Laptop lovers have a lot to be excited about in 2025. If CES is anything to go by, this year will be another excellent one when it comes to performance, design, and innovation in the laptop space. Over the last week, we covered everything from a laptop with a rollable display to what could be the perfect gaming laptop. While form factors, processors, displays, and other components vary across devices, there is one near constant on all the laptops announced. As far as I can tell, every laptop announced at CES 2025 features a dedicated Copilot key.
Microsoft seems determined to find a use for the key next to right-alt on a keyboard. That key used to be the menu key, though Microsoft toyed around with a dedicated Office key starting in 2019. While the Office key only appeared on Microsoft's own keyboards, the Copilot key is nearly ubiquitous on new PCs. The addition of a dedicated Copilot key was called the "most significant change to the Windows keyboard" in 30 years by Microsoft.
It appears general users did not view the "significant change" as a positive one. Immediately, people criticized the decision to take away the menu key and replace it with a Copilot key. Guides had to be made on how to remap keys on Windows 11 with an emphasis on removing the Copilot key shortcut. After some time, Microsoft started testing the option to remap the Copilot key to perform other shortcuts. That option rolled out to everyone in a Windows update, allowing you to launch other apps with the Copilot key on Windows 11.
I'm not arguing that Copilot is a waste of space in isolation. While I would prefer Microsoft make a native application for Copilot instead of using a web wrapper, Copilot has its uses. I use Copilot to draft social media posts for my American football team, perform research, and occasionally ask random questions. One of my favorite Copilot features is that it can create spreadsheets I can paste into Excel.
What I am arguing is that having a dedicated Copilot key on a keyboard is a waste of space. For anyone who wants to summon the tool quickly, Copilot already works with the keyboard shortcut Windows + C. Those who do not want to use Copilot have an entire key dedicated to a tool they'll never use.
I imagine my view of the Copilot key differs from that of Microsoft because of how important I think Copilot is. Very few functions have dedicated keys on Windows PCs, at least when considering the vast library of shortcuts placed at our fingertips. Some of the most common actions, like copy and paste, require a keyboard shortcut. Is a Copilot web wrapper truly more essential than copy or paste? It appears Microsoft thinks so, but I doubt many agree.
