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Comment by Zandikar | Hacker News Reader

Honestly, my initial reaction to this was my typical jaded, cynical, anti-MS self, but after consideration - and the key fact that they're replacing a key, not adding one necessitating a new layout - I'm honestly okay with this. does anyone use the menu key (the key that allegedly this will replace)? It's certainly one of the first to go in enthusiast keyboards using non standard 100% layouts, As long as it's not some stupid propreitary implementation and can be remapped to something useful for those of us not interested in a copilot hotkey, I'm fine with this.

Sidenote, what do people do for push to talk, because if I can disable the copilot trigger and just make this a PTT key then that's great, but I suspect a proper PTT button is one those things everyone else has solved and I've just been under a rock.

EDITED for clarity

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I use the menu key. And all this new key provides is to open copilot sidebar. That’s all. I expected something like a push to talk conversation agent using the key. It’s not the case. Very underwhelming, IMHO.

EDIT: I actually assumed it would open the sidebar because that’s what I saw on Scott Hanselman’s alternate shortcut trick video. Maybe Microsoft is planning for a push to talk agent. In that case, a dedicated key might be okay.

Mouse side button. Caps lock if I'm using a mouse that doesn't have one - but like, it depends on the context you're using PTT in. I only use it while gaming, really.

Soon we'll be living in the future Scotty envisioned. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hShY6xZWVGE

I don't use the menu key for daily-driver uses, but I have definitely used it in situations where the mouse was inoperable. It can occasionally be useful if a window gets stuck off-screen and you can't right click it. All rare scenarios, though.

> but does anyone use the menu key?

I've never used the menu key. I don't really know what it does (what menu it's supposed to pull up).

I object to software vendors dictating unnecessary features in peripherals their software isn't even going to run on.

It's mouse-right click but on the keyboard (context menu). I believe it's an accessibility thing now that I think about it, which might be why MS is saying "maybe" and considering other keys to replace instead - though that's speculation on my part.

Also, unless I misunderstood this, this is only being mandated for hardware that ships with Windows on it (Eg, surface or desktops that come with windows installed), so this is only being mandated for peripherals that their software is going to run on (or on devices those peripherals come with and connect to).

Will Dell be lazy and ship the copilot key on their ubuntu laptops? I'd be damned shocked if they didn't, but that's just them cutting corners/oversight if I understand this correctly? For example, System76 can completely disregard this if they so choose. I'm sure Apple will.

But, but...

Nearly all retail PCs are sold with Windows, even if Windows is blown away immediately and replaced with Linux or something. And while it may not be mandated for 3rd-party keyboards (e.g. logitech), it'll turn up on all of those too.

Yes, and?

Mandate != Trend.

There's a very important difference, and logitech et al following suite is a choice, just like there will plenty of enthusiast/premium/higher end offerings that will let you customize it in all number of ways - like they already do.

And just because those keyboards have the windows logo on the super key doesn't mean Linux is going to kernel panic when you press. I mean, there's always a chance I suppose, but then something far more interesting is going on.

If they're giving some sort of kickback or financial incentive to embrace, extend, extinguish something with this initiative, I wouldn't be surprised, but I see no indication of that yet.

It opens the context menu of the currently focused item. It's very useful for keyboard-centric Windows users (and probably works in KDE etc, though I haven't verified that).

I use the menu key where it's available, and ctrl-shift-F10 where it isn't. (Most new laptops seem to omit it.)

When I'm in Windows, that is, which is an ever-dwindling share of my time.

Interesting, may I ask why/how/in what scenarios? Is it a trackpad thing? I was assuming it was an accessibility thing. That key's always been strange to me, never could figure out who used it and for what.

It’s very handy for me when say I only have one finger available to operate the laptop (eg holding something/having dinner).

It’s quite useful to correct highlighted spelling errors.

Sometimes when I want to "right click" something, it's more comfortable to use the Menu key than to reach for the mouse. For example, when going through a list of items with the arrow keys.

My initial reaction was similar. I use the menu key, but rarely. I will certainly never use a copilot key.

I use a USB foot-pedal mapped to `.

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