Key combo: Microsoft is ready to introduce an official Copilot key for upcoming AI PC merchandise. Delving into its performance, the brand new key operates equally to a keyboard mixture from the 80s.
Microsoft describes the Copilot key for Home windows 11 PCs as a method to “empower” customers and allow them to simply embrace the upcoming AI “transformation.” The brand new key will quickly turn out to be a regular a part of Home windows keyboard configurations, and newly launched laptops are already outfitted with this extra keyboard characteristic.
Tom’s {Hardware} obtained a few new Dell laptops (XPS 14, XPS 16) that includes the brand new key and determined to take a look at them. The Copilot secret’s designed to open the Home windows Copilot chatbot characteristic, however with the suitable software program, it may be reprogrammed to perform completely different duties or simulate completely different key mixtures.
Tom’s utilized AutoHotkey, a widely known instrument for macro scripting and automation that may also be used to log keystrokes and their ensuing scancodes. A scancode is the information most pc keyboards ship to the PC after a key has been pressed, permitting Home windows to reply with essentially the most acceptable motion, akin to opening File Explorer or the aforementioned Copilot chatbot.
In accordance with AutoHotkey logs, the Copilot secret’s interpreted by Home windows as a mixture of the next three keys: Left Ctrl, Home windows key, and F23. The F23 perform key shouldn’t be sometimes discovered on fashionable keyboard layouts, which often embrace 12 perform keys at most on conventional full-size keyboard designs.
Double perform key rows have been out there in older keyboard fashions, notably these used to work together with mainframes or bigger pc items. The IBM Mannequin M 122 keyboard, a well-liked alternative launched in 1985, had this configuration. It occurred a number of years earlier than IBM’s choice to exit the PC market by promoting its enterprise to Lenovo in 2005.
Keyboards with 122 keys have been nonetheless being offered within the 90s, and Home windows is programmed to accommodate this older design even in the present day. The working system can simply handle scancodes belonging to the additional perform keys. Microsoft most likely selected the “unique” key mixture for Copilot as a result of it’s unlikely that anybody would wish to press these three keys concurrently in any other case.
Now that we perceive how the Copilot key capabilities, customizing the characteristic can be simpler on “non-AI” PCs. Tom’s {Hardware} suggests a fast AutoHotkey script to overwrite Microsoft’s official mixture each time Home windows 11 boots, permitting the Copilot key to carry out extra helpful duties akin to opening an software, getting into a textual content string, or launching a web site.