Thread for keyboard-related problems

T

tacit_one

Pro
There are some popular problems with keyboard mappings configuration that should be covered:

1) "When i press '@' key on my German keyboard i get smith. wrong"
- Parallels reads scan-codes from your keyboard, that is why it does not know anything about it's symbol mappings. That is why you need to configure your Guest system to understand your keyboard correctly. A nice way to get your German keyboard work is described here http://german.about.com/library/weekly/aa032398.htm. The main thing that needs to be mentioned is that Parallels does not know anything about your keyboard, it just reads pressed keys without knowledge of it's meanings and sends this info to the Guest system.

2) "How can i press 'ALT+F4' on my MBP"
- You should press "ALT+FN+F4" exactly in this order (or you can disable special meanings of F1-F9 keys in your control center to make "ALT+F4" work correctly)

Please, post your keyboard-related problems in this separate thread - we will try to fix them ASAP.

Regards,
tacit @ parallels
 
Parallels does not respect the re-mapped modifier keys I have setup. Caps Lock is mapped to ^ (control); Control is mapped to Option; Option is mapped to Caps Lock; Command/Alt is left as is.

That said, when I depress my Command/Alt key, it functions as the Windows key in XP. Control Key seems to be mapped to Alt in the guest OS.

Further, disabling ctrl+click = right-click would be excellent. I have a two button mouse, so right-click is native and the Parallels interception of ctrl+click disables being able to select multiple items in XP.
 
On a MacBook Pro the "§" key (the key just below the esc key - top left) seems to be inactive in Parallels beta4. I have tried diffrent language settings, either in MacOSX or in the Windows XP SP2 VM, but this key is always inactive.

JackT
 
Hi, As suggested here: http://forums.parallels.com/post9636-15.html , I used "MicroSoft Keyboard Layout Creator" to put together a keyboard "driver" file for a MacBookPro Belgian FR keyboard.

Please find enclosed the keyboards mapping pictures and the .msi zipped file.
 

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Last edited:
Mickey said:
Hi, As suggested here: http://forums.parallels.com/post9636-15.html , I used "MicroSoft Keyboard Layout Creator" to put together a keyboard "driver" file for a MacBookPro Belgian FR keyboard.

Please find enclosed the keyboards mapping pictures and the .msi zipped file.
Click to expand...

Hello and thank you for your KeyBoard Layout.
I have also a Belgian MacBook Pro keyboard and i am very interrested with your .MSI.
I have dopwnladed it but i cant installe it, XP gives me an error at the opening of the file.
I have tried downloading it from OSX and also from XP... same error.

Fred.
 
oops

Sorry, I only put the .msi file, the i386/dll was missing. I edited the attachment in my message above. Sorry again.
 
OK, here is a problem for japanese keyboard.

The guest WinXP on Parallels recognizes the MBP keyboard as a "PC/AT enhanced PS/2 keyboard (101/102 keys)". This is wrong. This type of keyboards lacks the keys for the backslash symbol (or the yen symbol) and for the underscore symbol. Actually, the japanese keyboard on MBP has the key for the backslash symbol between the keys for the ^ symbol and baskspace and the underscore key between the / key and the right shift key. As a result, the guest does not respond when you press these two keys.

Please let me know if you need any furter info on the japanese keyboard specs. I (and, of course, other japanese-keyboard users) will veeeeeeeeery much appreciate if this is fixed.
 
targ said:
OK, here is a problem for japanese keyboard.
Click to expand...

I forgot to mention that I have already tried MSKLC. I found that it does support only a few keyboard hardwares. For instance, a japanese keyboard has a VK_OEM_5 key that is assigned to ¥ and |, but this key is not found in the layout provided by MSKLC.
 
did anyone else has problem with the control key in the latest beta?
if I switch to my virtual machine and press ctrl+c the it writes a "c" instead of copying, the second time i press ctrl+c it works as intended

greets philipp
 
Hi guys,

Being a Delphi developer I often use the F12 key for different things in Delphi ( SHIFT + F12, CTRL + F12 ). But sadly this always brings up the Dashboard instead.

Anyone been able to workaround this ?

Thanks a lot in advance,


Stefaan
 
Annunaki said:
Being a Delphi developer I often use the F12 key for different things in Delphi ( SHIFT + F12, CTRL + F12 ). But sadly this always brings up the Dashboard instead.
Anyone been able to workaround this ?
Click to expand...

Yes. Simply redefine the Dashboard Hotkey to something different (System Preferences -> Dashboard & Exposé, at the bottom of the prefs panel)
 
Hi,

Thanks for the tip. That did indeed solve my problem. Though it would be a lot easier if the Paralels Desktop tool would capture the actual function keys instead of the Mac related function keys whenever you cursor is inside the virtual machine.

Anyway, this helped a lot, thanks for the info.

Regards,



Stefaan
 
Annunaki said:
Though it would be a lot easier if the Paralels Desktop tool would capture the actual function keys instead of the Mac related function keys whenever you cursor is inside the virtual machine.
Click to expand...

Not for everyone. There was a lot of discussion on that topic already. Bottom line: some want the Mac function keys active (me for example!), others want it captured by the VM. So it must be configurable. IMHO, it already is configurable in RC2 (indirectly through Parallels->Preferences->User Interface->Advanced->Always Stay on Top in Fullscreen)
 
Hello,

I've tried to create a mapping for the French layout of the Macbook Pro (Core Duo).

Here are the mappings for normal, shift and AltGr (Ctrl-Alt):
normal.jpg
shift.jpg
altgr.jpg

And here is the driver:
View attachment MBPro_Fr.zip

Hope this can help someone else, and thanks to Mickey and luz for pointing me in the right direction! Now at last I can use all the keys of the Macbook Pro when using XP/Parallels Desktop... until the next version fixes that issue natively, anyway!
 
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