Parallels 6 Cmd+W cannot be remapped

T

totvos

Member
I just upgraded to v6 from v5, where I was enjoying a stable existence. Lured by performance boosts, I guess. Anyhow, in Visual Studio, I have Ctrl+W mapped to close the current window, and in Parallels I have the Cmd-Ctrl swap on so that Cmd+W closes the current window. Since that collided with the Cmd+W of Parallels, to close the VM when running in Windowed mode, I used the MacOS keyboard remapping to change the Parallels "close" to Cmd+Opt+W.

It worked great.

In v6, the MacOS keyboard remapping apparently does not work, as though the Cmd+W option is hard-coded into the app. The menu UI shows my desired mapping, Cmd+Opt+W, but when I type Cmd+W, I get prompted to close my virtual machine. I can even disable "MacOS X system shortcuts" in Parallels preferences, and it still doesn't do the correct thing.

Known bug? Workaround?
 
You're not alone - unfortunately

I was reporting the same issue (for me it also was Cmd-Q and other key combinations plus some other issues) and I've been told that this is not a problem blablabla... three weeks later and many hours of trying useless hints and going back and forth the Parallels stuff told me that they identified the problems and that it will be fixed with the next update and that they really want to close the support ticket. So I gave in and stuck with PD5 (even so I purchased the update I wanted to use :( ). This was some six weeks ago, two updates since then. Since I didn't see anything about these issues being fixed and didn't even bother to try. Thanks to your report I can safe this time for certain now.

So be assured, I tried various keyboard mapping tools and all kind of special parameters set in Parallels configuration etc. - there is simply now way to get this to work in PD6 right now. For me that's basically a no-go, because an Unix X Window system in fullscreen mode with all kinds of keyboard combinations (Opt acts as the Windows key in my setup) which I cannot really map anywhere else because I'm running out of modifier keys - plus I'm used to it. Maybe you can learn to live without Cmd-W. Good luck whatsoever...
 
Parallels Support contacted me with the following workaround:

Please follow the below mentioned steps which may help you to resolve the issue:

1.Launch Parallels Desktop.

2. Click on Preferences => Keyboard.

To add a shortcut, click the Plus(+)Button and specify the rule for translating the key combination.

a)In the From field, use the buttons to add modifier keys to the Mac keyboard shortcut and enter the required key into the empty field.

b)In the To field, specify the PC keyboard shortcut you would like to translate the Mac shortcut to. You can use the buttons for modifier keys and type the key into the empty field or select the necessary PC keyboard key using the arrow button.
Click to expand...

I have used it to remap Cmd-W to Ctrl-W and can say that it works. Still a bug, of course, but a reasonable workaround.
 
Thank you!!!

THANKS for posting that response from Support. I have been tearing my hair out (and I am already bald! haha!) for the last 4+ hours trying to find a solution to this problem and none of the usual changes have been working for me. It never occurred to me to re-map Cmd-Q to Alt-Q in Windows (since I have the keys swapped and use a Windows keyboard), and Cmd-W to Alt-W. But it actually works!

Seems completely wrong to me that Parallels traps those keys and does not have an option to disable them in their default keyboard settings, as that is a feature that VMWare has and that I have used. But I have moved over to Parallels now, and after spending days getting my new Windows 7 VM up and running nicely, this final issue was seriously causing me to consider importing my new VM into VMWare and going back.

But now I have it working. I hope this also helps others, as I am sure this is a major FAQ item for anyone using Parallels 6 in fullscreen modes and expect the be able to map those keys correctly from within windows.
 
Weird. I have Cmd-W and Cmd-E remapped to the same Ctrl-F4.

Cmd-E works as intended (close current tab in Visual Studio) while Cmd-W does nothing — just types «w».
 
I use another keyboard mapping program in Windows to map many of the Windows keys correctly, as well as make sure Mac style keys work properly in Windows (so Alt-W for me maps to Ctrl-F4 for Windows). When I have that active, and map Cmd-W to Alt-W for me, it works perfectly.

That way my Mac and Windows apps all working basically the same, and keyboard commands are real similar. I use Keyboard Maestro on the Mac, to map common Windows keys that I am used to (Ctrl-Ins etc for Cut/Copy/Paste) to Mac commands. Then I can switch OSes to my hearts content.

One day I need to re-train myself to use Cmd-X/C/V for cut, copy and paste so I don't feel lost on my laptop keyboard, but every time I tried it, my brain fizzled!
 
thank you Parallels team for fixing this in P7. Believe it or not, this has been the annoyance point that kept me considering going with VMWare Fusion.
 
Im finding that it still closes the VM when in coherence mode. It works fine in windowed tho - Is this correct?

I am trying to close a tab in FlashDevelop - bu the VM stops
 
Was working fine in PD6, stopped in PD7 shortly after upgrade

I recently upgraded PD6 to PD7 and everything was working fine. Yesterday I went in to the Preferences of PD, and changed some keyboard mappings, and now my CMD+W registers as ALT+F4 when using Crystal Mode of Coherence. Turning off Crystal Mode fixes it, but when it's on, I can't remap CMD+W to anything other than ALT+F4. No matter what I have it set to map to, the moment I check the Crystal box it always uses ALT+F4. It seems there should be a way to fix it because even after the upgrade it was working until I made some other changes to the key mappings! VERY FRUSTRATING! Does anyone out there know a solution?
 
Hi abbier,

Thanks for the suggestion. I wasn't able to fix the problem with your instructions. Maybe I did something wrong??

abbier said:
Click on Devices → CD/DVD-Rom → Real CD/DVD-Rom in the Parallels Desktop top dropdown menu
Open 'My Computer' i
Right-click on (D:) Boot Camp drive and choose 'Open'
Find setup.exe file in the /Bootcamp/ folder and double-click it. The installation should start.
Click to expand...

When I did this it wanted me to put in a CD, but I'm not sure which CD to put in. I'm running OSX Lion which was downloaded from the app store, so I don't have CD for that.

However, I downloaded the Boot Camp 3.3 software from Apple, and installed it:
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1443

Then it told me that the Boot Camp software was already installed, and this update wasn't needed.

abbier said:
When Boot Camp drivers are installed, Windows can be rebooted. Then, go to Start menu → Control Panel → Regional and Language Options.

Switch to 'Languages' and click on 'Details'. Add proper language - the same as you have in Mac (Example: French) and Keyboard layout marked as Apple (French (Apple) in our case)
Click to expand...

On Windows 7 the prompts went a little different. I went to Start menu -> Control Panel -> Region and Language, then click on the Keyboards and Languages tab. The only option on that tab was to click the button "Change keyboards". The keyboard I have selected in there is "United States (Apple) - Parallels". In Mac OSX under Keyboards, I have the U.S. keyboard checked, so I didn't change anything in either Windows Control Panel, or Mac OSX System Preferences.

abbier said:
then remap again.
Click to expand...

The problem is still the same. CMD+W maps correctly when Crystal is turned off, when Crystal is on, Windows sees it as ALT+F4.
 
Worked fine in PD6, PD7 broke it

I just did a test and reinstalled PD6 and got CMD+W to work correctly with Coherence, and Crystal. Then I reinstalled PD7 again, and it broke. Originally I thought it was working in PD7 until I made keyboard mapping changes, but I may be wrong. It probably broke when I did the upgrade. This is the problem I'm having now. I am staying on PD6 until this is fixed. I'm pretty pissed I even upgraded now. Waste of money!
 
I decided to try the new build, but the issue still persists on my MacBook Pro : ParallelsDesktop-7.0.15054.722853.

Has anyone out there found a solution for this yet?
 
aquariusrick2 said:
I just did a test and reinstalled PD6 and got CMD+W to work correctly with Coherence, and Crystal. Then I reinstalled PD7 again, and it broke. Originally I thought it was working in PD7 until I made keyboard mapping changes, but I may be wrong. It probably broke when I did the upgrade. This is the problem I'm having now. I am staying on PD6 until this is fixed. I'm pretty pissed I even upgraded now. Waste of money!
Click to expand...

After dealing with support for about a week, they admitted they were able to reproduce the issue I'm having. Hopefully they fix it in the near future. Meanwhile I'm going back to PD6 again.

Here's the final response I got from support:

I need to admit I could reproduce the issue on my test Mac.

I will have to pass this issue to the Development Team for deeper investigation.

I cannot say how much time it will take to investigate and fix the issue that is why I have to close this support ticket now, but please note that it only means the issue you reported cannot be resolved by means of Support Team and needs a deep involvement of Development Team.
In case we need any additional information from you or the Development team provides us with any quick fix/workaround we will reopen this ticket or create a new one to contact you. Please be sure we do not forget about our customers!

You can subscribe to Parallels product updates news so you know when update is released and what issues are addressed there:
http://www.parallels.com/mailinglists/subscribe/
Click to expand...
 
Hi! I think its still broken, do we have another option for this?
icon_biggrin.gif
 
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