Major Problem!! Ctrl+Alt key combination not working in Parallels Desktop for Mac 10

R

Ray Konopka

Member
Hi, I run my Windows VMs in traditional full screen mode in its own desktop space. To switch to a different desktop I use the 3 finger swipe on my track pad. However, if I don't have my TrackPad, I can press the Ctrl+Alt key combination from within my full screen Windows VM and this will cause the Mac OSX menu and dock to become visible. Then I can press Command+N to change to a different desktop space.

Unfortunately, in Parallels Desktop for Mac 10, pressing Ctrl+Alt in my Windows VM does NOT bring up the Mac menu nor the dock. As a result, once I get into a full screen Windows VM, the only way that I can get back to the Mac is to shutdown the Windows VM.

This is unacceptable!

Ray
 
After some more testing, it appears that this problem is related to the problem I reported earlier about the NumLock key. From my testing, the Ctrl+Alt key combination will stop working whenever I press the NumLock key. So far, I've been able to get the Ctrl+Alt key combination working by toggling the NumLock key a few times. Clearly there is something wrong with the keyboard driver in Parallels 10.

Ray
 
Okay. I've got more information on this issue. I started another one of my existing VMs that worked correctly in PD 9 and after the VM started and I logged into Windows, the Parallels Tools installer kicked in. However, I terminated this immediately. I then opened up Note pad and tested the NumLock Key. Sure enough, pressing the keys on the numeric key pad with the NumLock key OFF, resulted in numbers showing up in Notepad. This suggests that the problem is NOT caused by the Parallels Tools.

What is also very interesting is that when I toggle the NumLock state, the change does not take effect until after I press one of the numeric key pad keys. The following steps illustrate the issue. The NumLock state is ON. I then press the NumLock key to turn it OFF. Next, I press then 4/<- key on the numeric key pad. Since NumLock is OFF, I am expecting the cursor to move to the left. However, the number 4 appears in Notepad. However, if I press the 4/<- key on the numeric key pad again, then the cursor moves to the left. Successive presses of the 4/<- key moves the cursor to the left.

Now, if I turn the NumLock state back ON and press the 4/<- key, the cursor moves to the left. When I press the 4/<- key again, now the number 4 appears in Notepad.

And finally, it appears that the Ctrl+Alt keyboard combination will only bring up the Mac Menu and Dock when NumLock is ON.

This is all a major pain! At least I don't have to shut down Windows in order to get back to my Mac.

Ray
 
You can use Command + <desktop number> directly in Full Screen to switch desktops, no need to ctrl+alt if Parallels Tools are installed, also, invoking Mission Control (F3) will allow you to switch desktops.
 
Actually it won't because in Windows VM Command key maps to Windows key. Therefore Command+# invokes the appropriate app on the Windows task bar. And F3 is turned off to Mac because I need it windows to do Find Next.

Specimen said:
You can use Command + <desktop number> directly in Full Screen to switch desktops, no need to ctrl+alt if Parallels Tools are installed, also, invoking Mission Control (F3) will allow you to switch desktops.
Click to expand...
 
That's incorrect, and fortunately you do have plenty of options that allow you to switch to your other desktops.

By default, Command + <desktop number> will change desktop even with Windows VM on full screen (have you tried it?), Parallels is smart enough to distinguish between just Command and Command + something. And 'by default' I mean if you haven't changed the default keyboard shortcuts in Parallels preferences.

Speaking of Keyboard preferences in Parallels, I invite you to look at those.

You can use the 'Fn' to switch between how F keys are interpreted. Try Fn+F9, by default that also gives you Mission Control (you can control the key or key combination for MC in the Keyboard pane of System Preferences in OS X).

Lastly, if you move your mouse pointer to the top of the screen and wait one second the OS X top menu appears even while running the VM in full screen.
 
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While I appreciate the response, you are making several assumptions that are simply not valid.

First of all, yes, I am aware of the Command+# keyboard command to switch between desktops. In fact, I use this all of the time. However, when I am in full screen mode in one of my VMs, this keyboard sequence is indeed processed by Windows, and will not be recognized by OSX until I make the Mac menu and dock visible. And before you jump in and say this is not correct, you also need to know that I turn OFF the "Use Use Mac OS X Full Screen" option for my VMs. Not only does this affect the operation of the Command+# keyboard sequence, it also means that when I move the mouse pointer to the top of my screen, the Mac OS X top menu DOES NOT appear.

And yes, I am very aware of the various keyboard shortcuts in Mac OSX itself, Parallels, and with the VMs. I use many of them and have even had to customize a few because of interference between several Windows apps I run.

However, you are missing the point of all this. I've been running with this arrangement of full screen VMs (and some windowed versions as well) since Parallels Desktop 5. And yes, I am aware of the various ways to switch desktops. As I explained in my original message, I often use my trackpad to do a 3-finger swipe to switch desktops, but I don't always have my trackpad, which is the case right now. I am working at a remote location and have my Mac Book Pro connected to an external monitor. The lid to the Mac Book is closed so I don't have access to the track pad.

The point is that something changed in the keyboard driver for PD 10. The good news is that I last night (early this morning) I had a long chat session with a Parallels Support Staff member and we tried many different things to try to resolve the issue. One of the steps was to bring up the On Screen Keyboard that is part of Windows. What was most interesting is that when we restarted Windows and displayed the OnScreen Keyboard, the NumLock key state was indeed OFF. However, if you press any of the numeric keypad keys (e.g. Left Arrow/4), the NumLock state would automatically change to ON. Then trying to turn it back off using the OnScreen Keyboard would not work because the On-Screen Keyboard would lock up until you physically pressed the NumLock key on the keyboard. It was very strange behavior, but more importantly, it was repeatable.

In the end, the support rep escalated the issue, so hopefully Parallels will be able to resolve this in an update.

Ray
 
Started reading but gave up at all the "I'm aware"s and "you're missing the point"s, no point in wasting my time, good luck with your problem.
 
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If you would have asked for more details instead of stating "That's incorrect" followed by telling me how *my* system works, then I wouldn't have had to waste my time composing a detailed message outlining the situation. I'll have to make a note of that for the future.
 
I have just figured out that I am having the same problem under the current release of Parallels 10. (I didn't upgrade right away and I hadn't done anything that made it obvious what's going on until today.)

When I type any Ctrl-Alt-<key> combination to trigger an action, it is not working. Today, the combination I tried to use was Ctrl-Alt-F. But instead of triggering the menu item it was supposed to in the Windows app, it typed the Mac option-f character. (I can't actually type it here, because the forum software thinks it's "not English". It's the curly f.)

Simply put, this is flat wrong. Is this the same problem? Has it not been fixed in the past 5 months?!? Is there some sort of workaround?
 
I did some additional testing this morning. This problem also occurs under a separate instance of Windows 7 32-bit. It does not occur under Windows XP.
 
This past week I spent time working with Parallels tech support on this issue. They have now confirmed this as a bug. (How the heck did this get past the most basic testing?)
 
Specimen said:
Started reading but gave up at all the "I'm aware"s and "you're missing the point"s, no point in wasting my time, good luck with your problem.
Click to expand...
Specimen, I'd just like to thank you for the midday comedic relief. I'm sitting here trying to solve a problem in Parallels. I find this thread and start reading. That guy Ray is trying so politely to explain his situation to you and all you want to do is tell him he's wrong while admitting you won't even read his description of his problem.

After all your bluster, talking down to Ray, a support agent shows up to inform Ray that the bug is real and they're working on a fix. Looks like you were wrong and Ray was right! This all happened a little over five years ago, so I hope you learned something from this encounter and have been using that knowledge over the last five+ years.

Be kind to folks! You'll live a better life because of it.
 
Try dis:
Parallels Desktop Preferences
Shortcuts>Virtual Machines>Profile: to Generic
this allows for the "alt" key to function normally in Windows environment e.g., "shift + alt + right arrow" to group columns in Excel

Ray Konopka said:
Hi, I run my Windows VMs in traditional full screen mode in its own desktop space. To switch to a different desktop I use the 3 finger swipe on my track pad. However, if I don't have my TrackPad, I can press the Ctrl+Alt key combination from within my full screen Windows VM and this will cause the Mac OSX menu and dock to become visible. Then I can press Command+N to change to a different desktop space.

Unfortunately, in Parallels Desktop for Mac 10, pressing Ctrl+Alt in my Windows VM does NOT bring up the Mac menu nor the dock. As a result, once I get into a full screen Windows VM, the only way that I can get back to the Mac is to shutdown the Windows VM.

This is unacceptable!

Ray
Click to expand...
 
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