Fixing MacBook Pro keyboard annoyances under Windows
This article was written when Boot Camp had limited device driver support and is now therefore out of date.
There are a few annoyances with the MacBook Pro keyboard when in use under Windows XP via Boot Camp. The lack of back lighting and the swapped WindowsAlt keys I can’t help with but the getting the Fn key operational, replacing Alt Gr and switching misplaced symbols I can.
The lack of Alt Gr for those people who need to use foreign characters or the Euro symbol can be solved by simply pressing Alt and Ctrl together instead.
Misplaced symbols (UK keyboards)
The UK keyboards don’t quite work as expected so I’ve put together a couple of key maps to solve the problems.
For the most part the keyboard act as a normal UK Windows keyboard, i.e. # is next to Enter and " are up on Shift2. One key however isn’t right and that’s </kbd> which should be next to Z but can be found up by 1.
MacBook Pro UK Windows Keymap solves this backslash problem and is recommended for experience Windows laptop touch-typists.
MacBook Pro UK Mac Keymap makes the keyboard operate as it is labelled and indeed how it operates in OS X. Experienced Mac users, non touch-typists or consistency seekers – this is the one for you. (Note that # is CtrlAlt3 as per OS X)
Installing these key maps
Download the above file and ensure you unpack the ZIP – you’ll get an error if you try and run the MSI from inside the ZIP as there is another file inside the i386 folder that it needs.
Once installed head into Control Panel > Regional and Language Options then go to the Language tab and press Details…
Click Add… and choose input language English (United Kingdom) and the appropriate keyboard layout of either United Kingdom (MacBook Windows) or United Kingdom (MacBook Mac).
Click OK then choose English (United Kingdom) – United Kingdom (MacBook … from the drop-down box under Default input language and finally hit OK!
Getting the Fn key to work
Input Remapper lets you remap various keys but most importantly comes preconfigured and with a driver to enable Fn on the MacBook while in Windows.
Volume, brightness, Eject, Num Lock, page up/down, home and end will work just as you’d expect.
Additionally FnBackspace will delete, FnEject will print screen, the odd key to the right of the Apple logo will provide context menu and pressing Fn while clicking the track pad will give you right mouse clicks so no need for Apple Mouse.
Have fun!
[)amien
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