M1 Mac to Win10 Shortcuts not working right

[Mizamook]

Hello,

Got NoMachine working today.  So far, so good .. mostly.  Very snappy, great interface, etc.!

However, I am reliant on shortcuts for my workflow (DAW).  Especially Ctrl/CMD+ S, etc.  Also, Shift+scroll is not working.  Suspecting other shortcuts are also messed up, but for now, fixing these will give me a clue on fixing others I run into.

Details:  M1 Macbook Pro running Monterey (for now).  Trying to control a Windows 10 laptop with legacy software, remotely (music studio, from other room).  Both machines NoMachine 8.1.2 (confirmed latest). Using 5Ghz WiFi.

Detail:  On the Windows machine, I am using Sharpkeys to remap the Ctrl and Alt keys (on both sides) to reverse them (emulate Mac keyboard).  I have also remapped the CapsLock key to Delete on both the Win and Mac machines.  I am unwilling to change these.  I suspect that this is part of the issue though.

Interesting that when I hit Cmd+S (save!) on the Mac, some window pops up from Microsoft, with ads and links to Microsoft services, etc, the weather .. I could not replicate this on the PC itself!

I have looked in the archives, searched, and read as many related articles as I could find.

Advice, please?

Thanks!

 

 

[Britgirl]

Hi, we need to check something first. Can you disable Sharpkeys (for this quick test) and then check again if shortcuts are working as expected or are still wrong within the NoMachine session.

[Mizamook]

Another few tidbits of info:

Control on the Mac is operating as Control on the PC.  Since I go  back and forth between these machines, I cannot tolerate having the Ctrl/Cmd key being in different places.  I use it constantly (saving, copy/paste/undo).

SHIFT is working.  Just not as a modifier for the scroll wheel.  I opened a text document using the Mac to open the doc on the PC, and typed.  When I push Shift, the letters become capitals.  Not sure why it would not work as a modifier for the scroll wheel .. it zooms horizontally in and out in ProTools.  Kinda need it!

Thanks!

[Mizamook]

Hi, thanks for responding.

One does not simply disable Sharpkeys, I discovered, but it was easy to save my keys and disable them for the test.  And then, sadly, replace them after, as I found no difference in function.

I do not believe Sharpkeys is affecting the Cmd and Shift *and possibly Alt* modifiers.

I did note that my CapsLock key on the Mac functions perfectly well as Delete while connected to the Windows machine.

Also, the Scroll wheel does work (in fact it is Shift+Scroll not working that first clued me into that the modifier keys are not working.)

Thanks again .. your patience is appreciated.

[Mizamook]

More new data to consider:  Out of curiosity I tried another remote desktop application.  I found that the same problem(s) existed.

That tells me (us?!) that it is not NoMachine causing the issues, it is likely my setup and way I work.  Sadly, I’ll probably just have to keep using the terrible little $300 Windows machine for my remote controller, as it seems it’s not possible to use the Mac controlling PC and have my shortcuts and modifier keys work as I want.

Unless there is a way to specifically re-map keys in NoMachine?  I see no such utility.  Even so, it would not fix the lack of Shift+scroll, since my Shift key is definitely working (as a shift key, not a modifier)

[Britgirl]

Presently NoMachine remaps the keyboard modifiers to emulate the remote desktop keyboard, but we understand that users may need their own arbitrary keyboard mapping. We are planning to implement a way to redefine modifier keys (for example, Control, Option, Command on macOS; Ctrl, Alt, Super on Linux and Ctrl, Alt, Win on Windows) for users via the UI.

At the moment, we don’t have an ETA for this feature.

[BriBri]

Mizamook, I can offer you a sort of “band-aid” solution to this issue that I figured out.

It’s possible to remap keys on your macOS system using an app called Karabiner Elements, and only have the remapping apply while NoMachine is the foreground application. I used this to swap around the Command and Option keys so that when I remote control my Windows system, the Win and Alt keys will be in the expected places as though my keyboard had a Windows keyboard layout.

It’s not the simplest thing to set up, because Karabiner Elements requires writing a json file to specify advanced keyboard mappings that involve more than one key, or involve certain conditions like which application is in the foreground. But I can at least share with you the remapping file I created: https://pastebin.com/UHmncMMM

Perhaps with a combination of that and Karabiner Element’s documentation you could figure out how to make your own custom remapping to get keys working the way you want when controlling your Windows system.

Also, I do hope that NoMachine has a keyboard mapping feature soon. That would be extraordinarily useful for a lot of use cases, most of all those of us connecting to Windows systems via macs or vise versa.

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