How to detach Command key from Windows menu?

[Snorkledorf]

I'm running XP SP3 under Fusion v3.0.0 (204229), latest VMWare Tools etc.

My goal is to disable the binding of the Mac Command key to the client Windows menu, and I've been totally unsuccessful doing it.

I experienced a brief surge of hope when I realized there was a key mapping preference that bound the two together in Fusion v3's preferences. (Was it there in v2? Anyway I just noticed it now.) But no matter if I change it to a different key, disable it, delete it outright (my current state), or even disable Key Mappings altogether, the two are still stubbornly linked together. I really like the binding of e.g Command-C to ctrl-c so I don't have to completely rewire my brain. On the other hand, I also have 25 years of Mac experience telling my thumb that pressing the Command key a little early does nothing in particular, so the Windows menu keeps popping up "on its own." :smileyhappy: This is one binding I would love to be able to get rid of.

Is there anything else I should try?

[nbe]

I don't think the command key problem is actually a problem in Fusion, I think it's more a Windows problem. It seems that Windows detects a keyboard and tries to lay it's keyboard layout on top of that. In this layout the Windows key is also present and it will be mapped to either the alt or the meta key. The same thing happens when I use my Sun type 6 keyboard in Windows or with this Windows vm. I don't understand why this option is in the keybindings as it won't affect the vm. There are regsettings for Windows to disable the Windows key (I think it can even be done by using the group policy editor).

Message was edited by: nbe

Rephrased a sentence.

[nbe]

Keyboard layouts are also part of an OS, no matter if it's the guest or host OS. I don't know how Fusion 2 disabled the key but it can be they either did it by presenting a different keyboard layout to the guest OS or by simply setting that regkey to disable the winkey (which you can do yourself as I already told earlier). In other words, you can't conclude it's definitely Fusion that screwed it up, it could be something in VMware Tools or something.

Message was edited by: RDellimmagine

[Snorkledorf]

But did this work in Fusion v2? Pity I can't use the old version to check. If it worked before like he said, then it's a Fusion thing rather than a Windows thing. Even if it's, say, in the way the client OS is now being allowed to access the host's keyboard or whatever.

Is there a place you can submit bug reports? The "Send Feedback" menu item just plops me at the Communities top page which doesn't help too much.

[nbe]

If it did work like that in Fusion 2 they must have had some fix to it. In Fusion 3 they did make some changes to the keyboard layout.

Support can be found on the website at "Support & downloads" > "Contact support" which will lead to: http://www.vmware.com/support/contacts/

You can use that to submit issues.

[admin]

Inappropriate content removed and user banned.

If anyone sees inappropriate behavior on VMware Communities, please feel free to contact me or any of the community moderators (with the "M" icon), and we will take care of it.

Regards, Robert

Robert Dell'Immagine, Director of VMware Communities

[KillTheMomos]

Robert,

So you ban with no warning to the user? How nice.

I also see that you ban one user but not the troll of this thread. All evidence of trolling has been removed...

Something smells here....

[WoodyZ]

So you ban with no warning to the user? How nice.

I also see that you ban one user but not the troll of this thread. All evidence of trolling has been removed...

Something smells here....

Everyone is forewarned and to refresh your memory have a look at 2 and 4 c under VMware Communities Terms of Use much less reread the entire VMware Communities Terms of Use.

[KillTheMomos]

Where was the forewarning you claim exists?

[WoodyZ]

Where was the forewarning you claim exists?

When one registers to use theses forums one agrees to the VMware Communities Terms of Use and by that, having read them prior to accepting them, is what I meant by forewarned however if you chose not to read the VMware Communities Term of Use well that's on you and besides that I'm quite sure that moderators contact offending individuals via private messages with additional warnings before taking ultimate actions.

[Snorkledorf]

Aaaanyway... :smileysilly:

Thanks for the link to the feedback pages; I submitted a modified version of my initial post as a bug/issue, so hopefully somebody at VMware will begin taking a look at it if they haven't already.

Thanks for the workaround! Now that you mention it, I seem to remember doing some such arcane sorcery in the registry of a VM long ago... I followed the directions on the IT page to disable the Windows key on the VM side, and after rebooting it seems to work (or rather, not work!) fine. It's a minor issue for me since I only have 3 VMs, but until VMware repair things on their end, this'll do me.

Cool.

[KillTheMomos]

Has there been any action on your support ticket since it as filed two weeks ago? Would be nice to know if VMware is actually doing anything towards correcting this annoying issue.

[Snorkledorf]

Customer support said:

I've gone through the same steps to try and disable that and have come up with the same problem. I've filed a bug report to see if perhaps there's bug with the software or if we're doing it wrong. I'll let you know what I find out.

and

They're saying that they will be improving the functionality of this to make it easier to understand and do in a future release of Fusion. They say that currently you'd have to map the windows key to something else as it cannot be unmapped. It just has to be attached to something.

...so they're aware of the problem. I tried mapping the Windows menu to some random keystrokes to get it out of the way like the second message implies could be done, but it still came up with the Command key So I'm not entirely convinced about their second explanation (which I mentioned to them in reply).

In the meantime, futzing with the registry did stop it, though that's a very non-optimal solution for people with many VMs.

[Johnny5k]

I found a solution that works great! It uses a free script that runs on Windows (tested in XP & 7). You can either disable just the Start Menu from popping up when you click the Windows key (and still have access to all shortcuts that use it as a modifier) or you can disable it completely. It takes less than 5 minutes to get up & running, and it's FREE! :smileygrin:

Download the app:

Follow the Quick-Start Tutorial, and use this as your code to just disable the Start Menu popup function:

~LWin Up:: return

~RWin Up:: return

You can always still pop up the Start Menu with ctrl-esc.

Or use this if you want it disabled completely:

~RWin::return

Credit to jspenguin at -- Thanks jspenguin!!

-Johnny5k

[Snorkledorf]

AutoHotKey looks useful, thanks! Seems to be worth looking into for sure.

[davidb2]

Johnny5k wrote:

I found a solution that works great!

<snip>

Credit to jspenguin at http://www.autohotkey.com/forum/topic55858.html -- Thanks jspenguin!!

Thank you very much for this tip, which works perfectly. The AutoHotkey instructions were very clear and easy to follow.

I have had this annoying problem for years and looked for a solution several times, but the ones I found always seemed to involve more under-the-hood Windows work than I am capable of. Also, they either swapped the Command key for something else or disabled it completely instead of disabling it just for the Start Menu as this does.

[KillTheMomos]

Also, is anyone going to fix the key mapping?

I was a lurker, reading this thread amongst others in search of a solution. It was actually humorous watching the beating on this thread so much so that I almost forgot the original issue when I noticed the massive edits.

To summarize, the key mapping preference working in 2.x but does not work in 3.0. No matter the setting, pushing command brings up the start menu. Even if its to hit cmd-c to try to copy, I get a start menu and nothing on the clipboard :smileysad:

Please fix this and maybe your users won't be so irate that you must hide their feelings. I bet that doesn't look to good for prospective customers when your users want to kill you...

[KillTheMomos]

The hell !?

I just used the plain text editor to make that second post and fix the first post as I became aware the rich text editor is broken after making the first. Yet I got one of those gay icons instead of my plain text. What gives?

[nbe]

If you go nuts about something like this I think you're better off with a shrink or something. Yes, the issue is annoying but it is easy to fix as you can disable the winkey from within Windows. I searched for an article explaining the regtweaks you need to make and found the following link at microsoft.com: How to disable the keyboard Windows key

Below is what it says:

To disable the Windows key, do the following steps:

1. Click Start, click Run, type regedt32, and then click OK.

2. On the Windows menu, click HKEY_LOCAL_ MACHINE on Local Machine.

3. Click the System\CurrentControlSet\Control folder, and then double-click the Keyboard Layout folder.

4. On the Edit menu, click Add Value, type in Scancode Map, click REG_BINARY as the Data Type, and then click OK.

5. Type 00000000000000000300000000005BE000005CE000000000 in the Data field, and then click OK.

6. Close the Registry Editor and restart the computer.

Note: before doing this you should follow the warning on that page and make a backup of this regkey by exporting it via regedt32. If you want to undo this change than import the exported .reg file and the winkey should work again.

Again, this is a temporary fix that disables the entire winkey in the Windows vm and should be repeated for each Windows vm you've got. At the end of the day it is VMware who needs to resolve the issue, this is just a workaround!

[KillTheMomos]

That work-around is old news. It was posted in the 1.x days which was several years ago (yes I've lurked that long). I used it back then when I had 1 VM, but now I have more than 20 and this is kinda annoying. I'd like to just have it fixed the way it should be before I go change all those. At least we all agree VMware needs to step up to the plate on this one.