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Remapping Mac right alt --> Windows right ctrl

  • Running Windows 7 in VMware Fusion on OS X Mountain Lion. Is there a way to remap my right alt/option key so that it behaves like a right ctrl key in Windows, especially in Office? In other words, can I remap my Mac right command key to be an alt key in Windows and the Mac right alt/option key to be a ctrl key? (If you need an explanation why:) I use Word (2010, for Windows) in my VM quite often. Due to extensive muscle memorye, I'm pretty good at "switching" back and forth between Windows and Mac keyboard shortcuts -- so when I'm saving in Mac Word, I would use left Command+S, while when I'm in VM Windows Word I press left Ctrl+S and it works. However, in Windows Word I'm extremely used to using the right Ctrl+Backspace combination to backspace whole words. On a http://www.gearzap.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/apple-wireless-keyboard.jpg, the sequence of keys from left to right is [space bar]--[command]--[alt/option]. Unfortunately on http://www.wincodex.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/keyboard-safe-mode-windows-8.jpg, the sequence is usually [space bar]--[alt]--[ctrl], and it looks like the VMware straightforwardly matches up the right alt/command key to Windows alt and the right command key to Windows ctrl. So because of muscle memory, every single time I try to use right Ctrl+Backspace in my VM I hit my Mac keyboard's right Alt+Backspace instead and get an alt+backspace command. (In other words, if I hit right command+backspace I get the response I want in Windows Word, but it's driving me crazy because my muscle memory "knows" that in Windows the right ctrl-key is the one right next to the arrow keys.) I know there are keyboard remappers out there, and I've been able to remap this on a previous Mac running Boot Camp, but for a variety of reasons I'd prefer to run VM on this machine and some of the previous key-remapping software I've used hasn't worked in VMware. Is there anything I can do, or am I stuck with this?

  • Answer:

    I just looked at KeyRemap4MacBook on my Air at home and they have: For Applications -> Enable only at VMware Fusion, Parallels Desktop, VirtualBox -> Change Option_R to Control_R That seems to be what you might want.

andrewesque at Ask.Metafilter.Com Visit the source

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I think https://pqrs.org/macosx/keyremap4macbook/index.html.en can do this. I don't use it with Fusion (as I don't have Fusion), but I want to say I've seen that in their settings. This http://www.tuaw.com/2010/01/05/keyremap4macbook-the-utility-keyboard-lovers-have-dreamed-of/ seems to show a "VMWare Fusion" awareness.

Fortran

It sounds like you want the keys to be rebound inside Windows and not inside MacOS, so I'd suggest looking for Windows remapping utilities instead of MacOS ones. If you only need to rebind single keys (in this case right alt to right ctrl), you might take a look at http://www.randyrants.com/2011/12/sharpkeys_35.html which is a windows utility that should do what you want. It does the remapping in the registry, so the program doesn't even need to be running for the remapping to work. The main downside is that it doesn't allow you to switch back and forth easily, if that is a requirement. If you need something more complex than that, you might check out http://www.autohotkey.com/ which is a fairly full-featured macro language/utility that can do all sorts of tricks to rebind key combinations.

Aleyn

I like to use a Mac keyboard on a Windows 8 machine and http://www.tucows.com/preview/327616 was slightly awkward but worked fine for me (in my case, un-swapping the L-Cmd and L-Option keys so they work as L-Alt and L-Win respectively). I'm pretty sure it works by setting registry entries for the Windows keyboard map, so it ought to work inside a VM without a problem as well. I imagine most other Windows remapping utilities work similarly. There's also an official Microsoft tool called http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/goglobal/bb964665.aspx, but I didn't have much luck with that one.

neckro23

A very, very belated thank you (I blame grad school) to Fortran -- that was exactly what I wanted! Marked as best answer as it worked, but I'm sure the other ones would as well.

andrewesque

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