Got My Keys Sorted for Windows

One of the biggest annoyances with using a Mac for Visual Studio development is that the Windows keyboard layout is different from the Mac layout. On a Norwegian Mac keyboard, you’ll find much used characters such as { and } by pressing option + shift + 8 or 9 respectively. On Windows you’ll need to hit altgr and 7 or 0. It is the same story with other characters such as < and >, @ or \ to name a few. Since the Mac keyboard hasn’t got an altgr key, you’ll need to press both ctrl and option to simulate this key with Windows running on a Mac. This isn’t a big deal, but it is a little annoying. The constant mental context switches you need to do to relocate your keys is a bigger issue. To mitigate these annoyances, I decided to create a custom keyboard layout for Windows which puts every key in the right place.

I had to make some compromises while remapping the keys with regards to modifier keys. On Windows you cannot remap keys with the alt modifier, so I had to swap it for ctrl. This implies that to get to the curly braces on Windows you’ll need to press ctrl + shift + 8 or 9 rather than the strokes described above. Another minor issue is that most Windows applications use the ctrl modifier for keyboard shortcuts, so hitting ctrl + s will probably bring up the Save dialog rather than printing ß. I reckon I can work my way around this by remapping Visual Studio’s keyboard shortcuts, but until this becomes a real problem I won’t bother.

If you’re interested in trying my Mac-friendly keyboard layout, you’ll find the installer here: Mac Keyboard Layout for Windows (Norsk, Bokmål)