Microsoft is rolling out new cumulative updates to turn off the Win + C keyboard shortcut in Windows 11 22H2 or newer. Windows 11 24H2 also ships without this keyboard shortcut, which is interesting because Win + C has been part of the OS for more than a decade.

Win + C is one of the most cursed shortcuts on Windows. Every feature it was tied to, like the Windows 8 Charms bar and Cortana, was removed.

Until now, Win + C opened Cortana or Copilot in Windows 11 (and Windows 10), but Microsoft has confirmed that it will decouple Copilot from the taskbar and offer it as an app. As a result, it no longer makes sense to assign a keyboard shortcut to Copilot, especially since Copilot has just become a web app.

This move is particularly interesting because Copilot replaced Cortana, and Microsoft mapped the Win + C shortcut to open the AI-powered sidebar. Copilot was originally supposed to be tied to the taskbar’s system tray area, next to the “Show desktop” button.

However, Microsoft no longer plans to force Copilot.

While the Copilot app will remain pinned to the taskbar by default, it is no longer linked to Win + C shortcut, and you can completely remove it with a few clicks.

The new Copilot is just a web app now and does not appear in the right sidebar of the desktop. In fact, Windows Latest observed that the new Copilot app literally opens copilot.microsoft.com in the Microsoft Edge window.

Microsoft has not even turned off Edge’s right-click menu, which means you can browse any website using Copilot web wrapper.

The Win + C keyboard shortcut is vacant now

The Win + C keyboard shortcut has a history of being linked to features that eventually get removed.

Back in the days of Windows 8, Win + C was the keyboard shortcut for Charms Bar, which allowed people with a touchscreen to access the Start and Search bar.

With Windows 10, Microsoft killed off Charms Bar and mapped Win + C to open Cortana. Windows 11 also retained this keyboard shortcut, which was eventually updated to open Copilot after Microsoft killed off Cortana.

Microsoft tells me Win + C will stop working in the coming weeks, but you can always open Copilot from the taskbar like any other app.

Do the changes mean Copilot is on the back burner? Absolutely not, but it looks like Microsoft has other plans for Copilot in Windows.

Deep integration with Windows, including using Copilot as an assistant when playing Minecraft and other apps, is still planned.

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