The Copilot key: a dedicated button for the thing you keep closing
Microsoft added a mandatory Copilot key to PC keyboards
The market's verdict: +3.3% on MSFT in the week after.
What actually happened
In January 2024 Microsoft announced the Copilot key, the first big change to the Windows keyboard in nearly thirty years, replacing the rarely mourned Menu key with a button that summons the assistant on laptops from mid 2024 onward. The marketing called it the entry point into the era of AI PCs; users called it a dedicated ad button they now had to remap. Within a year Microsoft quietly allowed the key to open other apps instead. Historic, in the sense that it will be in museums, next to a placard reading "remappable".
This one is well documented.
Links
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Impact
- The Verge (publication)
↳ caused by Copilot key announcement (January 2024)
Timeline
- Jan 4, 2024 Stood by it Microsoft stood by it.