Microsoft in their infinite wisdom has replaced the Hide Desktop icon with Copilot.

I must admit, "Linux becomes the refuge of luddites" was never on any bingo card I could have conceived of for 202X.

Muscle memory abuse

I've been using Linux since Ubuntu was in the single digits. Looks like windows entering the double digits is finally the end. I thought win10 would be able to stay relatively unmolested, but nope, copilot button and bullshit right there in the bar. Why can't you just leave us the fuck alone. Your driving everyone away who doesn't have a professional obligation to use your OS. I'll still have to keep a old win10 boot drive that never connects to a network so I can play games and use CAD that Linux can't. As a KDE fanboi they've added pretty much everything I've always wished for and plasma 6 is launching.

Now is my time. Fuck you Microsoft. I won't miss you.

I noticed this bullshit a few days ago on my Win 11 desktop! I found if you go check the settings of the start bar, you can hide the copilot icon in the lower right, and then there's a check box to enable the lower right hand corner to work as show desktop again. The functionality can be restore to exactly as it was, but what the hell were they thinking.

Enshitification, plain and simple.

Switch to Linux!

As a Linux user myself, let me tell you that telling people what they should/must do this is how you make people plainly ignore you and think you're just an annoying person.

People will keep using what works for them, be it Windows/Linux/MacOS even if with minor inconveniences. Same goes for browsers/services/etc...

Just once I would love to open one of these threads without seeing people shitting... on Linux.

Linux is not even the one doing anything wrong but people gotta rag on whoever recommends it as an alternative. This is getting more annoying than however annoying they say Linux users are.

edit: Just to make clear because some folks aren't getting it, this is not an invitation to argue about how you feel about Linux and Linux users. I. don't. fucking. care. I don't even use Linux. Take it to someone who cares.

Wow, Microsoft are always so innovative! I never thought that the Win11 taskbar could get any shittier, but somehow they managed it. It's great to see those thousands of engineers being put to good use.

just switched to Linux for the first time this week!

... You guys might shit on it, but that's incredibly smart on their part. Ten years or more of that button being there and now suddenly something else replaces it, just imagine the amount of people accidentally hitting the button and being introduced to copilot. This was a very deliberate change.

Linux exists people, without copilot using your information for training data and if you game, has Valve releasing updates like crazy for proton making it easier and easier to use Linux for gaming. The only thing I use Windows for is GeForce now as the windows and Mac apps are the only way for me to play 1440p 120fps with their service.

Good beginner distros: pop_os, Ubuntu, Linux mint, Nobara or fedora, Garuda, Manjaro, solus, zorin. The possibilities are really endless. Just take your pick, make a bootable USB and try it out.

Windows Key+D

Press it again to restore all apps to foreground.

Just press windows+d bro.

I forgot that the button exists.

You can still re-enable it in the taskbar settings. Personally I like asking an AI to do stuff, so I like the Copilot icon in my taskbar, BUT NOT ON THE FREAKING BOTTOM RIGHT CORNER GODDAMMIT THAT'S FOR LIKE NOTIFICATIONS
AND NOW NOTIFICATIONS GO OVER COPILOT BUT NOT QUICK SETTINGS FOR SOME REASON AND IF YOU BRING UP QUICK SETTINGS IT SHIFTS TO THE LEFT AND HIDES NOTIFICATIONS??
at least I won't accidentally hide my desktop while clicking copilot in a place where it shouldn't have been
except oh no signing in to unlock copilot doesn't even fucking work

time to grind on my giant arch migration checklist and hunt for a good foobar2000 alternative which i'll likely never finish

Maybe stop telling people what OS to use? Even if I would have ever considered switching to linux, its users are so god damn annoying that I would never do so now

I'm so glad I switched to linux

Penguin lovers, assemble.

Typical capitalist race to the bottom to appease investors with short term decision making

Windows 11 offers nothing better than Windows 10, but there's a few key things that don't work as good/bugged on win11 for me. Should have not updated I think

LMAO?? HOW TO GET ME TO NEVER USE IT

I guess they figured out where people clicked a lot and put the button there?

Looking forward to the Google search trends for "disable copilot"

Win+d, I wasn't even aware there was an icon for it. If it's not the date, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or VPN, I'm all keys

can this be hidden via registry or group policy?

Sorry about all the dorks here. You spotted a problem and proposed a solution and rather than propose better solutions people are just bitching about the suggested solution without offering better ideas.

It’s too bad that the year of the linux desktop has been so long in the coming. Because now, it really is far superior to windows. Bluetooth, printers, and games even “just work” these days.

/shrug

so.... where's the hide button?

I've already switched to Linux partially. My PC now dual boots to Manjaro and Windows. I won't switch completely, but it's great to have such an awesome alternative right there one click of a button away. And the funny thing is that I'm not even the only one amongst my friends to do that. We are now three already and we even game on Linux too.

I can't run a lot of games with anti-cheat on Linux, so it's not viable for me.

Is that a default-ish tray these days? It looks like a complete mess.

Please stop. This is getting me depressed and I don't even use Windows.

Switch to Linux!

Where your sound card can stop working randomly when you reboot, or your network card won't work at the same time as your mouse!

I would be annoyed but does anyone actually use the show desktop button?

These threads are exhausting. You can easily turn this off. I didn't even have to look up how, I right clicked the task bar weeks ago and just disabled it. I didn't notice it move because it had been off this whole time.

But sure... The ONLY solution is to ditch Windows.

I'm trying to move to Linux! I game on a custom built chimera OS computer using an AMD GPU. I've been using a MacBook Pro as a life raft. I still need windows for work.

I've considered once 24H2 Windows 11 release comes out that I would try to customize that image and keep it like an LTSC but I heard about some read only registry components that are going to make that very difficult. I'll just kick around on Win 10 LTSC for anything that I can't get rid of until it's no longer useful.

macOS here yay, the ui is sooo good

Windows is seriously worst mix out of the three options. The only thing it has is legacy programs support and it’s not even a pro just a feature someone may need

And VR gaming yeah unfortunately I am not sure anything will replace my gaming 4090 7800x3d rig soon. Unless I will just get bored with it.

Worst thing is windows isn’t even better for gaming. It’s just better because it’s what devs release for because everyone uses it. It would be so much better on Mac or Linux, you know actual modern systems instead of the convoluted windows frankenstein one has to go back to to run the latest drivers.

I am almost ready to sell the rig and finally say goodbye if not for VR

Windows is shitty—don't get me wrong. But for all my coursework it's pretty annoying to do on Linux. Especially Office, and yes I am well aware it's a MS product and that Linux-support will likely never come. Though the limited online version of Office or LibreOffice don't quite cut it for me. Besides, running it with Wine or in a VM is too much of a hassle.

So "Switch to Linux!" is not really a solution for some. Let's hope that'll change in the future.

With that said, fuck Microsoft! I use NixOS btw.

they are really tempting me to switch to linux already

I'm just glad Copilot isn't available in Europe.

Not on Windows 7, they haven't.

Never 10 for life!

I never pressed that button anyway I just use the keyboard shortcut.

Maybe here is a good place to ask. I have used Mint for months now on my non-gaming laptop. I like it. I was ready to move my gaming rig at months end. Then I read that it can have issues with multiple monitors at different refresh rates and also with Mouse acceleration. Is this true and is there a solution?

A decision that also lightly favors business as the "hide desktop" button has a general reputation as the "uh oh, the boss is coming!" button. Definitely not their first purpose here, but a "nice" side benefit for the pro-enshittification crowd.

@AnActOfCreation You can re-enable it in the Taskbar settings, though (as you also can hide Copilot the same way?).

I didn't even realize that there was a button there before. I always just hit Win-D.

And this is why I should switch to linux? I guess any chance a linux user is going to use to tell you they use linux is good enough.

Honestly, people who are still on windows at this point deserve this shit. 99% of corporate IT users are completely unwilling to stand up to their company's IT policies, no matter how disruptive those are to the workflow - and I am not even talking about operating system choice here.

Since 95% and more of my colleagues in all prior jobs refused to stand up for the most basic necessities (such as a proper email program, or webmail access while NOT on a corporate device), then I don't give a fuck about them suffering from Windows while I happily left corporate IT for a service contract and work on my self-managed device.

I still don't even see copilot on my win11 machine. I'm up to date as far as I know. Am I supposed to have it by now?

Wait until they replace the second option of the Desktop right click menu to something AI.

The only thing keeping me on windows is EFT.

Im still rocking my win 10 with the beta release of copilot

Wow, I have no idea what copilot is and why would you want to hide the desktop. It used to be you had 'show desktop' button on the task bar. I guess I've been happily using Linux for too long.

I have an alternative: just use Windows 7. No problem. No ad. No Linux Terminal scary. All program works. Do the needful, switch now.