part of the OS core itself with newer versions of the OS.

For updates you can expect it to become imbedded in largely the same way.

Copilot will probably be like Microsoft Edge - there is a way to remove it, but it's extremely precise, difficult, and time-consuming! 

[PowerPCFan]

20 hours ago, whispous said:

Yea, this isn't going to catch on with OEMs and keyboard makers except for some "Microsoft certified" special products.

I hope so!!!