Please Remove or Remap the Copilot Key

Question

Posting to express my deep frustration with the addition of the Copilot key on your laptops.

This key is unnecessary, obtrusive, and actively reduces productivity:

It cannot be reliably remapped to a useful function through Windows tools (PowerToys, SharkKeys)
It is in the position of the heavily used right ctrl key, meaning most times I go to move right or left by word (ctrl-right arrow, ctrl-left arrow), I instead open a new app. Extremely irritating!
Your firmware drivers mask the key, preventing standard scancode remapping utilities from fixing it.

Customers expect Dell hardware to empower productivity, not frustrate it. Instead, this feels like Microsoft bloatware forced into hardware, with no opt-out for the people actually paying for the machine.

Unless Dell restores control back to the customer — either by removing the Copilot key in future designs, or by publishing a proper driver/firmware update that allows us to fully remap or disable it — I will seriously reconsider purchasing Dell again and will be recommending other brands to colleagues and peers. I would have thought people would have learned better from Samsung's horribly failed Bixby dedicated button experience. You have caused me to NEVER consider using copilot due to your heavy handed techniques. I spent most of today getting autohotkey to (mostly) remap the key back to its original purpose of being the right control key. Ugh!

Please cease prioritizing marketing gimmicks over usability. Give us back control of our own keyboards.

DELL-ChrisM2 · Answer

@user_aa36b0​ The new Dell Copilot design Laptops are the standard going forward.From the article = How to launch Microsoft Copilot in Windows

DELL-Cares auto response · Answer

Hello! Thank you for reaching out to us. I am your Dell-Cares contact for order related queries. Unfortunately, our customer service is currently unavailable. We are available Monday through Friday. Please reach out to us on any of these days and we will be glad to assist you. Thanks for being a loyal Dell Technologies customer.

user_aa36b0 · Answer

I agree; what a BIG mistake to replace the CTRL with this key... Please fix this!

SlowDave · Answer

chatgpt begs to differ. There IS a fix, you are just not willing to provide it and it requires a pretty deep work around. It is atrocious that you Dell does not provide a work-around to this, and even more horrific that you spread mis-truths that is not defeatable.

Short version: I installed autohotkey and had to remap key *combinations* such as:
<copilot-right arrow> == ctrl-right arrow
<copilot-left arrow>==ctrl-left arrow

It is WAY too difficult just to return my keyboard to full functionality, and I will not be buying another computer without a right ctrl key, so stay this course and lose customers or cut your losses and be customer led. Your choice.

xcopy99 · Answer

This is awful.

I purchased a Pro Max Premium as a test and expected to be able to remap the right control key to its necessary functionality. I could absolutely not care any less for a copilot key and it basically ruins the computer.

Dell should be ashamed for selling defective products. Will never buy another one unless fixed, nor will the three additional computers be purchased at my direction.

xcopy99 · Answer

OK, I tried it again and it does appear that you can remap it in Powertoys 94.1. I had tried this before and thought I'd wait to see if Dell came up with something, but as long as this works it should be OK.

Still disappointed that they would even do such a thing in the first place. It's like "Hey, let's trash the keyboard for everyone that knows how to type. Yeah, that's a great idea, and we'll foist unwanted software on them at the same time."

Anyway, follow the instructions on this page (he's talking about the "End" key, but you can translate it to the Copilot key.

Tip of the day... Windows 11 was designed by gerbils...

user_d91384 · Answer

I am lefty, so I use right control key all the time. I almost never use the left control key. And change copilot key to right control key is too complicated. If you change it, at least give us an easy way to customize to change it back. It's ridiculous. I spend $2000 on a stupid computer have no right control key!!!

db9fh1993fp9h · Answer

Hi Dell, do you have any blind users? What do they have to say about the copilot key?

JAWS, the leading screenreader software used by blind users, only runs on windows, is inconvenienced greatly by this key.

We have a blind user who we found the perfect laptop for, but this key breaks their experience. This is an experience that in my opinion that Microsoft or DELL has NO business breaking. We want the right CTRL key back.

We tried remapping it with powertoys, but the remapping the shortcut (Tried the Key itself, too, and many other parameters, and followed many guides and youtube videos) and the known workaround no longer works. The key seems to still be bound to the OS functions therein.

We tried uninstalling copilot, and remapping the shortcut, and the key still reaches out for OS functions. (This used to work, but apparently no longer does).

I'm submitting an RMA for this laptop, sadly, and am now in the market for a "Non-copilot laptop".

If anyone at DELL is reading this, please send feedback up the ladder to stop this kind of greedy, selfish behavior. We never wanted branded keys on our keyboards.

I'm convinced "Copilot", and Microsoft's current leadership of "Spam first, product second" right now is a temporary blip. Please don't let them strongarm you into making disadvantaged hardware so they can shove their branding in our faces. Sysadmins genuinely hate the copilot experience, and how it's encroaching like a virus on all Microsoft machines. It's all spam, ads, privacy invasion, begging for subscriptions, and unwanted apps. Literally nothing good for the users here. Only Microsoft trying again and again to make a walled garden like Apple, except theirs is full of trash and self-service for Microsoft.

SlowDave · Answer

There is a very simple fix: buy any computer that is not made by Dell. Simple. I hope your company goes bankrupt off of this unbelievably stupid move and subsequent unwillingness to meet customer requirements.

Want an actual computer? Buy any non-Dell brand.
Want an advertising brick for Copilot: buy a Dell.

You've made it very clear.

DELL-ChrisM2 · Answer

A quick search shows that Acer, ASUS, HP, Lenovo, and MSI also use the same/similar location for the Copilot Key on their 2025 models.

SlowDave · Answer

Well, there you go. You may have played down to the same level of customer disappointment as most of your competitors. A proud day for sure. How about provide something useful like which providers are giving the customer what they want instead of the list of losers?

ScottScottScott · Answer

I agree 100% with this complaint.  I am currently asking my Onsite IT Dept. if they can get me a non-Dell laptop.  This CoPilot button is THAT annoying that I want to throw this laptop in the trash.

db9fh1993fp9h · Answer

People don't want the copilot button, and you're giving people directions on how to use it. There is a fix, and it's not buying anything with copilot on it. I can't believe the low effort here by Dell. You didn't even suggest a key remapping app, or anything helpful. Then you go and tell people how to launch copilot, which is the exact thing we don't want.

(edited)

user_7132de · Answer

Folks at DELL, please provide a firmware fix so that the copilot key does NOT inject more than 1 scancode! If you want to make the default behavior of that scancode launch MS Copilot, okay, but please please let me remap it so I can Ctl-arrow and Shift-Ctl-arrow. This is so annoying. I have used the PowerToys to remap the key to Ctrl (Right), but it doesn't work with the Shift because the firmware already included the Shift in the injection!

Gemikro1 · Answer

One more quite serious issue:
Removing the right CTRL key is a real pain for any left-handed person !
There are a over a dozen left handed colleagues that i know of in my company.
All of us will have a huge issue with the modification to this useless copilot key.
As our left hand is holding the mouse, we will have to reach over the entire keyboard with our right hand in order to enter ANY commands that require a CTRL key combination.
This feels like having to scratch your left ear with your right toe and is an absolute discrimination of left-handed persons !

XPS

Please Remove or Remap the Copilot Key

Was this post helpful?