Web search results were printed slowly, as if I were watching someone type. Google was of course, faster.
Oh, so that is called the insert key? Interesting. And what does it do? It does not insert anything on my computer.
I wonder how long it will take them to get me to buy a tablet and only use that and nothing else. Never thought I would become a luddite when retiring.
When using a word processor, it switches between insert mode (the default) and overwrite mode.
Oh, thank you! That explains why it sometimes changes erratically, I hit it and it was indeed not on purpose!
The scary thing is, you say to yourself, “Fuck Microsoft”, completely avoid their operating systems and online services; go out and spring for a nice, high-quality (non-Microsoft) keyboard and discover that… the Meta key has a “Windows” logo on it.
PS Tron nukes it by default, last I checked!
or use PowerShell if you know what you are doing
I knew about the key, but not that they were going to replace the right control key. That is not a rarely used key. I agree that the most unused key is the right Windows Key, which is what I assumed they’d replace.
Windows Copilot is nowhere near ready to have so much attention called to it. It is pretty much limited to be more of a chatbot, because it can’t be trusted to control settings on your computer yet. Once that happened, I could see it becoming a key part of the OS, but not before that.
It just comes across like Microsoft not getting as much out of copilot as they hoped, and this trying to force it in front of people’s faces. But they could have done that by putting it on the taskbar. Changing the keyboard is foolish, and replacing a key people do actually use is really going to backfire. It will leave a physical record of that failure.
If I have a choice, I will definitely buy a keyboard without this. I might not have bothered if it just replaced the Windows key.
I just upgraded Mrs Cad to the latest Win11 and CoPilot Beta is in the taskbar and cannot be removed. Maybe I can later with the Windows authorization.
Pop it off with a screwdriver and cover the area with a piece of electrical tape.
Incidentally, I use the right Control key all the time, so not necessarily a great solution. However, I know a guy who covered every key cap with electrical tape; works great if you do not want to look at it (no need to pop it off).
Technically, the Windows-specific key on the right isn’t a “Windows” key, it’s the “Menu” key, and I agree it’s pretty much useless. My guess is the reason Microsoft didn’t target that one is because it’s already been eliminated from some keyboards. On my current keyboard, for instance, that key is used to control keyboard backlighting.
I could be mistaken but I’m pretty sure that there would be nothing special about such a keyboard except the label on the key. Choosing to cause “the key formerly labeled as right-CTRL” to invoke MS Copilot would be entirely a function of Windows. Although the left and right CTRL keys usually function as modifier keys, pressing either key alone is, in fact, reported to the system, so software can take any action it wants, and the left and right CTRL keys send different scan codes. So for instance, you can remap either CTRL key to any other key, or vice versa.
Right. I’m not quite seeing the big problem, except aesthetically (I’m assuming they’ll put some butt-ugly logo on the key). Just remap it to R-CTRL, and it’s same-o-same.
It’s an irritation, I understand, but nothing that couldn’t be fixed without a little adhesive sticker or a Sharpie or something.
Exceptions might be some controlled environments in workspaces where one is not permitted to use the Windows OS as intended to control the interface, granted. That could be a yuge problem, very bigly.
For me, the point would be more about letting the manufacturers know that Microsoft’s new key is unwanted.
If I did actually have to get one, I would just remap the key to be a Ctrl key, like it should be.
Oh, and @wolfpup: I know about the App Key. But the standard is two Windows keys, one on the left and one on the right. The right one is often omitted on newer keyboards.
I actually use the right-hand CTRL key constantly. As I mentioned in the OP, that’s the one that calls up the Hanja (Chinese characters) when typing in Korean.
Good point, thanks. I never thought about it because out of nearly a dozen desktop keyboards I have of various vintages – some made by Microsoft – going back at least 15 years (and two laptops) there’s only one that has a Windows key on the right. That one is a huge Microsoft Internet Keyboard Pro, which differs from the others in that it has a big row of special-function buttons across the top, and three more on the right. On the other desktop keyboards I have, those special functions are alternate modes of the “F” keys, and the right-hand Windows key is replaced by a Function (FN) key.
My current keyboard (a Logitech) has four keys to the right of the space bar: Alt, Windows, Menu, and Ctrl.
You have two? I don’t think I’ve seen that in years. Function key replaces it in a lot of cases. But while the WinKey was an annoyance in 95, it’s now super useful since 7. The right click key is worthless.
This article suggests it will replace the Menu key, aka the right click button I mentioned.
I had an update on a win7 machine I turn on once a week to back up to and it had a new “CoPilot” icon. I thought that was a new Win11 thing. I clicked on it…
CP “How can I help you?”
me “Why is Copilot running on a win7 computer?”
CP “Copilot is compatable with win7, however win7 is longer supported by microsoft and upgrading is recommended”
Fair enough. Question answered.
me “Why is Copilot running on my computer when I didn’t install it?”
CP “I’m sorry I can’t assist with that”