So consider the "Copilot button". I cannot imagine a way this could get implemented that doesn't come down to "there's a trap button on your keyboard that every time you press it, some nonobvious chunk of local/personal information gets sent over the Internet and bounces between multiple corporations". The privacy policy will claim the information is not "retained", but the moment this centralized data pipe exists every intelligence service on earth will have a high incentive to get a tap on it.

@mcc I only just learned a few things the "Windows" button does. I have no idea what the other one does - or what it's even called. It seems to bring up the right-click menu?

@mcc @TomF it's the Context Menu button. it's like a keyboard shortcut for right click, but specific to the behaviour of displaying a context menu. it's used by people who navigate by keyboard alone (e.g. tabbing through controls), often as an accessibility thing.

@mcc @TomF one example is if you have a neurological issue that results in hand shaking, using a mouse to click things can be very difficult, but Windows has an accessibility option called Filter Keys which ignores brief key presses and repeated key presses, making it much easier to use a keyboard. you can then navigate apps by using the Win key, tab, Alt (opens main menu), the context key, arrow keys, and enter.

@gsuberland @mcc @TomF Well, you can do that with classic programs. Keyboard navigation's really crippled in "modern" Windows apps (eg. there's basically no accelerators at all [accelerators = Alt+letter combinations that let you directly activate a control without having to Tab to it first], you have to navigate using both Tab and arrow keys, and there's a bunch of tab stops that do nothing at all).

@jernej__s @gsuberland @TomF I like navigating UIs by keyboard. A "right click keyboard focus" button sounds nice.

@mcc @gsuberland @TomF On Windows you can use Shift+F10 to get the right-click menu if your keyboard doesn't have a dedicated menu key.