Macs, Parallels and Keyboard Layouts

I am currently developing on a Mac, running Visual Studio on a Windows 7 VM courtesy of Parallels. There are a number of issues to resolve the first of which is the key mappings.

I am using the Mac bluetooth keyboard and a few keys are mapped incorrectly:

Pressing this key	Results in this output
§	`
±	¬
@	“
“	@
\	#
|	~

When using OS X alt + 3 produces a # and alt + 2 produces a €. Unfortunately in Windows alt key combinations are normally used to launch menu items.

The answer to this is a free program from Microsoft called Keyboard Layout Creator.

Download and install this (on your Windows VM) then you can use it to create a correct layout. Once you have the layout you can create an installer to install your keyboard layout on however many VMs you like.

You can download the layout I created and open the file in the layout creator to build your own installer. I have also uploaded the installer I created (mostly for my own reference, I make no guarantees it will not fry your system, please use a good virus scanner etc.).

Once you have installed the layout open Keyboards and languages:

Then change the default input language and keyboard:

Any applications that are open need to be restarted, but then you should have all keys working correctly.

I have mapped # to Ctrl + alt + 3 and € to ctrl + alt + 2 which should work as long as the application you are in is not using them as shortcut keys.