this post was submitted on 07 Feb 2026
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The new Micro~~soft~~slop copilot key always sends the following key-sequence when pressed down:

copilot key down: left-shift-down left-meta-down f23-down f23-up left-meta-up left-shift-up
copilot key up: <null>

This means there's no real key-up event when you release the key --> it can't be used (properly) as a modifier like ctrl or alt.

The workaround is to send a pretend key-up event after a time delay, but then you mustn't be too slow / fast when pressing a shortcut.

tldr: AI took a perfectly working modifier key from you.

--- edit ---
Some keyboards apparently do the "right" thing and don't send the whole sequence at once, you can remap those properly with keyd, see: https://github.com/rvaiya/keyd/issues/1025#issuecomment-2971556563 / https://github.com/rvaiya/keyd/issues/825

copilot key down: left-shift-down left-meta-down f23-down
copilot key up: f23-up left-meta-up left-shift-up

this will still break "left-shift + remapped copilot" and "left-meta + remapped copilot", but "RCtrl + letter key" can work as expected

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[–] lvxferre@mander.xyz 6 points 1 day ago (3 children)

I still miss times when the bottom row was just Ctrl, Alt, Space, Alt, Ctrl.

[–] jol@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I miss the menu key so much.... It was the way I accessed the spelling corrector. Using a mouse for that is so cursed. The menu key had other uses too as the context is useful.

[–] msage@programming.dev 7 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I like the Meta key.

I use dwm, so that key is my lifeline.

[–] lvxferre@mander.xyz 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I use it as a Compose key, but it's just because it's there; I also did something similar with the Scroll Lock key (I repurposed it to signal "turn it off" for certain autoclicking scripts, otherwise it would be completely useless). IMO keyboards are all fucking wrong anyway.

[–] degen@midwest.social 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Remap that ish to capslock and now we're talkin

[–] msage@programming.dev 1 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Capslock is remapped to ESC because I also use Neovim.

[–] degen@midwest.social 1 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago) (1 children)

ESC on tap, timeout to Super on hold 😎

edit: keyd makes it as easy as capslock = overloadt2(meta, esc, 300)

[–] msage@programming.dev 1 points 3 hours ago

Yuck, holding.

Nah fam, no altered behaviour for the same key based on time.

[–] schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I'm not old enough to remember those times; but why would you miss that? It's certainly useful to have a meta/super key for desktop environment shortcuts, and I use the menu key as a compose key, though admittedly without the menu key I would probably put that on the right control key. :D

[–] lvxferre@mander.xyz 1 points 1 day ago

I guess it's a bit of "old man yells at cloud"? Plus I miss the bigger space bar.