Microsoft and its PC partners plan to add a “Copilot” key to PC keyboards, making it easy to launch Microsoft’s Copilot AI instead of a competitor.
PC makers are prepping to replace one of the existing buttons to launch Copilot on command. (Currently, you can use the Win + C shortcut instead.)
“You will start to see the Copilot key on many new Windows 11 PCs from our ecosystem partners, with availability beginning in late February through spring,” Yusuf Mehdi wrote in a blog post. Copilot is available in Windows and iOS and Android. It could potentially replace the “menu” key or an “Alt” key, or be a separate key entirely.
Acer
Microsoft prepares for a Windows revamp with a heavy reliance on AI, according to Mehdi.
“We will continue to build Windows to be the destination for the best AI experiences, blurring the lines between local and cloud processing. The year ahead promises to be extraordinary!”
The introduction of the Copilot key “marks the first significant change to the Windows PC keyboard in nearly three decades,” said Mehdi.
Microsoft itself tried to induce laptop makers to put a Cortana key onto their laptops, and Toshiba did. Unfortunately, the addition of the Cortana key didn’t stick, and Toshiba disappeared, as did Cortana itself. As for the Copilot key? We’ll have to see.
