Apple key, not Windows key

[Leauki]

One of the great features of Microsoft Virtual PC was that the Apple key did not have an effect on it and was available as a handy escape from Windows, making it possible to specifically target Mac OS features.

I am pretty happy with Parallels, but a great feature would be if the Apple key would not be interpreted as the Windows key under Windows!

[constant]

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But how would the windows key be activated?
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[palter]

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But how would the windows key be activated?
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As I remember, Virtual PC took advantage of the fact that there are two Apple keys. The left Apple key was interpreted normally and the right Apple key was mapped to the Windows key.

[Leauki]

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But how would the windows key be activated?
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What for? Ctrl-Esc does the same thing and it always worked before all PCs came with these new Windows keyboards.

[diamondsw]

One of the great features of Microsoft Virtual PC was that the Apple key did not have an effect on it and was available as a handy escape from Windows, making it possible to specifically target Mac OS features.

I'm HEAVILY in favor of this, if only so command-tab will work properly. Then maybe we can get things like "Command-F" to toggle full screen, as God intended. :)

[a.c]

here here.

[Djoh]

I agree. I always used to Apple-Tab into my chat program, or something else I wanted to use on the Mac-side, or whatever. I had no problem with Windows key being some combination, like Ctrl-Option-W (or whatever you prefer). I can use the Mac OS without Windows even knowing I'm doing anything.

Having the Apple-Key being useable means there's always an easy way to use the Mac OS's features, as opposed to switching out of full screen/stopping input capture and Then doing whatever you wanted.

[dbinseattle]

I'm really glad to see I'm not the only one with this wish. I have only been using Parallels for a few days, but it bugs the heck out of me that everytime I try to use Command-Tab to switch to another application, that Windows menu pops up in my Parallels window. I hope something can be done about this issue soon.

[Resuna]

What for? Ctrl-Esc does the same thing and it always worked before all PCs came with these new Windows keyboards.Agreed, I have a PC keyboard on my Mac and I use the "Menu" key to control Virtue Desktops, and I have never used the "Windows" or "Menu" keys on Windows. I would love the option of pretending to the virtual machine that I have an old 101-key layout instead of the new 104-key layout it uses now.

[barefootguru]

I'm really glad to see I'm not the only one with this wish. I have only been using Parallels for a few days, but it bugs the heck out of me that everytime I try to use Command-Tab to switch to another application, that Windows menu pops up in my Parallels window.
Strongly agree!

[tgrogan]

Isn't this all configurable in the host OS? I run a very minimal window manager in Linux and have no trouble telling it which key combos to send where.

[barefootguru]

Isn't this all configurable in the host OS? I run a very minimal window manager in Linux and have no trouble telling it which key combos to send where.
Surely you'd configure Parallels to never send the command key to the emulated OS? Once Windows has got the key stroke, how's it meant to pass it back to the Mac OS?

[tgrogan]

I do admit that I don't follow all of this thread. Keystrokes are sent to an active window (has focus) in any OS, even if it happens to be the desktop. If you need to use a keystroke in your host OS, then you assign it. If you wish to use that particular keystroke in a Parallels window, then you unassign it in the host OS and it will pass thru. This is how Linux works and I'm sure that Mac does too.

For example: Some Linuxs' use ctrl-alt-delete to initiate a shutdown. I use a lot of windoze VMs and would rather use those keys to bring up the Task Manager to kill a frozen app in windoze. So I unassign those keys in Linux, and they are passed to the windoze VM, but only if the VM has the focus. Otherwise it is ignored by Linux since it is disabled. I'm almost certain that some sort of host OS windowing system interaction would be needed to do dynamic switching based on which particular window had the focus to change the effect of a key stroke action. You're right that there is no possibility for a (proprietary) guest to pass back a key stroke to the host.

[barefootguru]

I do admit that I don't follow all of this thread.
We're talking about Parallels Desktop running on OS X, and running Windows inside Parallels Desktop.

On OS X, command-tab _always_ switches between apps. Except that is, when you're running Windows inside PD, in which case it gets sent to Windows instead.

Given that Macs have both command and control keys, the usual behaviour (e.g. Virtual PC and Remote Desktop Connection) is to leave command for the Mac OS, and ctrl for the guest OS. That's how we'd like PD to behave too.

[jwiegley]

I'm really surprised this hasn't been addressed yet. Having my apple key interpreted as command is pretty much taking years off of my life. Here is my usual scenario:

1. I'm in Parallels, happily computing away (it's such a great environment, it makes doing ASP.NET development on my MBP quite a joy).

2. Then I hit Cmd-Tab, since it's hardwired into my brain. But no! Now I've just popped up the start menu and deselected my foreground process. No matter how many times I tell myself, I always forget that Parallels uses apple as the windows key. Doh!

3. So I move my cursor outside of the window so that I can apple-tab.

4. I go do something else, then apple-tab back to Parallels. But wait! Now Parallels has interpreted the *release* of apple-tab as a pressing of the Windows key. Once again I get the start menu and lose focus on my foreground app. So I click on it to get focus again.

5. Then I bring up IE for something. I start typing in a URL, only to find that when I hit the "m" key, it minimizes IE! Somehow (in build 3036) the windows key state is being held persistent, so that even though I'm not touching the apple key, it thinks I'm pressing apple-m when I press m.

This is driving me seriously crazy. I almost have to believe that the developers just don't use Desktop for Mac except to run Parallels. They certainly don't have a need to switch to other apps very often!!

John

[Resuna]

This is driving me nuts. cashews, I think.

Please, please, give us a way to disable the "Windows Keys" and leave them for OSX...

[Zwilnik]

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But how would the windows key be activated?
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Seeing as the windows key is usually forcibly removed on any keyboards I have to connect to non virtual PCs, I'd hope never :)

[Siker]

I agree with all of the above. I use Virtue Desktops with Command+Alt to switch desktops. But every time I switch to the Parallels desktop, the start menu pops up, so I lose focus from the window I was using in Windows. I can't easily switch between desktops because of this - every time I come back to parallels I have to reach for the mouse to click the window I was working in.

This of course gets a little bit worse with Coherence. The start menu pops up left and right when I use coherence.

[diamondsw]

Is this yet another thread that will be completely ignored?

As far as I can tell, there are three sensible options for the user:
1) Map command key to Windows key (current default)
2) Swap command and control keys (to allow easy shortcuts in Windows)
3) Leave the command key alone - do not map (allows easy integration with Mac OS X)

When will we see option 3?

[Siker]

I solved my problem here by activating the 'Swap CMD/CTRL' option in Parallels Keyboard Preferences. Now I can switch programs using Apple-Tab and so forth without calling up the Windows menu from inside of Parallels. To call up the Windows menu I instead hit 'ctrl'.

As an added bonus, copy and paste now works like normal: command-C to copy and command-V to paste - both in the Mac and in Windows.

[Zwilnik]

The problem with 'Swap CMD/CTRL' is that having recently switched from a hardware PC to using Parallels, I tend to still hit the Control key a lot, which would slow me down just as much as the Windows key being on the Command key. At the moment, it's on the command key (don't want to mess with the registry), so I'm tending to use Ctrl-C etc. in Windows and Cmd-C in Mac OS, but ideally I'd like to get into the habit of using command all the time which I can't do if it's going to trigger the ***** Windows menu every few hits.

[rkcarter]

My preference, in order would be:

1) User gets to pick a key / key combo (or none at all) to map Windows key to.

2) An option simply to disable the Windows key.

Another thought occurs -- since Apple+TAB does still work for me (but brings up the Windows menu), intercept it, see if it's the only key pressed, and if not, ignore it. If it is (I guess you'd have to detect key-down, no other key actions, key-up) then use it as the Windows key. I've not put a lot of thought into that, though.

[Resuna]

I do admit that I don't follow all of this thread. Keystrokes are sent to an active window (has focus) in any OS, even if it happens to be the desktop. If you need to use a keystroke in your host OS, then you assign it.Parallels grabs the keyboard and mouse at a relatively low level when it has focus - this is how it does things like Coherence mode and how it passes raw mouse and keyboard events to the client OS - so the global assignment of the command key in the equivalent of the window manager isn't honored.

I can't use "swap command and control" because I have to use real Windows systems as well and it breaks all my "finger macros" even worse than switching from one to the other already does.

[lordbyron]

I use a few adobe products within parallels at the moment, and tried swapping ctrl and command so I could use ctrl with + or - to zoom in and out easily with one hand (I'm using a macbook pro).

But for some reason only the command key on the LEFT of the space bar acts as a ctrl, not the one on the right. am i doing something wrong?

[Hugh Watkins]

I have begun using an external USB windows keyboard (cheap from a supermarket) because the Alt Gr key is so handy

if it lets me down on the apple side I reach over it to the MacBook Pro keyboard for native Mac OS Stuff

Hugh W

[mmulin]

just disable the windows key in windows, and use ctrl-esc instead, and all this is a none-issue.

[mmulin]

second apple key is no solution. macbook has only one apple key (at least my japanese model)

[barefootguru]

just disable the windows key in windows, and use ctrl-esc instead, and all this is a none-issue.
So what does disabling the Windows key achieve? Can you then use command-tab to switch apps? (If so, please let us know how to disable it)

[mmulin]

So what does disabling the Windows key achieve? Can you then use command-tab to switch apps? (If so, please let us know how to disable it)

i already posted solution in this thread http://forum.parallels.com/thread7073.html .
you can use command-tab to switch between macosx apps and xp apps (those which register in macosx as PDM apps) without the start menu poping up.

good luck

[mwickens]

Thank you mmulin! It works perfectly. You've saved me a lot of frustration.

Mark

[Quillz]

One of the great features of Microsoft Virtual PC was that the Apple key did not have an effect on it and was available as a handy escape from Windows, making it possible to specifically target Mac OS features.

I am pretty happy with Parallels, but a great feature would be if the Apple key would not be interpreted as the Windows key under Windows!
I disagree, I much prefer having the Apple key emulated as the Windows key. What's wrong with just hitting Ctrl+Alt? It works to toggle the OS X desktop, even in full screen mode.