Cant get the @ key to work in Parrallels using Mac Keyboard

[pixelboy]

Hi

I have only just started using Parallels (Build1940) on my first ever Mac. On the whole I'm very impressed and have managed to get everything working OK. The speed it runs Windows at is impressive to say the least.

However I have one problem I cannot sort out and that is that when using the Mac keyboard in Parallels the @ key appears on screen and prints out as an inverted typographic quote (something like this "). If shift isn't selected then it views and prints out a figure "2" as expected. Needless to say all the keys work correctly when using the Mac OS.

Can anyone advise how I can get the @ key to work?

Thanks

Pixelboy

 

[Olivier]

There have been numerous posts about keyboard mapping issues as soon as your keyboard is not a US qwerty keyboard. A search of the forum will tell you more.

Your issue is that inside the VM your Windows see a PC keyboard, not a Mac keyboard (for which you have no driver anyway). So what you would have to do is forget what is printed on the caps of your keyboard, imagine that you have a PC keyboard and press the key or keys combination you would press on a PC keyboard to compose your character.

Not easy.

Additionally, if you need to press the AltGr key at the same time as some other key to compose things like " \ " (backslash on most european keyboards uses AltGr + something), I wish you good luck and happyness.

The only real solution is to build and install a custom Windows keyboard map in Windows, tailored to let you use as most as possible the MacOS key presses to compose the Windows chars.

 

[pixelboy]

Olivier

Thanks for your reply/help

Yes, you are right . If I press the key where I would expect to see the @ key on a standard UK qwerty keyboard I do get the @ key. Obviously as you say there will be other key mapping issues when using a UK keyboard ..... pain.

Has the issue of how to build and install a custom Windows keyboard in Parallels map been specifically covered anywhere on these forums ?

A thought......If I were to use a standard USB Microsoft keyboard which is Mac compatible would that solve the key mapping issues ?