I am using Parallels RC1, on a MacBook Pro 17 and Windows XP SP2. I tried searching the Forum but could not find anything about this. When I press the Apple/Command key the Windows Start menu pops up. This means whenever I try to switch to another Macintosh process, using command-Tab, the Menu appears. Is there a workaround for this?
I am using RC2 and the only time the Start menu pops up is if the VM is the active window. If I have another app in the foreground the Apple key works normally. The way it is working on my machine at the moment is the way I would expect it to work. Are you having this problem when the VM is not the active window? If so, try RC2 and see if the problem still exists.
I believe this is how it is supposed to work. They are mapping the command key to the windows start key. I keep the stupid windows task bar hidden all the time. I use the start key all the time to pop up the start menu.
Actually, this is a Windows thing. I've been using a MacAlly keyboard on my Windows PC for years. I believe that the Keycode (or whatever) for the Command Key is the same as the Windows key on a regular PC Keyboard. I think your best bet is to use the key remapper that is desribed in the right-click thread. If you've tried Bootcamp it should be the same behavior.
A way to disable this would be very nice. I want to command-tab to / from the VM without having that braindamaged menu flying out all the time. There's another way to open it without that stupid extra key (ctrl-esc). I've never had a keyboard with that useless key on a PC through all the years and I don't need it in my way in the VM either. It should be a configurable setting right on the same page with right click emulation disabling and the fulsscreen hotkey.
This isn't really a problem with Parallels, it's more of a Windows issue. If you use the remapkey program (available as a download from microsoft, part of the resource kit) you can basically "unmap" the left windows key and the menu will no longer pop up. At that point you won't be able to use the key as a Windows key _at_all_ (of course) but it doesn't sound like you ever used that key anyway. I'm kind of fond of the Windows key, though... There's all kinds of great shortcuts that use it.
The remapkey utility just edits the registry. It allows replacing but not simple removing. I can manually edit the registry to simply remove the offending keys. I would still like to see Parallels gain the ability to 'reserve' the command key for its use. It would also be nice if the command key was available to use for focus release and full-screen toggle, similar to how it is available for right click emulation. This would allow all those functions to be guranteed non-conflicting with possible guest key combinations. For the mean time, if anyone else wants to get the same effect, just toss this snippet into a .reg file and import it in the guest. This will unmap both windows keys and the right click key (which I've never seen anyone use, nor do I know how you'd generate it, but it doesn't hurt to remove it anyway). [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layout] "Scancode Map"=hex:00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,04,00,00,00,00,00,5b,e0,00,00,5c,e0,\ 00,00,5d,e0,00,00,00,00
Suggested "Apple/Command" key trapping--if possible I have the same "problem". However, if the only non-Windows use for the Apple/Command-key, while the virtual machine has focus, is to "Cmd-Tab" out of Parallels then what would really solve this is if the Parallels Team could find a way to trap the passing of the "command key" message to the guest OS if the tab key is subsequently depressed. I notice that Windows seems to respond upon the release of the command key, not the depression of it. This would indicate that trapping and suppressing upon release if the tab key had been pressed in the interim would be a logically straightforward procedure. How simple to implement I cannot say. There is much work to do in [really] fine-tuning this process of making a guest OS work seamlessly with the host from the user's standpoint. Parallels is far enough along that I am now using it for my real job/work. As long as they continue along the path towards maturity I am very glad to come along for the ride. I think Parallels is a wonderful "enabling" product and will happily (re)purchase a version 2.x in a year if they continue this development (I've already preordered v1.0). Regards, Bill.
