Paralles 6 / XP / RDC / issue with shift key

A

AnkoW

Bit poster
Yesterday, I've upgrade from Parallels 5 to 6. From within the guest XP I use RDC to connect to a remote host. After pressing and holding the shift key, in many cases, the very first character I type ends up to be lowercase, the next characters are uppercase. When I release and press the shift key again, again the first character typed is in most cases lowercase.

All text typed within the RDC window has this problem (login screen, CMD box, notepad, etc. of the remote host). Text typed inside the VM but outside the RDC window is okay. Even when trying to edit the RDC connection properties.

Minutes before the upgrade, everything was working well, as it has been for several months. Immediately after the upgrade this problem appeared. So I cannot imagine it is XP, RDC or the remote host causing this.

The Mac is a Mac Book Pro with Snow Leopard.
The Windows VM is XP Professional 2002 SP 3 based.

Thanks for your help!

Anko
 
Additional info

Just noticed, that when using Ctrl-1, Ctrl-2, etc. to switch between spaces, a 1, 2, etc. is typed into the VM of the space I am leaving.

So, if I have my VM in space 2, with notepad open and I type Ctrl-1, Ctrl-2, Ctrl-2, Ctrl-3 and Ctrl-2 (without ever releasing the Ctrl key), I will find 123 in my notepad.

Mmmm ...
 
I get's worse

Have the same thing with Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V and Ctrl-Z.

If I want to copy a piece of text, I mark the text and hit Ctrl-c. The marked text is replaced with a lowercase c.
Then I hit Ctrl-z to undo and a lowercase z is appended to the text. Only if I hit Ctrl-zz (two zs without release Ctrl in between), the original text is restored.

HELP !!!
 
same here with parallels6.

workaround: set rdc->options->local resources->keyboard->Apply Windows key combinations->On the local computer
 
Thanks MaSC,

Did do the trick for Ctrl-C / Ctrl-V and the shift key. Ctrl-1, Ctrl-2, etc. still an issue. Than again, this was also not related to RDC.

Regards,

Anko
 
I am having the same problem since upgrading to Parallels 6 this afternoon. Whenever I connect to my desktop through our VPN my shift key seems to require a second key stroke while holding down the shift key to pickup the capitalization. This was not a problem in Parallels 5.
 
Try turning on Virtual Machine -> Configure -> Options -> Advanced -> Optimize modifier keys for games.
 
The same setting is also good for any version of Windows where you drag a file or folder and want to create a shortcut or duplicate by pressing the control key or option key or shift key to show the different badge indicators (curved arrow for shortcut, plus for duplicate, right facing arrow for move (Vista/Windows 7). I wonder what kind of performance hit the option has to make the developers think it would be a good idea to have the crappy behaviour as the default...
 
What a crappy default

I found out about this due to how work's vpn works... I have to use windows to vpn into work, which happens that my work laptop is windows also, but I'm a unix admin so this shift thing was driving me bonkers...

Typing simple commands like ps -ef | grep <blah> was a royal pain as | would never come through...

Thank god this option works.

But yeah, why make something like that the default... it seems like a huge step backwards from previous versions of parallels to make this behavior the default.
 
Two solutions have been brought forward:

1: Try turning on Virtual Machine -> Configure -> Options -> Advanced -> Optimize modifier keys for games.
2: workaround: set rdc->options->local resources->keyboard->Apply Windows key combinations->On the local computer

Thanks for these solutions. Both solve the issue with the shift key and the issue with Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V. The first solution may have the advantage that you need to do this only once (for a VM) and not once for each predefined RDP file.

But both solutions do not resolve the issue with usage of Ctrl-1, Ctrl-2 etc used to switch between spaces.

Has anybody seen this / been able to resolve this?

To reproduce the issue:

Open Windows VM in Space 1.
Start and set focus to notepad.exe
Hit Ctrl-2, Ctrl-1, Cltr-1 without releasing the Ctrl key between keystrokes.

You will find a 1 in notepad. If you release the Ctrl key between keystrokes, or only type Ctrl-1's, you do not get any characters in the notepad window.

Thanks,

Anko
 
AnkoW said:
Hit Ctrl-2, Ctrl-1, Cltr-1 without releasing the Ctrl key between keystrokes.

You will find a 1 in notepad. If you release the Ctrl key between keystrokes, or only type Ctrl-1's, you do not get any characters in the notepad window.
Click to expand...

I've never used Spaces until now. I have reproduced this issue. It seems that the virtual machine forgets the control key is being held down after the first time you switch away so that the next time you switch away from the virtual machine, a number is entered into Notepad. The Mac OS does not forget the control key is down so it switches away from the virtual machine at the same time the number is entered into Notepad. The issue does not occur when I'm using a Mac text editor instead of the virtual machine text editor.

You're right, the "Optimize modifier keys for games" option does not help this issue.
 
AnkoW,

Thanks for your post, the Option 1 resolved the Shift Key issue for me. However, it does seem strange that this would be the default. I hope this is resolved via a patch soon or they will have a lot of confused users.
 
Spaces issues

I was having issues switching between spaces until I did :

Virtual Machine -> Configure -> Options -> Advanced -> Optimize modifier keys for games

Parallels Desktop ->Preferences->Keyboard-> Enable Mac OS X System shortcuts (checked)

Now all spaces shortcuts seem to be working.
 
Parallels 6: Issue with Shift Key using RDC through Win7...

Glad to hear that this issue is not unique to my MacBook Pro. I remote into the workstations at work through a Cisco VPN client. Worked flawlessly until I upgraded to version 6. I hope this issue (along with the time zone thing) is addressed in a timely manner. I use my VM configuration for work! You know, the action that generates 'income'???

Please address ASAP!!! (or allow me to rollback to version 5 without trashing my system...)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top