AI comes for your PC’s keyboard as Microsoft adds dedicated Copilot key
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Why not? Due process is good. If you want to deal with things like Elon SLAPP suits, make anti-SLAPP laws. It has nothing to do with juridical person.
Guess why corporations can be responsible of something in front of the laws and be sued just like humans can. Hint: the word “corporation” comes from corpus for a reason.
It doesn’t just go one way, you know?
The things you described has nothing to do with corporate personhood. If you think cooperations are abusing power, make laws about it.
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we'll just go down to the law store where they hand out laws and buy some laws then because that's totally something we can do -lobbyists and corruption is totally something that doesn't exist -right.
Your take is infuriatingly naive and facile.
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Ditto for the navigation pane functionality in Windows file explorer, specifically problems with focus.
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It exists much less in other countries other than the US where the same corporate personhood concept exists.
The situation has to do with bribable politicians, not with cooperate personhood.
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I'm sitting here typing on an old logitech keyboard with dedicated "iTouch"(????), "E-Mail", "Shopping", "Search" and "My Home" keys, in a cluster on the top right of the kb. Another cluster, in top-left, of "Finance", "My Sites", "Community" and "Favorites". I have no idea what these keys do and have never used them. In between the two clusters are media player controls (which are useful). Apart from that the keyboard is robust, has nice key actions and very functional extended keyboard layer. So all in all, a win. But at least they didn't mess with the standard key placements.
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I just got a Mac...
...which is what people fed up with Windows who still need a desktop operating system actually do...
...but in reality, most people hold their nose and keep using Windows because they don't really have a choice. Most Windows installs these days are businesses (where the end users hands are ties) or enthusiasts (mostly gamers).
An overwhelming vast majority of people just stopped using desktop operating systems altogether and use their phones for everything.
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The windows key opens the start menu. That it's main purpose. It's even had different designs depending on what year the computer came out in order to match what logo is displayed on the start menu on the specific version(s) of windows from that time frame. Anything else is a secondary feature of it with the majority of the modifiers added years later.
And the other side of the keyboard had a context menu key. A key that no one uses and is also missing from that render. A key a lot of laptops are already dropping.
Case in point, here's a surface keyboard now
Notice the highlighted part ss exatcly where copilot is shown?
As for removing anything, many (most?) laptops don't even have that context key anymore
Yes it is. Microsoft never said they are removing a key from the keyboard. They are adding a key
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And you can bind it to activate dictation too with a double tap if you so want.
Imagine a single key that can be rebound to so many features!
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The windows key is and always has been multi-purpose: It opens the start menu and acts as a modifier key for multiple different keyboard shortcuts.
That has been true all the way back to when it was introduced in Windows 95. Wikipedia even has a convenient list of all the windows key shortcuts that were there from the beginning in Windows 95, which includes stuff like win+R for the run command, win+D for showing the desktop, and so on. The fact that they added even more keyboard shortcuts later is irrelevant, and just shows that it keeps fulfilling that role as a modifier key as designed from the beginning.
The windows key was always an explicitly generalized multi-purpose key, that really just made PC keyboards more like already existing Mac keyboards (that have the Command key) and Unix keyboards (that frequently had Super or Meta keys). The biggest complaint against it is that it puts explicit Windows branding on the actual keyboard, which is a cosmetic annoyance mostly for people who run other operating systems.
This Copilot key, as it has been described so far, is not the same thing:
It is single-purpose (invokes the Copilot). There is no indication that it will work as any kind of modifier key (it might just send win+C, just like many laptops have a display/projector key that just sends win+P).
The context menu was never as popular or commonly used as the windows key, so many keyboards dropped it (or relocated it to some Fn key combo) years ago. It has been mostly irrelevant for a very long time, even though some posters in this thread apparently use it sometimes.And the other side of the keyboard had a context menu key. A key that no one uses and is also missing from that render. A key a lot of laptops are already dropping.
Case in point, here's a surface keyboard now
Notice the highlighted part ss exatcly where copilot is shown?
As for removing anything, many (most?) laptops don't even have that context key anymore
Microsoft including it in that spot on the Surface keyboard just means that they kept it for longer than most other laptop manufacturers, because almost everyone else put something more useful in that spot.
Do you know which key the vast majority of PC laptops have in that space? Ctrl, one of the most useful keys on the entire keyboard.
Some laptops still have three keys between space bar and the arrow keys, and in that case ctrl is always included and the menu key might be included sometimes but that is far from universal. My previous PC laptop had Alt, Printscreen, and Ctrl on the right side of the space bar. Printscreen is more frequently used than the menu key at least, but I would've preferred a second windows key in that spot.
Given that laptops have limited amount of space for they keyboard, in practice it means that some other key will be replaced by it. Depending on what that other key is, it may or may not be relegated to some Fn key combo that no-one ever uses.
On business laptops, which are often still sane enough to have three keys between the space bar and arrows, it will most likely replace whatever is in between alt and ctrl and get this:
[space] [alt] [copilot] [ctrl] [arrows]For Surface, they will certainly just replace the menu key with Copilot and get this:
[space] [alt] [copilot] [arrows]Other consumer Windows laptops will probably just follow Microsoft's lead and replace the right ctrl key (or whatever other key they might have used earlier) to get the same
[space] [alt] [copilot] [arrows] layout.In fact, we already have proof of that happening with the new Dell laptop that was just announced. You can expect to see basically every Windows laptop manufacturer follow along with the new laptops being announced over the coming weeks and months.
Microsoft isn't technically mandating it in their licensing agreements yet, but they are clearly pushing the OEMs that way and they've already signaled that it will become a requirement after a little while. And basically every Windows laptop being released will have a keyboard that is just slightly worse than it should've been for the vast majority of users that don't jerk off to AI hype on a daily basis.
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WTF? .NET is still around and doing well. It's pretty huge. There's even versions for Mac and Linux.
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Too many comments to go back and read, but it looks like this is just going to replace the right Windows key, which is fine. This is Windows actually using the right system key for something else. That is often a key that is dropped by laptop keyboard layouts, or turned into something else (function or print screen button).
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Too many comments to go back and read, but it looks like this is just going to replace the right Windows key, which is fine. This is Windows actually using the right system key for something else. That is often a key that is dropped by laptop keyboard layouts, or turned into something else (function or print screen button).
Per the article
So it sounds like there's a good chance they will be requiring it on laptops which bundle Windows, but, if so, the specific position will be flexible.
Even in the unlikely event I find myself reliant on Copilot, definitely will not be buying any laptops that have it remotely close to keys I tend to mishit.
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TheMolesRevenge
Ars Praetorian
I managed just fine without a Windows Key on my keyboard right up until I finally had to buy a new one last year. I'm sure I'll be good for a decade or two without an AI key as well.
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I look forward to getting this key and mapping it to something useful when I permanently switch to Mint when MS EOL's Windows 10. I would love to think Windows 12 will be out by then and better but what is hurting Windows isn't Windows 11 it's Microsoft's mindset. Case in point. This week this just further solidified my thinking as I got this shit in my copy of Windows 10 that I purchased a license. Not a free upgrade but a Windows 10 Pro purchased license.
I draw the @#(*& line at ads in my purchased copy of Windows. And yes I turned off this recommendation crap but every so often MS turns it back on with an update.
Short of it....a new version isn't going to change this, and a new version is going to have them just throw in pointless AI instead of fixing all the crap people complain about in Windows 11.
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Gawain The Blind
Seniorius Lurkius
Considering that the first thing I do on a new windows install is disable whatever nonsense is the new cortana analog, I suspect this will be another key I map to something else.
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I haven't yet find a thing that Copilot can do that I can't do it faster myself using the traditional ways of interacting with Windows. And when I had to go deep in the OS entrails to solve a real problem (drivers, services, components, Register, BSOD), Copilot didn't help at all. So, it will be an extra key for a useless feature.
Fortunatelly, there are several tools to remap the keys on any keyboard, some of them free, other ones cheap. I've been using KbdEdit for years, the most powerful I know. It's a bit intimidating for beginners, but it lets you make almost any change you can imagine on your keyboard!
Fortunatelly, there are several tools to remap the keys on any keyboard, some of them free, other ones cheap. I've been using KbdEdit for years, the most powerful I know. It's a bit intimidating for beginners, but it lets you make almost any change you can imagine on your keyboard!
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As a gamer, I use the windows key to switch me out of a game at the most immersion-breaking point, or at the most intense moment of a multiplayer gunfight.
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They should give us more of these functional keys. Maybe 12? And put them above the standard keyboard!
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what if there was a button that could double the number of action those 12 keys could execute?
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SineWave242
Seniorius Lurkius
It would be more useful if Windows had a key with which yo could move windows around, like my Linux does. Also... should AI assistant be able to be activated by voice commands? Just saying... MS will collect a lot of useful private data with this.
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always listening audio stream to activate AI? Now microsoft is interested...
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Snarky Robot
Ars Legatus Legionis
Not sure if serious, but the key you use to move the windows around in Windows is…literally the Windows key.
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That has not been my experience. If it's recognizable as a road, FSD Beta will engage. Auto steer on the other hand will not engage unless there are recognizable lines.
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Right but there's a big lawsuit right now about that, because Tesla didn't restrict it to limited access roads even though, by their own engineers' admissions, it couldn't recognize cross traffic. Among other things this is how a guy ended up decapitated by a semi truck backing across the road.
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Assuming your window isn't maximized, alt-space, then M, then use the arrow keys.
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Snarky Robot
Ars Legatus Legionis
Edit: misread your comment. You can also access which program you’re talking about using Alt+tab or win+tab, I believe (but I’m on mobile now). For those who don’t know how to use the windows key ,
Original: Up maximizes, down minimizes, left and right will put it on half a screen, if you have multiple monitors, you can keep going and have it jump to your other monitors. If it’s at hale screen, you can also hit up or down to put it in a corner of the screen (so it works for up to 4 windows.
From a fresh boot, the process of opening Outlook on my main screen, edge on my left screen and teams on my right is:
Win, ou, enter
Win, ed, enter, Win+left arrow(2x) up arrow
Win, te, enter (win+right arrow (2x) up arrow
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I actually really appreciate how you have a more modern solution for much the same thing. I used to do the keyboard window move trick when old crappy programs would keep opening up off screen and users couldn't use them.
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IncorrigibleTroll
Ars Tribunus Angusticlavius
Would that this fact wouldn't reliably evaporate from my brain every time I have a window spawn offscreen...
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I couldn't believe the price--I would have thought that making a keyboard with fewer keys would not cost so much more--I guess it's the volume. At any rate, now that you've told me what to look for ('65', as in 65%), I see that there are lots of keyboards like that. I guess I'm not the only weird, er smart, person! (I have to say as a TeX user, I am disappointed that the backquote key got relegated to some unreachable place over on the right, but I guess I didn't think of that.)
Thank you!
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I understand there is also a new keyboard coming out where the caps lock key is renamed the trump key. It is called the maga keyboard, and it has no intelligence at all.
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