Apple key, not Windows key

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!

 

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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.

 

What for? Ctrl-Esc does the same thing and it always worked before all PCs came with these new Windows keyboards.

 

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.

 

here here.

 

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.

 

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.

 

Agreed, I want a "no windows keys" option...

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.

 

Strongly agree!

 

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?

 

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.

 

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.

 

Yes, PLEASE

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

 

This is driving me nuts. cashews, I think.

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

 

Seeing as the windows key is usually forcibly removed on any keyboards I have to connect to non virtual PCs, I'd hope never

 

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.

 

Well?

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?

 

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.