How to fix an unresponsive Copilot key on your new Copilot+ PC

You would think that an AI PC—sorry, a Copilot+ PC—would nail down its AI experience. But Microsoft’s Copilot key on its new Surface Pro and Surface Laptop might be a little confusing to make work. If yours isn’t working, here’s what I did to fix it.

When I was testing the Surface Pro (2024) 11th Edition, the Copilot key just didn’t work. Period. After negotiating Microsoft’s unresponsive Flex Pro keyboard and its need for a firmware update, I was shaking my head. What now?

As it turns out, I’m not sure if my unresponsive Copilot key was a quirk of the review process or a broader problem with Copilot+ PCs, but here’s what happened and how I solved it. (Note that a colleague of mine, freelancer Matthew Smith, and former Microsoft Most Valuable Partner Rafael Rivera also experienced similar issues.)

Copilot is now an app—one that Microsoft may be classifying as another of those “apps” that are really shortcuts to the Microsoft Store, similar to the Instant Games feature that rolled out a short time ago. I’m not sure if Copilot comes “installed” on the PC, but if you ask for it via searching (like I did), it downloads in a flash.

The problem is that even after I “downloaded” the Copilot app, the Copilot key didn’t work.

On the Surface Pro, the Copilot key shares space with the Menu key. (Tapping the Menu key brings up a context menu that’s very much like right-clicking in an application.) To swap between the Menu and Copilot functions, you have to tap the Function Lock (Fn) key—but that didn’t seem to work either. The key just didn’t respond.

Well, all three of us apparently “solved” the problem just by tapping the Fn key on and off a few times until the Copilot key decided to behave, all after updating the Flex Pro keyboard’s firmware, which took… a while? Suddenly, it just started working again.

I have no idea if Microsoft will patch this out (hopefully) or whether the same bug will appear in other Copilot+ PCs. But if you’re going a little nuts over the initial Copilot experience, hopefully this helps.

Author: Mark Hachman, Senior Editor, PCWorld

Mark has written for PCWorld for the last decade, with 30 years of experience covering technology. He has authored over 3,500 articles for PCWorld alone, covering PC microprocessors, peripherals, and Microsoft Windows, among other topics. Mark has written for publications including PC Magazine, Byte, eWEEK, Popular Science and Electronic Buyers’ News, where he shared a Jesse H. Neal Award for breaking news. He recently handed over a collection of several dozen Thunderbolt docks and USB-C hubs because his office simply has no more room.

Recent stories by Mark Hachman:

Good news! Most apps I’ve tried on Microsoft’s Copilot+ Surface just workGot a new Copilot+ PC? Don’t rush to install ChromeSurface Pro (2024) first impressions: This AI tablet needs more I