Some thoughts about remapping the keyboard layout

Hey guys,

let me first tell you how unbelievable good your new Beta 5 version is working on my Mac. I've already placed a pre-order - and i will buy licences for all of my Intel Macs when the final release it out.

I had some thoughts regarding the keyboard layout when running another OS under the virualisation: Usually the guest OS determines the keyboard layout - so when running for example WinXP, some special characters like the \, or {} are changing the position on the keyboard - which makes typing very complicated when switching back and forth between the two OSes. Other characters (like the pipe character) are not available anymore - and i need them deperately because i'm a programmer!

Is there a way to add an additional layer into the keyboard emulation so the layout is re-mapped to the original Apple layout?

Let me give you an example: Usually i'm pressing alt-/ to get the pipe character under OSX. If the driver would re-map that key-stroke-combination into ALT-GR-ß (i'm using a german keyboard) for the VM - i would'nt need to keep two different layouts in my mind. Same with the @, which is sitting on the Q-key on a Windows machine, while it is sitting on the L-key on the Mac.

But anyway, you did a great job with Parallels WS - thank you!!!

Regards

Sergeij

 

another suggestion... automatically make the apple key as the windows key in XP... that will help a lot of copy paste issues..

 

Well, this should work already.
"apple" key acts just like "win" key - did you try it ?

 

One more comment

Hi,

I have bought Parallels for mac os X : great product and the Beta 6 works quite well.
I have the same problem, on my MACBOOK PRO (french keyboard, AZERTY).

I still have mapping keybord problems too :
On the upper left coin, I have "# and @" under Mac OS X.
For exemple to get @ key, I need to press CTRL-ALT-0 under Parallels with Windows XP.
It is not so important with a beta version, but for a commercial use, to have a perfect keybord mapping it is...

Thanks

Florent

 

I am not sure this would be possible, but for sure, it would be the best solution. Have all the printable keys work in the guest OS as in the Mac OS X host. A perfect dream when you think of it. I support and second this wish.

 

Hello everybody,

I know that there are zillions of different keyboard layouts (localized Mac -> localized Windows) outside in the world - so there is probably no easy way to hardwire it into the VM.

But if Parallels would add a user-configurable re-mapping array into the VM, everybody could easily re-map the most important keys by herself. I personally need only the re-mapping of the keys necessary for C/C++-programming.

The user interface could work quite straight forward: Launch the dialog, enter the Mac-key-combination (like ALT-L for the @) - and then enter the corresponding Windows-key-combination (aka ALTGR-Q for a German keyboard). From now on the @ on the Apple-keyboard will be produce the right key-combination for Windows.

Of course the Windows-key-combination has to be translated into IBM keycode sequences (Windows gets keycodes from the VM and translates them into key-combinations), but that should be no big issue.

Cheers

Sergeij

 

This would also solve the problem with Windows and using the Ctrl key for multiple selections. Although this article describes a workaround, it is still not optimal since now the left Windows key is missing. You can't get one thing without loosing the other. But having a property page like with remap to map a "standard" windows keyboard to the "standard" mac keyboard would be fine.

Maybe it would also be possible to distinguish between the keft and the right Command key. With Beta6 a both left and right Command keys are mapped to left Ctrl in Windows and Solaris.

Beta6 is at the first glance now even as good as VPC was. Except for performance, vurtualization works perfectly! Now start the quibbling issues like all these missing keys like @, |, etc.

If there is a way to access them with Beta6 than even description in the user guide would help. I searched the user guide but didn't find any info at first glance.

Thanks a lot and keep up the good work!

Bernhard

 

some extra thoughts on remapping

Dear Developers @ paralles

first let me recomment you on the aweseome work done already!

it would indeed be very nice to have the possibility to remap anyone key to another key as an option

Not just for those "few" who got "special" keyboards or non-U.S. keyboard layouts, but in particularly also the ability to map e.g. the windows control key (maybe just the left one) to the apple command key and the right apple command key (or the enter key on a PB) to the windows ALT-GR version. Having to re-think to switch keys for copy and pasting between OS X and XP is really messing up the workflow (not to mention figuring out how to access a certain key without using the windows version of a keyboard for windumb around).

Another panel for keyboard layout changes would be awesome.
Let's say with some easy, often requested things right at the start (remapping of windows control / OS X command, maybe also [] | {} @ \ etc.), plus a button for expert settings where you get the full view of your keyboard's set of keys, which can be toggled between your native layout and that you want to have for the guest machine.

 

fecht@zarm.uni-bremen.de,

We will consider possibility to implement scan-code-remapping feature for the keyboard.
Thank you for your opinion.

Regards