Microsoft finally lets us use a Windows keyboard shortcut it removed a year ago

Do you remember what the Win + C hotkey did? If not, you probably don’t recall when Microsoft cruelly wrenched the hotkey out of our hands in a bid to get people using the then-new Copilot key on keyboards. However, since then, Microsoft has reneged on the Copilot key, allowing users to rebind it to perform other jobs. Now, it appears that the company is experimenting with giving us the Win + C shortcut back, alongside some options for changing what it does.

Microsoft is letting us use the Win + C hotkey again (hopefully)

If you don’t remember what Win + C did, it was a shifting shortcut that morphed into opening whatever service Microsoft wanted us to use at the time. It started with Cortana, moved onto opening Teams, and became the hotkey for opening Copilot.

However, Microsoft began asking keyboard manufacturers to add a dedicated Copilot key, so there was no need for the Win + C hotkey anymore. It got scrapped, and would seemingly stay that way forever. However, it turns out that people weren’t as excited for a dedicated Copilot assistant key as Microsoft had hoped, and the company began adding ways for people to change what the key did.

So, if Microsoft is backing down on making the Copilot key a permanent, unchangeable feature on keyboard, surely that means that the Win + C hotkey can return? Well, as PhantomOfEarth on X spotted, Microsoft is experimenting with that very idea.

So, what does Microsoft mean when it says it will let you “choose what happens?” Well, PhantomOfEarth also dug up a nugget of info back in February, claiming that Microsoft will allow the Copilot key to open a context menu; you know, the feature the original keyboard key had before it got Copilot-ed. From the wording in the above X post, it seems that you’ll set one action that both the Copilot and Win + C hotkey will perform, so there’s a good chance you’ll have the option to open context menus with the hotkey too.