Fed up with Copilot in Windows 11? Microsoft pushing a new keyboard shortcut for the AI isn’t likely to help, and it could mess with your desktop mojo
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Shortcut hijack is likely to frustrate some people. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. Microsoft is keen to get folks on Windows 11 using its Copilot assistant more, and the software giant is now flagging up a fresh keyboard shortcut to summon the AI to your desktop.
![[Copilot button]](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/HiSaP5nhHmvHTbGzqdhkaZ-320-80.jpg)
Windows Latest reports that after updating the Copilot app in Windows 11 – remember, the assistant was turned into a standalone app last year, in a separate window, whereas it was previously anchored to the right-hand side of the desktop – the tech site received a pop-up promoting the new shortcut for Copilot.
![[a person's hands holding a black PC gaming handheld]](https://vanilla.futurecdn.net/cyclingnews/media/img/missing-image.svg)
The pop-up tells the user that they can hit Alt + Space as a keyboard shortcut to fire up the Copilot app. This panel also has a button to click to enable the shortcut, or you can pass on that option and click ‘Not now’ if you prefer. This was seen last month in testing, where it was introduced to open Copilot’s new ‘quick view’ feature. (The dedicated Copilot key, on PCs that have it, is used to open the assistant in its main view – though this key can be reconfigured).
So, this functionality is seemingly rolling out via an update to the Copilot application, with a fresh prompt to use it. Okay, then – what’s the big deal here? Well, for some Windows 11 users, this won’t be important. However, others may have Alt + Space set to something else (PowerToys uses it, for one thing), and moreover, by default, it also brings up the context menu for any active window. That’s part of the core Windows 11 interface, and it might be an ability used regularly in the workflows of some folks.
