Microsoft Hijacks Keyboard Shortcut To Bring Copilot To Your Attention (theregister.com) 70
An anonymous reader shares a report: Copilot has gone native for Windows Insiders and commandeered a popular keyboard shortcut in the process. The move from a Progressive Web App (PWA) to a native binary -- although most of it appears to still be a website, just not running as a PWA -- will be welcomed. Microsoft noted that once the app update has been installed, Copilot will appear in the system tray.
However, the assistant's quick view feature has been given the Alt+Space keyboard shortcut. This is already used by many other applications, including Microsoft's own PowerToys. PowerToys Run, for example, uses Alt+Space to open a launcher into which users can type in the name of the service they are seeking. Alt+Space is also used to show the context menu of the active window. Therefore, Microsoft's decision to hand the shortcut over to Copilot is unlikely to please keyboard warriors who are used to their shortcuts working in a particular way.
The Windows vendor acknowledged that the shortcut was already in use by many apps, saying: "For any apps installed on your PC that might utilize this keyboard shortcut, Windows will register whichever app is launched first on your PC and running in the background as the app that is invoked when using Alt+Space."
However, the assistant's quick view feature has been given the Alt+Space keyboard shortcut. This is already used by many other applications, including Microsoft's own PowerToys. PowerToys Run, for example, uses Alt+Space to open a launcher into which users can type in the name of the service they are seeking. Alt+Space is also used to show the context menu of the active window. Therefore, Microsoft's decision to hand the shortcut over to Copilot is unlikely to please keyboard warriors who are used to their shortcuts working in a particular way.
The Windows vendor acknowledged that the shortcut was already in use by many apps, saying: "For any apps installed on your PC that might utilize this keyboard shortcut, Windows will register whichever app is launched first on your PC and running in the background as the app that is invoked when using Alt+Space."
FUCK THIS SHIT (Score:5, Informative)
THE NEW NORMAL (Score:5, Insightful)
They're going to keep shoving this AI spyware shit down our throats, up until the day they file for bankruptcy.
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They're going to keep shoving this AI spyware shit down our throats, up until the day they file for bankruptcy.
You think they will stop then? I think you are rather naive. :)
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It's possible that Zombie Microsoft will eat fewer brains.
Time to move on. (Score:4, Insightful)
Thanks to Proton, Linux plays most popular games well. So does the PS5, for that matter. And the new Switch coming out next year.
For whatever you need that Linux can't do, there is Mac. Apple makes it easy to disable "Apple Intelligence" (their version of AI), and gives you privacy guarantees that Microsoft does not (even if you keep AI on).
Between Linux and Mac, all your personal needs should be met.
Apart from work requirements, what's the incentive to use Windows? This relationship is clearly toxic. So, I recommend exiting it.
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There are some keyboard shortcuts on the Mac that cannot be disabled (ie. made available for programs to see them). And some operations that can't be mapped to a new shortcut.
Mostly you can do it, but not all of them.
This comes up for me because I live in Emacs.
The Windows way -- first launched program (?) to register the shortcut wins -- seems the worst possible strategy! What happens if you quit the desired program and launch another instance? I don't want the programs fighting over the keystrokes or havi
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The Windows way -- first launched program (?) to register the shortcut wins -- seems the worst possible strategy!
To be fair, Microsoft has a long history of doing things "worst possible" but still somewhat (badly) working.
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The keyboard shortcuts of the Macs are both the biggest hickup new users have ( cmd-C, cmd-V, cmd X etc*) and in my experience, the quickest thing to retrain the brain in. Oh that and menu at the top and the slightly different way cmd-tab app switching works. Took me a couple of days back when I moved over in 2008 to get my head around it and hasnt troubled me since. Took my father a few days too.
Oh, and drag your application folder to your launch bar for a DIY "start" button, make sure second mouse/track b
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It's funny, I was a windows user by default, my muscle memory was Ctrl-C/V/X, and then I got to use a mac at work and almost immediately I realised the modifier key being on your thumb and not your pinky was at least 100 million times better. Scientifically accurate.
And being able to use all the Ctrl shortcuts in terminal for unix type programs without modification while STILL having your standard shortcuts and not shift-ins and stuff was so good.
Not only that, but despite being a "non-technical user focuse
Re: Time to move on. (Score:2)
So CTL ALT SPACE with extreme prejudice.
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They're going to keep shoving this AI spyware shit down our throats, up until the day they file for bankruptcy.
No, Microsoft users will defend anything that Microsoft demands. Because even at the last excuse "Well, Microsoft runs the Programs that I have to use, so I'm okay with it.
Sometime I believe they are running a social test. If Microsoft says "Send your family to Redmond, Part of the EULA now is we get to bang your family and you will pay for it The faithful will grumble a bit, but then say "Okay, see ya folks, but Daddy needs his computer, and it won't be that bad."
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Probably. Microsoft's success really only shows how broken and incapable most people are.
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That does, unfortunately, make a _lot_ of sense. Well, maybe these people will eventually force Microsoft to stop changing and moving around things without really good reasons, so that would be a plus. But other than that, this is a huge problem. Obviously, people needing to work jobs they hate is a huge problem as well.
That said, I find that, for example, LibreOffice saves me a ton of time and annoyances for slides and spreadsheets. MS office is really fucked in the head at this time. Hence these "computer
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I use Linux as well. It's just painful in different but equal measure.
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I use Linux as well. It's just painful in different but equal measure.
True enough, different issues for certain - although my "futzing" is about 90 percent Windows, 8 percent Linux and 2 percent MacOS.
I wondered why I kept getting Co-Pilot popping up, but as for pain, Recall promises to be Microsoft's descent into the realm of INGSOC.
All we have to do is trust them. It is simply too tempting to not have people who are "interesting" to LEO have their every move screenshotted. I don't even think that is paranoid thinking. It will be there, it can provide evidence, and s
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Rip it out. There are several methods. You already have to disable so much shit in windows, like spyware that this just gets added to the long list of things to amputate.
At this point, if you're on win11 and not running a custom ISO, it's like standing in a prison shower bent over and all oiled up.
Re:FUCK THIS SHIT (Score:4, Insightful)
alt-space, c is one of the most reliable ways to close broken applications in broken-ass windows.
You should be grateful that they didn't map all the keys to launch Copilot.
"It looks like you're trying to use your computer. Here, let me do it for you-- Now, while I'm doing that, you just look at this endless scroll of clickbait to keep your primitive mind occupied. There, there. That's better."
Re:FUCK THIS SHIT (Score:5, Informative)
Welcome to the 2020s. The UI design is dead, replaced by UX and the UX "designers" don't give a shit about power users and standards in general. This is the same kind of people who are convinced that hijacking ctrl+f is a great idea and having websites demanding subscribing and like clicking two seconds after you have visited the website for the first time in your life is even better.
Re:FUCK THIS SHIT (Score:4, Funny)
alt-space M can also be used when a window generates offscreen [xkcd.com]
It's critical for doing mouse-based actions on when you don't have mouse access (for any number of edge-case reasons) and the CV-stuffing whores ("I headed the project for X!") that put themselves over functionality can die in the same fire deserved by so many predecessors of the same UI-warping bullshit.
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alt-space M can also be used when a window generates offscreen [xkcd.com]
It's critical for doing mouse-based actions on when you don't have mouse access (for any number of edge-case reasons) and the CV-stuffing whores ("I headed the project for X!") that put themselves over functionality can die in the same fire deserved by so many predecessors of the same UI-warping bullshit.
Do as Microsoft says. 90 percent of users will comply, and even defend any and all actions Microsoft says they will.
And Microsoft is correct.
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alt-space, m is needed whenever the application for some reason has decided that the window shall be opened outside the realms of the display. Some random applications have this bug and if there's no way to move the application window into the visible area then it's going to be bad.
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alt-space, m is needed whenever the application for some reason has decided that the window shall be opened outside the realms of the display. Some random applications have this bug and if there's no way to move the application window into the visible area then it's going to be bad.
It's good that there is a workaround, but isn't a bug that Windows lets the app do that in the first place?
Your computer, the way a hotel room is your home (Score:5, Insightful)
You pay for it but hotel employees let themselves in at will and mess with your shit.
I prefer my Linux house.
Re:Your computer, the way a hotel room is your hom (Score:4, Funny)
Do the windows open for when Stallman shows up?
Re:Your computer, the way a hotel room is your hom (Score:5, Funny)
You pay for it but hotel employees let themselves in at will and mess with your shit.
I prefer my Linux house.
You have one tenth the choice of furniture, lights are turned on or off using banks of dip switches, and you're constantly experimenting to find the best basement?
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You have one tenth the choice of furniture, lights are turned on or off using banks of dip switches, and you're constantly experimenting to find the best basement?
And people messing up with your shit in your fully-furnished, comfortable hotel room where nothing belongs to you but you still pay through the nose to occupy is better how?
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Well seeing as how they rummaged through my suitcase and stole some of my medication, yeah, they do mess with your stuff.
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"Well seeing as how they rummaged through my suitcase and stole some of my medication"
Imagine If they faced this hardcore threat of punishment:
"As the Halperins were making arrangements to return the
presents with which Nina had been overwhelmed by old Mirkin
at the time of her engagement they suddenly discovered that a
ring set with an unusually large bluish-white brilliant was
missing : after the latest American fashion the clasp was of
platinum. Nina had worn the ring only on rare occasions, because
of its str
Re: Your computer, the way a hotel room is your ho (Score:2)
Just don't let them plug in their vacuum cleaners on the outlet reserved for critical care stuff, like respirators or flux capacitors
Re:Your computer, the way a hotel room is your hom (Score:4, Interesting)
You pay for it but hotel employees let themselves in at will and mess with your shit.
I prefer my Linux house.
You have one tenth the choice of furniture, lights are turned on or off using banks of dip switches, and you're constantly experimenting to find the best basement?
Ah, yes. There is no limit to how the faithful will defend Microsoft. Where do you get your Linux knowledge? Because if you are trying to be accurate, you're wrong. If you are trying to be funny, You aren't. If you are trying to be clever, you fail If you are trying to be smart, you ain't.
I could have summed that up by saying you are the perfect Microsoft user.
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Reality is pretty much the the exact opposite. You must be one of the deranged clueless psychos that thinks MicroShit is God.
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You mean you don't have to worry about someone on the outside turning off your lights because they control how the lights work? Sign me up!
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banks of dip switches: nope, thanks to systemd our house is now an automated spaghetti wire network and we just hope it all works out
which basement: I chose to don a Fedora and move into XFCE and saw no reason to look for another.
Re:Your computer, the way a hotel room is your hom (Score:5, Interesting)
The hotel owner has unrestricted access to your dirty laundry.
Same worries about hidden cameras.
You can rearrange the furniture (change settings), but the hotel personell will arrange it back during your absence.
The manager will let in the police at the first sign of trouble.
You can checkout anytime you like, but nothing is deleted (you may never leave).
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You pay for it but hotel employees let themselves in at will and mess with your shit.
I prefer my Linux house.
Erm... what kind of cheap, shitty-arsed hotels are you staying at?
I've never had any housekeeping mess with my shit, not anywhere I've stayed in the world and this includes 5 of the 6 inhabited continents (I can include the uninhabited one but that was less of a hotel and more of a cargo ship). They tend to leave the customers stuff alone and work around it. Of course I'm nice enough to leave my shit out of their way so they can do their jobs more easily.
Not saying I disagree with your point... but yo
Don't worry.. Whichever app launches first gets it (Score:5, Interesting)
Windows will register whichever app is launched first on your PC and running in the background as the app that is invoked when using Alt+Space.
Since copilot is part of Windows: I'm sure steps will be taken eventually to make sure it launches first and remains in the background. Even if the user doesn't want it.
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Windows launched fist. No seriously as TFS points out alt+space brings up the context menu of the active window. It is literally a fundamental windows shortcut already.
Whoever thought up this one at Microsoft needs to be waterboarded.
With vinegar.
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Well I think there is something better: A right to order your OS separately and not have extra unrelated products bundled in the first place.
Antitrust courts in the US first tried to impose this on Microsoft over Internet Explorer a long time ago in US vs Microsoft [wikipedia.org]. The demand was Microsoft should NOT bundle Internet Explorer with Windows.
Microsoft argued that the merging of Windows and IE was the result of innovation and competition, that the two were now the same product and inextricably linked, and
Insert insidious evil laugh. (Score:3)
The Windows vendor acknowledged that the shortcut was already in use by many apps, saying: "For any apps installed on your PC that might utilize this keyboard shortcut, Windows will register whichever app is launched first on your PC and running in the background as the app that is invoked when using Alt+Space."
I'm guessing they neglected to mention that Copilot will be launched at system start in the background, so that it can't subvert any app you may be hoping will get control. You might be able to kill it via Task Manager. For now.
Highly annoying (Score:5, Funny)
It is highly annoying typing alt-space to launch CoPilot. Why can't they simplify by just pressing space?
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"You appear to be rolling your face on the keyboard. Do you need help with this?"
But (Score:2)
I thought all new keyboards (and laptops) for windows were supposed to have a separate CO-Pilot key.
Love me moar!! (Score:3)
I think they should make all screen popups every hour of intensive use of other programs, specially during full screen games, so you don't forget to use it.
That would fix the user's opinion for good.
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I think they should make all screen popups every hour of intensive use of other programs, specially during full screen games, so you don't forget to use it.
"It looks like you're killing a Stormtrooper..."
Alt-Space needed for transient multi-monitor (Score:2)
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When monitors come and go (when you un-dock a laptop or switch monitors for other reasons), a window's controls can get stuck outside the bounds of the remaining monitors.
That us a bad bug. Why is monitor/workspace control so shitty in the first place? (And how unique is this to Windows?)
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When monitors come and go (when you un-dock a laptop or switch monitors for other reasons), a window's controls can get stuck outside the bounds of the remaining monitors.
That us a bad bug. Why is monitor/workspace control so shitty in the first place? (And how unique is this to Windows?)
MacOS had this figured out long before OS X. Linux has had it figured out almost as long. Windows is the only OS I've used that can't figure out multi-monitor or changing monitor scapes. Heck, my Linux systems now pop up on every change asking if I want the already known configuration for this particular setup, or to set it up fresh. Windows? Maybe it'll work like it did before. Maybe it won't. Maybe it won't even realize you plugged in a new monitor. Maybe it'll forget which monitor is primary. My work sys
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No, OSX has had many bugs in that area also. Anytime the Macbook was undocked to go to a conference room all the windows would be moved or resized. The saving grace is that none of the windows were actually offscreen, even if some were hidden behind others and shrunk to 1x1 cm square. My guess is that Apple hadn't realized a customer might actually being using external monitors in a resolution less than "retina". I've known many who walk to the conference rooms with their macbooks opened because closing
And then ... (Score:2)
Windows will register whichever app is launched first on your PC and running in the background as the app that is invoked when using Alt+Space.
One of these days... (Score:2)
...BANG, ZOOM! Straight to the moon.
Honestly, I only have a single Windows workstation that I use for CAD software (Inventor & Solidworks) on the KVM.
I cannot wait until they make Linux versions of these.
(And no, these do not work acceptably under Wine or VMs.)
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Just curious: What doesn't work through a VM (and I assume this is on Linux)? I thought they had that shit working so well that you could first-person-shooter on a VM.
I'm an AI (Score:2)
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You can get it back.
Settings > System > Gestures > Press & hold power button
lets you choose between Power Menu and Digital Assistant.
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Um, uninstall? (Score:2)
I literally uninstalled Copilot entirely when it was installed with my upgrade to Windows 11 24H2. Are they getting rid of that option? Because Copilot does not exist on my machine. The taskbar option is gone. There's probably some crap still running, but I don't get Copilot nags.
As long as you can just uninstall it, this is much ado about nothing.
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I literally uninstalled Copilot entirely when it was installed with my upgrade to Windows 11 24H2. Are they getting rid of that option? Because Copilot does not exist on my machine. The taskbar option is gone. There's probably some crap still running, but I don't get Copilot nags.
As long as you can just uninstall it, this is much ado about nothing.
They'll fix that with an upcoming release. They are determined to shovel this shit down everyone's throats. How else are they going to claim widespread adoption? People certainly aren't going to go looking for it.
Terrible Idea (Score:1)
Also, I'm surprised they don't just allow it to listen in on the computer's Mic 24/7 for a wake word/phrase like "Hey, Clippy..."
Pilot (Score:2)
MS has LONG been making keyboards less usable (Score:2)
Somewhere around Windows 95, they started to take away keyboard shortcuts. It used to be possible to use Windows without a mouse at all. That's no longer true, at least, not without special accessibility settings or software.
Remember: MS owns your PC (Score:2)
Alt+Space, M, arrow key, move mouse (Score:2)
Alt+Space, M, arrow key, move mouse is the only wah to get windows that have spawned off of the desktop back on-screen.
Annoying for multiple reasons (Score:2)
It is annoying to have crapware that nobody asked for installed without asking.
It is also annoying that Microsoft is writing so many of its applications as web apps, even the "native" ones. They spend massive resources building things like WinUI and MAUI and pushing developers to build native applications in them, yet when Microsoft wants to build an application for Windows their own developers use something entirely different.