Keyboard shortcuts for working in a remote desktop Windows Machine from your MacBook

macos-rdp-1In this blog post, I am going to share with you how to get the missing keyboard keys that let you work in MS Windows via the remote desktop client under Mac OS X with the MacBook’s keyboard.

What is important to know is that when using a MacBook’s keyboard, you don’t have all the keys that you usually have on a PC keyboard.

Essentially, you are missing the following keys:

  • HOME / END.
  • DEL key. This is different from the MacBook’s “Delete” key (which is equivalent to the “Backspace” key).
  • INS Key.
  • Page Up / Page Down.
  • The “Windows” key.

MacBook Air keyboard

Make sure you use the RDP Client to remote into the Windows Machine in order for the following keyboard shortcuts to work.

macos-rdp-2

Very Important: Some of the hotkeys below conflict with your macOS’s default global hotkeys. Make sure your global keyboard hotkeys are unassigned (from the System Preferences / Keyboard / Shortcuts) before you proceed.

The following table will tell you what keys combination you can use on a MacBook keyboard to get the same behavior as if you were using a regular PC keyboard:

PC keyboard hotkey Mac keyboard equivalent Description
Win key Command The “Command” key is like the “Win” key, it triggers the Windows Start Menu.
Press for instance: “Command+R” to trigger the Windows Run dialog, etc…
 Home / End Fn + Left or Right arrow keys Pressing the Fn key with the left / right arrow keys will emulate the HOME and END keys on a full PC keyboard.
 Ctrl + Home / End Control + Fn + Left or Right arrow keys Pressing Ctrl+Home or Ctrl+End will take you to the top or the bottom of a document or file. This is useful in text editors.
Page Up / Page Down Fn + Up or Down arrow keys PageUp or PageDown keys let you scroll one page up or down in a document. The “Fn + Up/Down” equivalent on the Mac keyboard lets you do the same.
 Delete key Fn + Delete In the Mac keyboard, there is only the “delete” key which is the equivalent of the BackSpace key on a PC keyboard. The “Delete” key on a PC keyboard lets you delete the character in front of the cursor. To achieve that using a MacBook keyboard inside a Remote Desktop session, press Fn+Delete

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10 Replies to “Keyboard shortcuts for working in a remote desktop Windows Machine from your MacBook”

  1. what is the shortcut for selecting the last cell in the column , in other words what is the short cut for Ctrl +down in the remote desktop for Excel

    1. I don’t get you. Ctrl+Down remains the same since the macOS keyboard has the “Ctrl” and “Down” keys.

    2. To use Ctrl+Up / Ctrl+Down as-is, you need to disable those shortcuts – typically used by Mission Control, from Keyboard Preferences.

  2. Any idea how to get Alt+Left Arrow combination to pass through to remote windows as the equivalent for Ctrl + Left Arrow, to move the cursor word by word?

    1. I wish I know. I would need that too! One way is to use a 3rd-party tool to remap some accessible keys to the missing keys action.

  3. Things I’ve learned since working remotely on a Mac, logging into a PC.
    On Mac command-tab switches between applications (so you can toggle your desktop and the remote one)
    But to switch between applications on the remote desktop, use alt(option)-tab.
    To switch through browser tabs, use control-tab on both desktops.

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