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 14 points 1 week ago (3 children)

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

[–] jol@discuss.tchncs.de 8 points 1 week 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 week ago (2 children)

I like the Meta key.

I use dwm, so that key is my lifeline.

[–] lvxferre@mander.xyz 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week 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 week ago (1 children)

Remap that ish to capslock and now we're talkin

[–] msage@programming.dev 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Capslock is remapped to ESC because I also use Neovim.

[–] degen@midwest.social 1 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days 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 6 days ago (1 children)

Yuck, holding.

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

[–] degen@midwest.social 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

That's just to not emit the keyup for ESC after pressing Super+key and letting go. The only thing affected by time is a reeeaally long ESC press not registering (the same as holding Super for a second).

And rolling Super+key faster than the timeout resolves as a hold (Super) instead of tap (ESC), so there's zero jank unless you need to hold ESC, and there's still the real key.

[–] msage@programming.dev 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Alright, that may have its use.

[–] degen@midwest.social 2 points 4 days ago

I thought there was no way a binding like that would just work when I tried it and was blown away. Keyd's config is powerful but so simple. I urge any linux user interested in key layers or just remapping in general to check it out! Arguably hits top 5 software of all time.

[–] schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 1 week 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 2 points 1 week ago

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