Custom Keyboard shortcuts don't work

L

LeviL

Bit poster
I'm using the trial of Parallels 6 (just downloaded it a few days ago) and I cannot get certain keyboard shortcuts to work. I tried to create a shortcut from F12 to INSERT, and from SHIFT+CMD+I to insert and neither one will work. I think I tried other F-keys too. It just won't forward INSERT to my Windows VM.

Is there some kind of trick to this? I also need to send CTRL+BREAK, but there is no option to do this in the preferences. I know I can use the Parallels menu, but I love running windows full screen and it's a huge hassle to pop up the menu, then navigate to the menu item when all i need to do is hit a single key on my keyboard (a lot- probably 20 times a day). FYI, I had no problems doing this in VM Fusion 3.

I'm using a late 2009 i7 iMac with the (retarded, compact) wireless keyboard that doesn't have the keys where insert would be. My VM is running Windows Server 2003, which is basically Windows XP with a few things removed and a few things added.
 
Parallels Desktop -> Preferences -> Keyboard -> Edit profiles.

Make sure the Windows virtual machine is assigned the Windows profile.

For the Break key, have you tried selecting Pause or F15 as the output?

If you can't get it to work then maybe try editing the keyboard profile manually:
http://forum.parallels.com/showthread.php?t=105007

The break key is 165 in the PrlKeys.h list. I haven't tested making modifications to the profile files manually.
 
Thanks for the suggestions. I made sure the right profile was assigned, still wouldn't work. So I edited the keyboard profile manually, and entered 96 for F12 as shown in PrlKeys.h, but when I opened Parallels, it showed "QuoteLeft(')" as the key. This actually did work, but I kind of need all my normal keys.

I looked at the keyboard file again (Windows.kbd) and saw that all my FKeys are read as numbers like: 16777275 for F12, which makes sense in Hex (0x100003B) but it doesn't work as a shortcut key in Parallels, it just sends the FKey through normally. The keyboard preferences window reads the keys from the keyboard fine, but not one FKey shortcut works. I discovered that if I change my keyboard preferences in MacOSX to use the FKeys as standard FKeys instead of their special feature (brightness, volume, etc), then everything works fine. But I have no use for that in MacOSX and I use the special features way more than I would use the FKeys, so it doesn't make sense to leave it this way all the time.

So basically, Fn+FKeys don't work with Parallels keyboard shortcuts. Is there some other setting I can't find that might fix that, or is it a bug in Parallels? I have a work-around, but if I'm going to pay $80 for this software, I don't feel like I should have to use work-arounds for something as simple as a keyboard shortcut.
 
You entered 96 in the wrong spot. In the keyboard profile, each <KeyBind> has two <KeyCombination>.

<KeyCombination id="0"> is the Mac key. 16777275 is the Mac <CustomKey> for F12. 96 is the Mac <CustomKey> for QuoteLeft (`).

<KeyCombination id="1"> is the Parallels virtual machine key. 96 is the VM <CustomKey> for F12 as listed in PrlKeys.h

I don't have a list of Mac keys. I would create the key mapping in Parallels and enter the Mac key. Then I would edit the VM key in the keyboard profile if Parallels didn't have the key in the pop-up menu. Are you able to get CTRL - BREAK to work?

You're right. Something weird is going on. I think it's a bug in Parallels. I have "Use all F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys" disabled. I have F5 set to output the letter "A" in my Windows keyboard profile. If I press F5 by itself then the letter A is output correctly. If I press F5 with the fn key, then Parallels sends F5 to Windows, bypassing the key binding. For other FKeys, like F1/brightness, pressing F1 by itself changes brightness, and pressing Fn+F1 sends F1 to Windows even if you have it set to send a different key in the keyboard profile.

If you use the FKeys as standard FKeys then you can use Fn+Fkey for the Mac OS X functions - brightness, volume, etc. This is what I normally use.
 
prlkeys.h

I got this method to work for me for ctrl-break, but I couldn't find the prlkeys.h file anywhere. I don't have a Library/Parallels folder. Has it moved ?
Perhaps I'm just being dense, if it's hidden and I need to change a setting to see it. Only a recent refugee from Windows.

Ben
 
In the Finder, select "Go To Folder..." in the "Go" menu, and paste "/Library/Parallels/Parallels Service.app/Contents/Frameworks/ParallelsVirtualizationSDK.framework/Versions/6/Headers" into the text field (without the quotes).
 
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