Microsoft’s Copilot key will soon let you run apps on Windows 11

Microsoft plans to let Windows 11 users customize the Copilot key, which has started shipping on recent laptops and keyboards. The Copilot key is set up by default to launch Microsoft’s Copilot app in Windows 11, but the company is now testing the ability to exploit it to launch other apps.

The recent Windows 11 beta includes personalization changes, available to testers today. “You can choose to have your Copilot key launch an app that is packaged and signed in MSIX format, indicating that the app meets security and privacy requirements to keep customers safe,” explains the Windows Insider team in a blog post“The key will continue to launch Copilot on devices that have the Copilot app installed until the customer selects a different experience.”

Earlier this year, recent Copilot Plus computers also started shipping with this key, and Microsoft actually made Copilot less usable on these recent devices by turning Copilot into a web app in the latest 24H2 update to Windows 11.

This version of the Copilot web app no ​​longer integrates with Windows 11 Settings, so you can’t exploit the AI ​​assistant to control whether you have Shadowy Mode or various other settings turned on. It’s still unclear how Microsoft plans to evolve the Copilot experience on Windows, or whether the company will change its Copilot key into something that could be used more like the Windows key to launch shortcuts.

Given that the ability to personalize the Copilot key is already available to Windows 11 beta testers, I expect it to be available to all Windows 11 users in the coming months.