Because I am now working on a .Net project and I don’t want to work on a PC 😉 , I decided to install Windows as guest on my Mac in VirtualBox.
Everything works perfectly fine except that Windows doesn’t like my Apple keyboard. What a surprise! 🙄
After a quick search on Google, I found a fix for:
- the Apple German keyboard: http://www.miscdebris.net/blog/2009/04/17/apple-keyboard-keymap-german-for-windows-running-as-guest-on-mac-os-x-host-in-virtualbox/
- the Apple Swedish keyboard: http://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/1871#comment:11
- and even the MacBook Pro UK keyboard: http://www.linickx.com/archives/2931/macbook-pro-uk-keyboard-layout
But I didn’t find anything for the ‘normal’ Apple UK keyboard. Unfortunately, I can’t use the MacBook Pro UK keyboard layout because it is slightly different than the USB and Wireless Apple UK keyboards layout. 🙁
So my friend Google 😛 didn’t leave me any other choice than create my own keymap for this keyboard using the Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator.
You can download it clicking on the following link: Keyboard Layout Setup Files (English UK – Apple). And here is the source KLC file if you want to make change to it: Source KLC File for English UK – Apple Keyboard Layout.
To use, simply unzip, run setup, and then in your keyboard settings (Control Panel -> Regional and Language Options) change to “United Kingdom – Custom”. You may wish to remove the default UK keyboard to avoid confusion. If it still doesn’t work, don’t hesitate to reboot Windows! 😉
This is working well on my VirtualBox but it should also work on any Windows instance (i.e. VMWare, Parallels, etc).
#1 by EcoWarrior on 20 Feb 2010 - 07:07
Although you have gone to the dark side with .Net I love how you have managed to keep the faith with VirtualBox and lovin’ the keymap. Anything is possible!
#2 by Martin Sutherland on 05 Apr 2010 - 19:17
Works great for me – many thanks!
#3 by Ken on 25 Apr 2010 - 23:59
Great thanks.
Just one question where is the hash key on this layout?
#4 by smoreau on 27 Apr 2010 - 15:05
On Mac OSX, you need to press <Alt>+3 to get the hash symbol. However, I forgot to set it up in this keymap. 🙁
Please find below the link to download the updated keymap including the hash symbol:
http://www.logikdev.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/English-UK-Apple.zip
I also changed the links on the post.
Please let me know if there is any other missing keys. 🙂
#5 by Ken on 04 May 2010 - 20:30
Thank you very much.
I had manually changed it to ALT+3 as well. But I will use your key map as I need to press CTRL afterwards for some reason.
I think you have covered every other key. Thanks.
#6 by smoreau on 04 May 2010 - 20:44
Great! Thanks. 🙂
#7 by Jo on 02 Sep 2010 - 08:52
En même temps faire du .NET sur un Mac, avoue tu cherches un peu 🙂
(et oui je sais j’ai 6 mois de retard sur ce poste)
#8 by Axel on 12 Nov 2010 - 13:31
Hi there,
I’ve recently created a Google Code project for collecting Mac keyboard layouts for Microsoft Windows. –> https://code.google.com/p/mac-keyboard-layouts-for-windows/
I’d like to kindly ask you for sponsoring the KLC file of the UK layout, so that it could be added to the source code repository.
Of course, you would be kept as the original author of the UK KLC file.
Best regards,
Axel
#9 by smoreau on 12 Nov 2010 - 14:15
Yes, this is not a problem.
Please use the KLC file as you wish. 🙂
#10 by DDNO on 03 Dec 2010 - 02:46
Thanks so much. I’ve been using solely Mac for a while and this eases the dissonance of going back to Windows for a new job.
#11 by Richard on 09 Feb 2011 - 10:01
Many thanks for the KLC file! The only other thing I needed to do was remap the left cmd key to ctrl, and sharpkeys did the job by adjusting the registry entry. Sharpkeys worked fine on windows 7 http://www.randyrants.com/2008/12/sharpkeys_30.html
#12 by Chris on 01 Jul 2011 - 00:00
Perfect! Except, bizarrely, on my keyboard the top-left key and the key next to the Z appear to be transposed. I assume this is a strange compatibility decision by Apple (my keyboard is quite old).
#13 by smoreau on 01 Jul 2011 - 10:26
Yes, this is probably the reason.
I noticed in the past that they sometimes swap a few keys…
#14 by Ringo on 30 Nov 2011 - 16:20
Axel,
I just submitted a ticket in your GoogleCode project for the Mac Keyboard Layouts. I have the full layout working for the Apple Pro US International keyboard (model A1048)
Ringo
#15 by Xavura on 16 Jul 2012 - 19:31
Thank you very much.
#16 by SpeedyVV on 12 Dec 2013 - 18:40
Yo, thanks so much. saved me a ton of time.
#17 by Vijay on 21 Apr 2014 - 15:13
Great Work!
#18 by Andrew Scott on 27 Oct 2014 - 16:04
Nice one, worked a treat!
#19 by Vimal on 12 Feb 2015 - 11:14
Works for me. Thanks!!
#20 by Robert McGovern on 11 May 2015 - 19:39
Cheers for this! I’d just been pfaffing with the Bootcamp drivers trying to find the input mappings and gave up; then found your post.
It works a treat for my Aluminium wired Apple Keyboard. (the only mappings that appear to be “wrong” are the keys beside the 1 and the Z. They are swapped over)
#21 by laughingblade on 03 Jun 2015 - 19:38
The link for the MacBook Pro didn’t work for me – no CAPS and mismapped the hash/pound and euro keys. I fixed it up and put it here: https://github.com/laughingblade/mbp-retina-2014-win-kbd
Striclty for a UK model 2014 MacBook Pro.
HTH somebody.
#22 by Mark on 22 Sep 2015 - 15:11
Thank you very much for this! Works great except for the keys left of the 1 and the z, which, as mentioned in previous posts, are transposed.
#23 by Phil on 29 Sep 2015 - 13:40
It still works great in Windows 10! Only problem is that left alt+3 doesn’t give a hash, only right alt+3.
#24 by ed sykes on 24 Feb 2016 - 18:26
I’ve created a keyboard map on github for anyone having trouble running windows on a late 2012 macbook pro. For details see here: https://github.com/edsykes/MacbookProLate2013WindowsKeyboard
#25 by Fandanglit on 22 Jun 2016 - 14:10
This works great apart from the ±§ and `~ are switched for me… on Windows 7 64 Bit
I found the lines in the source code, but how to edit them and then apply them…
#26 by microneppy on 04 Feb 2017 - 14:15
It’s 2017, and I decided to test this in a Windows Vista VM on VirtualBox on a UK MacBook Air, works almost perfectly except that the keys next to 1 and Z are swapped, but otherwise no issues! Thanks for this!~
#27 by A on 20 Sep 2017 - 17:06
Thanks, worked for me!
#28 by TK on 19 Oct 2017 - 10:10
7 years later and this is still the best solution out there. Thank you!
#29 by Steve on 02 May 2018 - 16:48
Thanks for the software. I know this has been around for a while, but I wondered if anybody can use their ‘fn’ key on the UK Apple keyboard, under Windows 7. Not being able to simulate delete by pressing fn-backspace is grating.
Many thanks.
#30 by Airton A Esmerio on 21 Oct 2018 - 12:51
Thanks for that. It really helped me with Irish Keyboard. It just needed two amends.
Thanks once more!