I love the new aluminum Apple keyboard, but am too cheap to buy the iMac it usually comes with. I figured if I just picked a used one up on eBay and hooked it up to my Sony VAIO running Windows 7 x64 what’s the worst that could happen? It worked surprisingly well, that’s what happened. Windows detected it as an Apple keyboard without any 3rd party drivers and with the exception of the Function (Fn) keys, I was using the keyboard in seconds. A few hours of use later I found myself in a bit of a pickle though…the Apple keyboard has no Print Screen key, no Num Lock or Insert and it’d sure be nice to get those function keys to work. Here’s how I did it.
[step 1] Grab a free copy of SharpKeys 3.0 from Codeplex
[step 2] With your Apple Keyboard plugged in, unzip the SharpKeys download to your desktop and run the SharpKeys.exe executable.
[step 3] Click Add to add a new key mapping.
[step 4] Click Type Key to associate a key with the “From Key” mapping and likewise with the “To Key” mapping or just pick one of the choices and click OK.
[step 5] Click Write to Registry when you’re done adding all your key mappings.
[step 6] Log out and back in or reboot to use your new special keys.
That’s it.
For the real Mac < -> Windows keyboard map (it’ll give you cramps) checkout Apple’s Website
Great! I’m gonna go out and get one of those keyboards, and use your method for re-mapping. Thanks.
NOTE: not all apple keyboard keys can be mapped using windows and Sharp Keys (SK). Some keys just don’t show up in the SK key identifier (like F10 – mute, eject, fn and some others)…just FYI
David, any idea how to remap “Fn” key to “Insert” key (my specific need)? I have tried sollution described on http://www.autohotkey.com/forum/topic41397.html , which is unfortunatelly also not able to detect the Fn key on this keyboard (under WinXP)… Thank you for any suggestions.
@Fildo
Unfortunately the F13, Fn, Eject, and several other are mapped to non-existing windows keyboard functions. In other words they are keys that don’t have a windows equivalent. To see all the keys that fit this category see apple’s website:
Support Article KB-HT1216
Most of the keys that have a dash (-) next to them, you won’t really be able map in windows because they don’t exist in windows.
Sorry,
David
David,
thx. anyway. This is the only thing about this great kayboard, I would not be able to move through
. Insert is a key of very frequent usage for me, and its location is thus pretty crucial…
Filip
i mapped insert to f17, works fine here.
Can anyone point me to an application that would let me add key combinations to replace “delete”, “printscreen”, “insert” and the other missing keys? I’m fine with FN key not working (since I have no option), but I’d like to use shortcuts to replace the missing functions. I find “delete” particularly necessary. (not that I ever make mistakes)
btw, my keyboard is the small aluminum apple, no num keypad.
@clusterjuice,
I used a little program called autohotkey for mapping key combo’s to applications. You can find it at:
http://www.autohotkey.com/
If that doesn’t work, here is a MetaFilter thread with a number of responses on macros and keyboard shortcuts:
http://ask.metafilter.com/20553/How-do-I-make-my-own-keyboard-shortcuts-in-Windows