Microsoft is adding a new key to PC keyboards for the first time since 1994::Copilot key will eventually be required in new PC keyboards, though not yet.

  • DonjuanmeEnglish
    arrow-up
    92
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    10 months ago
    link
    fedilink

    No, fuck you. It’s hard enough to find a keyboard with Ctrl and Alt in the positions I prefer these days. I don’t need any of the current keys smaller to make room for another one, the only times I hit that stupid key between them is quickly followed by cursing. I remove the windows key from my gaming keyboards because I don’t need it, FN is also a pain, especially when there’s no fn lock toggle. Why don’t we just use that as an alternate key? Microsoft go fuck yourself.

    • TootSweetEnglish
      arrow-up
      52
      arrow-down
      0
      ·
      10 months ago
      link
      fedilink

      Plus, fuck them for putting another Microsoft logo on keyboards.

    • LWDEnglish
      arrow-up
      14
      arrow-down
      0
      ·
      10 months ago
      edit-2
      9 months ago
      link
      fedilink

      deleted

      • laurelravenEnglish
        arrow-up
        3
        arrow-down
        0
        ·
        10 months ago
        link
        fedilink

        Holy forking shirtballs, the longer I look at that the worse it gets

        As a PowerShell scripter, having the backtick and pipe keys moved with the escape and delete in their places would just drive me batty

        • LWDEnglish
          arrow-up
          3
          arrow-down
          0
          ·
          10 months ago
          edit-2
          9 months ago
          link
          fedilink

          deleted

          • fl42vEnglish
            arrow-up
            1
            arrow-down
            0
            ·
            10 months ago
            link
            fedilink

            Is this one supposed to be worse? 'Cause rn it’s marginally better (split spacebar => ~3 keys for each thumb instead of 2.5).

            • LWDEnglish
              arrow-up
              1
              arrow-down
              0
              ·
              10 months ago
              edit-2
              9 months ago
              link
              fedilink

              deleted

              • fl42vEnglish
                arrow-up
                2
                arrow-down
                0
                ·
                10 months ago
                link
                fedilink

                Personally, I find layers more convenient. Like numbers on qwerty, shift+numbers on asdf, and all that stuff

                • HelloHotelEnglish
                  arrow-up
                  2
                  arrow-down
                  0
                  ·
                  9 months ago
                  edit-2
                  9 months ago
                  link
                  fedilink

                  I love layers too, caps lock is my escape key/modifier key now and im happy.

                  Also, do you like to peck and type your numbers using “Fn”, “Fn1”, “Pn”, the illusive green modifier or all of them at once for capital numbers /s

    • givesomefucksEnglish
      arrow-up
      8
      arrow-down
      0
      ·
      10 months ago
      link
      fedilink

      I mean, it seemed pretty obvious from the headline, but the article specifies that while they’re doing this, it’s not like they can somehiw make the 100s (if not thousands) of different keyboard manufacturers include this key

      What might happen later is they require OEM products to have it when they come with Windows.

      Which would still really only be an issue for laptops.

      And I’m pretty sure even people with “gaming laptops” don’t use the built in keyboard most of the time.

      I dunno tho. I’ve never been able to understand the people who buy gaming laptops.

      • KairosEnglish
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        0
        ·
        10 months ago
        link
        fedilink

        Do they require the windows logo on keyboards?

        • HelloHotelEnglish
          arrow-up
          2
          arrow-down
          0
          ·
          9 months ago
          edit-2
          9 months ago
          link
          fedilink

          Its existance and function are part of the keyboard spec, genarically called the “super” key. Theres likely a contract and a social force keeping the logo present and not using the genaric logo. Some Reaserch I found

    • 𝒍𝒆𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒏English
      arrow-up
      7
      arrow-down
      0
      ·
      10 months ago
      link
      fedilink

      Looks like my next keyboard is going to be a mechanical one. I don’t want a “copilot” key that I won’t use!

  • aufEnglish
    arrow-up
    28
    arrow-down
    0
    ·
    10 months ago
    link
    fedilink

    copilotremapper.exe

  • ViscloReaderEnglish
    arrow-up
    19
    arrow-down
    0
    ·
    10 months ago
    link
    fedilink

    I don’t want that, plus in the article they say it’s only to open copilot search. Which you can already do with windows+c. And who asked for copilot search? Not to be mean but the basic window search somehow never works right for me and always bring me on the Edge browser instead of opening my files. So if they could fix that instead of bringing AI to still not give me what I want other than a statisticaly correct sentence that would be nice.

    • GumusEnglish
      arrow-up
      3
      arrow-down
      0
      ·
      9 months ago
      link
      fedilink

      I highly recommend PowerToys Run (something like Mac’s Spotlight) with Everything plugin (better search).

  • ScottEnglish
    arrow-up
    15
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    10 months ago
    link
    fedilink

    Add the f25 key for “fuck Microsoft” x25

  • PxtlEnglish
    arrow-up
    14
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    10 months ago
    edit-2
    10 months ago
    link
    fedilink

    Put some dang standard labels on the function keys.

    F1 = Help

    F2 = Rename

    F3 = Search

    F4 = Close

    F5 = Refresh

    F6-F10 = Decorative

    F11 = Full screen

    F12 = Goto definition

    • MeltEnglish
      arrow-up
      21
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      10 months ago
      link
      fedilink

      I’ve never intentionally used F1 key to open help before

      • 𝒍𝒆𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒏English
        arrow-up
        11
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        10 months ago
        link
        fedilink

        Annoying when you accidentally hit it instead of ESC in certain Windows programs, loading Microsoft’s windows help website in your browser without your consent.

        On Linux it usually does nothing, as it should.

        • HelloHotelEnglish
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          0
          ·
          9 months ago
          edit-2
          9 months ago
          link
          fedilink

          Doesnt it in gnome gtk and KDE open the “about” page with a help button somewhere on it?

      • wazzupdogEnglish
        arrow-up
        7
        arrow-down
        0
        ·
        10 months ago
        link
        fedilink

        I actually have, in some older software F1 was basically an included digital copy of the manual and was great to have to find an obscure setting or feature.

      • tubbaduEnglish
        arrow-up
        3
        arrow-down
        0
        ·
        10 months ago
        link
        fedilink

        That’s why I remapped it to toggle my notes app

    • edgemaster72English
      arrow-up
      7
      arrow-down
      0
      ·
      10 months ago
      link
      fedilink

      F6 goes to the address bar in (many? most?) web browsers

    • DrDeadCrashEnglish
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      0
      ·
      10 months ago
      edit-2
      10 months ago
      link
      fedilink

      F7 for spell check (shift F7 for thesaurus)

    • laurelravenEnglish
      arrow-up
      1
      arrow-down
      0
      ·
      10 months ago
      link
      fedilink

      F8 is for “execute selected code”

      Then again, F5 is for “run current script” or “compile and run program”

  • KairosEnglish
    arrow-up
    10
    arrow-down
    0
    ·
    10 months ago
    link
    fedilink

    I will not buy any computer with that. The windows icon is one thing but that is over the fucking line.

  • Dariusmiles2123English
    arrow-up
    7
    arrow-down
    0
    ·
    10 months ago
    link
    fedilink

    I’m already not using 30% of my keyboard’s keys so it’d only be one more😅

    Anyway, I don’t plan on using anything windows related for the rest of my life except in a VM.

      • HelloHotelEnglish
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        0
        ·
        9 months ago
        link
        fedilink

        Of thats correct, will it take the key ID? Will the menu key just be repurposed

          • HelloHotelEnglish
            arrow-up
            2
            arrow-down
            0
            ·
            9 months ago
            link
            fedilink

            Thats probably the best option, mabe even just barely enough to call this a not so big deal.

  • AutoTL;DRBEnglish
    arrow-up
    3
    arrow-down
    0
    ·
    10 months ago
    link
    fedilink

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    The exact positioning, and the key being replaced, may vary depending on the size and layout of the keyboard.

    If nothing else, this new key is a sign of how much Microsoft wants people to use Copilot and its other generative AI products.

    Plenty of past company initiatives—Bing, Edge, Cortana, and the Microsoft Store, to name a few—never managed to become baked into the hardware like this.

    If Copilot fizzles or is deemphasized the way Cortana was, the Copilot key could become a way to quickly date a Windows PC from the mid-2020s, the way that changes to the Windows logo date keyboards from earlier eras.

    Chipmakers like Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm are all building neural processing units (NPUs) into their latest silicon, and we’ll likely see more updates for Windows apps and features that can take advantage of this new on-device processing capability.

    Microsoft says the Copilot key will debut in some PCs that will be announced at the Consumer Electronics Show this month.


    The original article contains 543 words, the summary contains 165 words. Saved 70%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!