Editor-DN
Microsoft has announced the addition of the Copilot key to PC keyboards. This key is already present in the new line of Microsoft Surface devices, including the Microsoft Surface 6 for Business, which I recently had the opportunity to test drive. Pressing the Copilot key opens Windows Copilot.
After testing the Surface 6 for Business, two things occurred to me. First, while a Copilot key can be useful, most keyboards don’t yet have one. Second, depending on the task at hand, Windows 11 Copilot Might not always be the best AI assistant. This led me to consider the possibility of reassigning an unused key on a standard keyboard, or perhaps specifying a hotkey, to launch Chat GPT Instead of Windows Copilot.
Initially, I didn’t believe that creating a custom “ChatGPT key” would require a lot of custom coding. However, I found that it was surprisingly easy to do.
Create a desktop shortcut for ChatGPT
The first step is to create a desktop shortcut that points to ChatGPT (or any other AI assistant you want to use). Start by right-clicking on the Windows desktop. From the shortcut menu, New | select Shortcut commands. Windows will prompt you to specify the location of the item. Go ahead and enter. https://chat.openai.com/ (shown in Figure 1) and click Next.
Figure 1. Enter the URL of the AI Assistant you want to use.
Windows will now prompt you to provide a name for the shortcut. Just type. Chat GPT Or whatever name you want, then click Finish to create a shortcut on your desktop.
Map the ChatGPT shortcut key
Now that you’ve created a ChatGPT shortcut, you need to map it to a key on your keyboard. Whether you choose a hotkey or assign a specific key on your keyboard to launch the AI Assistant, you’ll need to associate a key combination with a shortcut in both scenarios. For this article, I’ll use Ctrl+Alt+A, but the actual key combination is up to you. Just make sure you don’t assign a key combination that’s already in use.
Right-click the shortcut you created and select Properties from the shortcut menu. This opens the shortcut’s properties sheet. Select the Web Document tab and then select the Shortcut Keys field. Press the key combination you’ve decided on (Figure 2). Once you’ve added your key combination to the Shortcut Key field, click OK to complete the key assignment.
Figure 2. Press the key combination you want to use and then click OK.
Now that the properties sheet is closed, go ahead and test your shortcut key combination to make sure the desired website loads. If you’re satisfied and want to continue using hotkey combinations to launch AI Assistant, you can stop here. If you want to use a specific key on your keyboard as an “AI key” you’ll need to do one more thing.
Determining the AI key on the keyboard
To map ChatGPT to a keyboard key, you’ll need to download and install it from PowerTools. This Microsoft page. I recently wrote one Article about Windows PowerToysa collection of 24 different utilities that customize the behavior of Windows.
After PowerTools is installed, enable its Keyboard Manager tool and click the Reset Keys link. Next, click the Select button and press the keyboard you want to remap. Click OK, then send the text. Select the Send Key/Shortcut option and click Select. Now press the hotkey combination that you associated with the shortcut earlier.
For example, in Figure 3, you can see that I’ve remapped the Windows Media Center key on my keyboard so that when pressed, it sends Ctrl+Alt+A, the hotkey combination I’ve assigned to my keyboard. What is associated with the ChatGPT shortcut?
Figure 3. I have regenerated my windows media center key.
Click OK to complete the process.
It’s worth noting that sometimes Keyboard Manager may display a warning message stating that a specific key is not mapped. It is generally safe to ignore this warning. After closing PowerToys, you should be able to use the key you chose to start the desired ChatGPT.
