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Tips on using a Macintosh keyboard (1001675)

Last Updated: 9/13/2017Categories: How toTotal Views: 11590Language:
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Details

This article provides information on using a Macintosh keyboard with VMware Fusion.

The tips in this article help you to send key strokes or perform functions that you know from PC keyboards. These tips help when using VMware Fusion virtual machines.

Solution

This table lists the PC key strokes and provides methods to accomplish the corresponding key stroke/function using a Macintosh/Fusion keyboard:

PC

Macintosh / Fusion

Ctrl+Alt+Del

To send Ctrl+Alt+Del to a virtual machine:

From the Fusion menu, go to Virtual Machine > Send Ctrl-Alt-Delete.

On a Macintosh notebook keyboard, press Fn+Ctrl+Option+Delete.

On a full-sized Macintosh keyboard, press Control+Option+|X>.

Note: The |X> (Forward Delete) key is below the Help key.

If you are using an external PC keyboard, press Ctrl+Alt+Delete.

Delete

The Delete key on an Apple keyboard is actually the backspace key to all other operating systems.

To send the PC Delete key to a virtual machine:

From the Fusion menu, go to Virtual Machine > Send Key > |X> (Forward Delete).

On a Macintosh notebook keyboard, press Fn+Delete.

On a full-sized Macintosh keyboard, press |X>.

Note: The |X> (Forward Delete) key is below the Help key.

Insert

To send the Insert key to a virtual machine:

On older Macintosh keyboards, this is the Help key.

On older Macintosh notebook keyboards, press Fn+M.

Note: Newer Macintosh notebooks do not support Fn+M. To map the Insert key to any convenient key combination you choose, navigate to VMware Fusion > Preferences > Keyboard & Mouse > Key Mappings.

Print Screen

To send the Print Screen key to a virtual machine:

From the Fusion menu, go to Virtual Machine > Send Key > Print Scrn.

On a full-sized Macintosh keyboard, press F13.

Alt-Gr

To send the Alt-Gr key to virtual machine:

On a full-sized Macintosh keyboard, press the right Option (or Alt) key, or press the Enter key on the number pad.

On European Macintosh notebook keyboards, press the Option (or Alt) key next to the right Command key.

Notes:

This is overridden when Num Lock is used for numeric keypad support.

To disable this Alt-Gr mapping:

Open this file in Text Edit:

[Macintosh HD]/Users/your_username/Library/Preferences/VMware Fusion/preferences

Find the line that begins with:

pref.mapISONumpadEnterToAltGrEnabled

Change TRUE to FALSE.

Note: If a line containing pref.mapISONumpadEnterToAltGrEnabled does not exist in the file, add this line:

pref.mapISONumpadEnterToAltGrEnabled = "FALSE"

Selecting multiple list items

To use Ctrl+click as you would in a normal Windows environment:

To do so permanently, disable the mouse shortcut for the secondary button:

Go to VMware Fusion > Preferences > Keyboard & Mouse > Mouse Shortcuts.

Disable Secondary Button, so that it no longer maps to = Control - Primary Button.

For a temporary workaround, press and hold Ctrl-Option while clicking to select multiple items.

Num Lock

To send the Num Lock key to a virtual machine:

From the Fusion menu, go to Virtual Machine > Send Key > Clear (Num Lock).

On a full-sized Macintosh keyboard, press Clear.

Function keys

To send a Function key (for example, F1 or F3) to a virtual machine:

Press Fn+<the desired function key>

Note: To make the Macintosh function keys act like regular function keys, and trigger the special functions with Fn+<the function key> instead, go to Apple menu > System Preferences > Keyboard (or Keyboard & Mouse > Keyboard), and select Use all F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys.

Note: To use F13-F24 in a virtual machine, you must use the steps above to change the default behavior of the function keys.

Windows key

By default, this is mapped to Either Command key, but it can also be mapped to Right Command key or Left Command key according to your choice.

To map the Windows key to any convenient key you choose, navigate to VMware Fusion > Preferences > Keyboard & Mouse > Key Mappings.

Notes:

If Ctrl+click does not work in Windows and sends a right-click instead, see Selecting multiple list items in the table.

If you have a keyboard layout other than the US English keyboard layout, see Using an alternate keyboard layout for a virtual machine in VMware Fusion (1005578).

Additional Information

For translated versions of this article, see:

Español: Consejos para usar un teclado Macintosh (2033001)

Português: Dicas sobre como usar um teclado Macintosh (2032459)

日本語: Macintosh キーボードの使用に関するヒント (2078500)

简体中文: 使用 Macintosh 键盘时的提示 (2076566)

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