Ranting About the Copilot Key & How I Fixed it
Can you believe it’s been less than two years since ChatGPT launched? With how generative AI has polluted the internet, you’d think it’d been around forever. Since the iPhone, no technology has been as disruptive. As of this year, 45% of the US general population claims to use generative AI. In India it’s 73%. Multiple companies have jumped into the ring, creating general-consumer-focused AI multimodal (that just means they can work with a combination of text, video, and other types of media) chatbots. Large operating system vendors like Google and Microsoft have worked with laptop OEMs to launch AI specific lines of laptops that put their models right at user’s fingertips. Corporations, looking to stay ahead of the trend and supercharge their business with AI have been distributing these laptops to their workforce: i.e. me.
I’ve been using a Dell Latitude 5550 with a Copilot key for the past few months after my old work laptop’s hinge started to disintegrate. The laptop itself is very nice, though uncomfortably laggy when performing benign tasks like typing or switching tabs. Otherwise, performance from the Intel Core Ultra 5 125U (1.30Ghz) has been snappy. I always forget Windows 11 Pro is actually nice to use and not stuffed to the brim with third-party crapware. The laptop also features an excellent keyboard and trackpad. The keyboard is responsive with soft touch clicky keys and the glass trackpad is precise, responsive, and in a comfortable position on the computer. My only complaint with the keyboard is that it leaves users with larger palms cramped. I’ve gotten into a bad habit of typing “c” with my left middle finger as a result". The only thing I HATE is the new Copilot key.
It’s not that there’s an AI key on the laptop. I personally wouldn’t want it, but I understand that different tastes exist. What I find frustrating is how it replaces the right control key. I fully work in the white-collar world and have developed a proclivity to using my keyboard to speed up my work. Like any great keyboardist, I sometimes need to hit keys on other ends of my instrument. Before I had this machine it was frankly comfortable to hit CTRL + P to print a document. Now, if I don’t have my left hand free it’s impossible.
I know this sounds like a weird nitpick, but over the years of working on computers I’ve developed light repetitive stress injuries (RSI) in my left wrist that make it uncomfortable to bend in the way you need to palm a keyboard. Thankfully, there is a solution. Using PowerToys you can remap keys on Windows. The Copilot key on my machine is F23. I’ve remapped it to Left CTRL and I’ve been able to save my wrist some much needed stress.
