I have the big problem that applications inside of guest XP do not notice when certain keys are held. For example... a) Holding shift key while drawing a line is a STANDARD in almost all drawing tools, making the line only rotate by 45 degrees if the mouse if moved. This is impossible with Parallels guest XP. b) I have another application where the app needs to pick up when I am holding my ctrl key. This does not happen. Why? Can you fix this?
Shift, Command, Control, etc. not working in host OS I'm having the same problem with WinXP-SP3 on OS X 10.5.6 using Parallels 4.0.3810
Hello, Follow the below mentioned steps.This could resolve the issue. 1. Log 1n to Windows => Do a right click on My Computer => Click on Manage. 2. In the Device manager => do a right click on Keyboard and click on uninstall. 3. Restart Windows Operating System. When Windows start up there will be many pop up messages like Found new hardware. Accept all of them and install them because they are keyboard drivers. 4. After successfully installing the Keyboard drivers try to use the control or the shift key. Please reply the status of the issue.
Thank you! The re-install of the keyboard driver and a Repair Disk Permissions on the OS X volume where Parallels is installed appears to have fixed the problem. Thank you!
I am having this problem too on my MBPH - but only since upgraded to Mac OS 10.5.7 - was working fine before that. I have tried uninstalling the keyboard drivers while running Win XP (SP3) and then letting them get re-installed but this makes no difference. Problem existing on other VMs too (Windows 7 RC and CentOS 5.0 server).
I have just raised a ticket on this problem - currently Parallels is unusable. I cannot use any of my VMs to do real work without a usable keyboard. Currently downloading a trial version of Fusion...
Reinstalling the driver doesn't help me either on my iMac. As discussed in another thread about configuring keys in the game, Counterstrike, binding the keyboard directly to the VM makes everything work fine--alt/ctrl/shift are detected when held down. If the keyboard is bound to the iMac, the only thing Windows sees when one of these keys is held down is a single, fast, press and release.
Paul, Thanks for that - I will try and see if that works for me. However, if I bind the (external USB) keyboard to the VM, does it still work for the Mac? I tend to swap between these several times over the course of a day. I run the Office Applications in the Windows VM and everything else directly on the Mac. Do you know if this binding of the keyboard directly to the VM works in other OS's? eg Linux
Shift key in Parallels has stopped working again The Shift key in Parallels has stopped working again. Using Parallels Desktop build 4.0.3844 on Mac OS X 10.5.6 (9G55) with an Apple Wireless Keyboard. This is getting really old! Lately I've been spending more time rebuilding my Parallels VMs than actually using them for work.
how do I do a right-click on a macbook to repair the modifiers if the modifiers aren't working properly? I got the Keyboards ( NB: not 'Keyboard') folder in Device Manager by clicking on 'Properties' in the file menu. But I can';t seem to touch the 'Keyboards' folder to uninstall it. I can delete it, though - but that's different. Damn! another 15 minutes down the pan! peter
Hello peterlemer, You can do a right click on the Mac keyboard by pressing and holding the control key and click the mouse.
problem solved my macbook has a 'fn' key, which when used with ALT-F4 does the trick (withdraws previous question) peter
After several not very helpful suggestions from support (all of which I tried anyway) - eventually we got a good suggestion: 1. Download the dmg file from this link and save it in a know location. http://www.parallels.com/download/desktop/ 2. Run the dmg file and uninstall Parallel Desktop with application settings.(Application setting option would be prompted while uninstalling.) 3. Restart Mac. 4. Run the dmg file which was downloaded fresh. 5. Install Parallel Desktop. Note that in step 2 you must explicitly check the remove applications option - the files remain and you can add them back into your fresh installation. This worked form me - I now have working shift, control and alt keys in all my VMs. Interestingly before the uninstall, the version was 4.0.3844.409223 and after the clean install just 4.0.3844.
i have this issue too. For the first time it worked the uninstall, reboot, install and reboot trick. But now, 2 weeks later i have the same issue again, and yet i have done this just for the second time and my shift key wont work anymore. This happens with both if mine two virtual machines. With MacOS X i had no problem using my shift key. anyone does know what is exactly the problem of this issue? Thanks
As discussed in another thread, this has been addressed in Parallels 5. Configure the VM, view the Options tab and select Services category. There is now a checkbox called "Optimize modifier keys for games". With it checked, all modifier keys work like I'd expect in Windows, whether in a game or not.
