Keyboard not working in Windows XP

I am using an Apple Bluetooth Keyboard on my MBP, and certain keys no longer work in Windows. For example, the tab key doesn't work and the U key brings up the Utility Manager. Any ideas on what the issue is?

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

Hello Bjwang,

Do you have assistive devices enabled in System Preferences -> Universal Access?

Best regards,
Xenos

 

Xenos,
No, I do not have assistive devices enabled in System Preferences. Any other possible ideas? Thanks for your help, Ben

 

Ben, this is a known issue. We are sorry for the inconvenience caused.
You can try the following to get rid of this strange keys behaviour: hide Parallels (Command + H), then restore again.
Parallels developers are working to fix the bug.

Best regards,
Xenos

 

I have this problem multiple times a day. Command + H to hide and then restore parallels does not work.
Unfortunately this represents significant data loss for me, because when I type the letter "l" I am logged out of windows. And I can't log back in because my password contains one or more of these busted keys. So I have to shutdown Windows while still running applications!
Joseph Elwell.

 

I was having the same problem and was incredibly frustrating - ESPECIALLY with the letter U. As a work around for this problem, I went into Parallels Desktop > Preferences, then under the KEYBOARD & Mouse tab I unchecked the box that says "Virtual Machine Shortcuts". What this did for me was allows Windows commands like Copy and Past, and Select All, are now mapped to their default WINDOWS keys ~ Instead of being mapped to OS X Keys.

Hope this helps - and I am glad to hear this problem is being worked on.

 

Still broken for Vista Ultimate on MacBookPro/Leopard

This is happening to me constantly in all kinds of applications. I've tried everything, even turned off all the keyboard mappings by selecting the OSX keyboard profile in parallels preferences.

I love parallels but we gotta figure out a permanent fix for this.

 

Anybody?

Seriously I paid good money for this product. What is the status of the solution to this? I can't use parallels in this state.

Hiding the app fixes it for about 2 minutes and then I'm in keyboard hell again.

 

Turns out my version of parallels was not current, because the update feature is broken (you are not authorized message.)

After updating I will post back on how the issue is doing.

 

I'd love to upgrade to Parallels 4. But this is still a deal breaker for me. Has this been fixed?
Joseph Elwell.

 

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Hi,

I am using Parallels 4.0 and having similar issues, I am not sure if this is part of the same problem or something else!

Several times a day while I am typing (using a MAC keyboard) I find that suddenly the keys become shortcuts, d will display the desktop, e will bring up the explorer window etc etc. This makes it impossible to continue typing! It doesn't make any difference whether caps lock is on or off, nor have I had any success resolving this issue with hitting random key combinations! Its as if the Windows key is permenantly on, only there is no windows key. I have had no joy resolving this so every time it occurs I have to shut down parallels and restart.
If anyone can offer any advice it would be greatly appreciated!

Kind Regards
Briony

 

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Keyboard going haywire in Win XP

I am having the same problem, The keyboard gets set in a mode where it acts like a control key is pressed along with the other keys. I am using a wireless Apple keyboard which I have had for three years and has worked with earlier versions of Parallels. It also affects my PB internal keyboard, so it is something in the mapping algorithm and not hardware related.

MacBook Pro i7 OSX 10.6.3
Parallels 5.0

 

happening to me also

This is really ridiculous. Suddenly I'm logged out? Keyboard remapped? On top of this, My mac keyboard is locked out. One time it asked me to install keyboard drivers when I unplugged and plugged back in, then it locked me out of ALL my Mac shortcuts! No whenever I run parallels, I can't use my mac. How ironic is that.

Please tell me I don't have to reinstall everything. Cause I'd pretty much never buy this again and have been since the early days.

 

Same problem here...Looks like its one that has been lingering for a while. I've found pressing "Esc" or using the Keyboard Utility to send a "Break" character sometimes gets rid of the Utility Manager popup when this happens. But it is very annoying. This has been happening since I bought and installed Parallels 5.

My system config:
MB Pro w/internal keyboard & Magic Mouse
Parallels Desktop 5, build 5.0.9370
WinXP SP3

I have to admit I'm a "newbie" to Windows on Mac and just noticed after reading this thread that I've been using Apple Command Key + letters for things like bold, italic and underline keyboard shortcuts, when control key plus the letter does the same thing. I think it may be related to Parallels trying to make the Apple Command keys for these commands serve a dual purpose of the Windows key as well as matching the Mac Command B for bold, I for Italic, etc and it gets confused and invokes this "Utility Manager" thing.

I'll try "re-training" myself to use control instead and see if it improves.

 

Juniper SSL VPN

I am using Juniper SSL VPN under Windows in Parallels. Windows under Parallels itself works fine. However, when I use Juniper's Remote Desktop feature to connect to my PC at work, the Shift key, Caps Lock, Ctl key and others don't work properly. This is especially true for the key combos. Single keys seem to work fine.

 

This setting should help workaround the issue while we are working on a fix: Virtual Machine -> Configure -> Options -> Advanced -> Optimize modifier keys for games. We apologize for inconvenience.

 

I'm having the same problem with no key strokes using the wired extended keyboard and the last suggestion about "Optimize modifier keys for games" didn't work for me, nor did the Hide & Restore workaround.

 

Tim, your suggestion of "Optimize modifier keys for games" worked for me an my RDP into a WXP environment. Thanks for the hint. Looking forward to the upgrade.

P.S. My problem was the shift key would give me a lowercase on the first letter, then the second letter was UPPERCASE.

I use Snow Leopard with Parallels 6, W7 VM and RDP into a WxP environment. Back to work.