Paste Special (Ctrl + Alt + V) makes the square root sign (√)

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CaileyR

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I am running fully updated versions of Parallels 12 and Windows 10 on Mac OS High Sierra (10.13.4).

In Excel 2016, I am running into an issue where the Paste Special command (Ctrl + Alt + V) creates the square root symbol (√) instead of launching the paste special dialogue box.

I have tried updating my Mac shortcut preferences, creating shortcuts in Parallels, etc. Nothing works.

Does anyone have a way to make this happen? I would be so grateful! It's one of the main commands that I use in Excel, and I'll have to switch from Parallels to a different software if I can't figure this one on out.

(Note: I know that I can use Alt + E + S) but it's not in my muscle memory and doesn't work in Mac Excel, and I like to standardize shortcuts across the two platforms as best I can.)
 
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Same issue here. At least, reading this post I now know it's a Parallels issue ... (I'm working on an M1 Mac and thought it was maybe an issue with Win11 Insider Build). Note : in MS Word 365, Ctrl + Alt + V works correctly to display "Paste Special ..."
 
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Ran into this issue today. After messing around with some options I was able to resolve it by changing my language preference in Windows VM (actual windows settings not Parallels settings) from American to Canadian English. Being Canadian I often select American language without even thinking and apparently this was causing the issue. Also if this does resolve your issue, make sure you delete the American language preference in the windows VM as it seems to default back to it once you log out / back in. Anyone who is getting this error outside of Canada it's worth taking a look at your language settings and trying a couple different options.
 
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JimJ5, on my VM's it doesn't seem to be related to that setting. I have 4 separate VM's on my M1 Mac (Win 11 Insider Preview Build), which are set up with respective languages UK English, France French, Germany German and Belgium Dutch. In each case, the US English was removed from the Windows settings.
I noticed on a French AZERTY keyboard that the Control+Alt+V combination actually doesn't result in the square root symbol but in the diamond symbol. This seems to suggest it's a keyboard mapping issue, as in both cases (AZERTY and QWERTY), the result of the keyboard combination is the symbol mapped to the Apple Option+V.
So I plugged in an old USB-A wired Windows Keyboard (from manufacturer Trust) I still had lying around and tested that ... same result.
This all suggests to me (with my limited knowledge of the configuration ins and outs of VM's) that Parallels need to fix this in the Parallels Desktop app ...
 
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I found a fix here... add paste special to the excel custom ribbon (for me I added it as Alt+5) and then in Parallels > preferences > shortcuts > VM, I added the shortcut: Alt+Cmd+V to Alt+5.
 
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@ThomasR38, while that fixes the issue for Excel, it only moves the problem. From what I can find, Ctrl+Alt+V is used in app. 70 different Windows apps, the fix you propose will change the results of that key combination in all the other apps as well.
 
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It seems it is a mapping problem. I solved it using kbdEdit to change the layout of the Parallels Keyboard. On the Ctrl+Alt+V there is the charactere "diamond", so I deleted it, updated the new keyboard layout and it worked.
But there should be a way to do it from Parallels App.
 
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Solution without kbdEdit
Posting this here since I encountered this issue since day 1 of Parallels over a month ago and opted not to use kbdEdit but a more native solution.

As I understand it, the issue here is that Parallels adds a very specific 'Parallels' keyboard layout to Windows, using the Keyboard Layout Synchronisation feature. When you're outside Coherence Mode, you can click on the Keyboard Layout button on Window's taskbar to see that the keyboard layout has 'Parallels' specifically to it (you may need to have a second keyboard layout added already to see this in your taskbar).

So... Step 1 - By adding your own keyboard layout in Windows, you can solve this immediate part of the issue. Note: since Apple keyboards have different layouts to standard ISO / ANSI - you may find certain symbols' locations being confusing. In which case maybe the kbdEdit is the better solution for you

That doesn't completely solve our issue however - as the Keyboard Layout Synchronisation feature also swaps your keyboard back to Parallel's layout whenever you CMD - Tab back to Mac. One solution is to use the Windows keyboard shortcut to change it back - except it's Win + Space by default (in Windows 11) which is... CMD + Space in Mac for Spotlight! Of course you can change the windows keyboard shortcut to change the language bar (I went with Ctrl + Alt + Win + Space) - but it's still a pain to keep forgetting to switch back and get the √ symbol, and have to change the keyboard layout and then go back to copying your cells again... especially when you work in Coherence Mode tabbing between Windows and Mac apps constantly.

In that case, Step 2 - let's turn off Keyboard Layout Synchronisation by following this article: https://kb.parallels.com/115200
In case the article link breaks in the future, here's the gist:
  1. Shut down your virtual machine (Actions > Shut down). If it is in a suspended state, resume it and then shut down.
  2. Right-click Parallels Desktop icon > Control Center.
  3. Right-click the name of your virtual machine > Show in Finder.
  4. Right-click the .pvm file > Show Package Contents.
  5. Open the .pvm file in your code editor of choice (TextEdit.app if you don't have any)
  6. Find this block of code:
    <KeyboardLayoutSync dyn_lists="">
    <Enabled>1</Enabled>
  7. Change it to:
    <KeyboardLayoutSync dyn_lists="">
    <Enabled>0</Enabled>
This has solved my issue entirely and I hope future people will see it.
 
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@ the Parallels team:

Is that still an issue? Was it finally solved/ finally fixed?

I don't want to have to edit around just to make Parallels work the way it should by default.
 
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