Over the last few days I’ve been finding myself using a keyboard designed for Windows users on my Mac. The reason behind such a change was that my MacBook Pro’s keyboard was causing wrist pain. The Keyboard System Preferences pane has two tabs— Keyboard and Keyboard Shortcuts. On the Keyboard tab, you can adjust your settings in the following ways: Drag the Key Repeat Rate slider to set how fast a key repeats when you hold it down. Windows and Mac Keyboard Differences. At least five keys have different names or symbols on a Windows keyboard than they do on a Mac keyboard, which can make it difficult to follow Mac-related instructions. For example, a software manual may tell you to hold down the command key ( ⌘ ), which appears to be missing from your Windows keyboard. To remap the Windows keyboard, you need to open System Preferences and go to Keyboard. Select the ‘Modifier keys’ button at the bottom right. In the panel that opens, you need to modify two keys; the Control key and the Command key. Open the dropdown for the Command key and set it to act as the Control key. In Windows on an Intel-based Mac, you can adjust the keyboard backlighting. The keyboards on some Mac notebook computers provide backlighting, so that the keys are visible in low light conditions. If keyboard backlighting is on, the keys light up automatically whenever the ambient light is low. Automatically adjust keyboard backlighting.

You may feel difficult to use the keyboard when switching to Mac from Windows. The same problem happens if you are in a situation to use both Windows 10 and macOS computers. The situation is quite common that you may have MacBook for personal use and need to use Windows PC on office. Here is a list of Windows equivalent Mac keyboard shortcuts that will help you to get things done on both environments easily.

Windows Equivalent Mac Shortcuts

Mac Keyboard Adjust For Windows

Unfortunately, some Windows equivalent shortcuts are not available in Mac. However, you can setup custom keyboard shortcuts in Mac for that.

Note, some shortcuts are applicable only for some applications. For example, browser shortcuts may work only with web browsers.

Mac equivalents of Windows keys

Many of the keys that you'd see on a PC have equivalent keys on an Apple keyboard.

Windows logo: Press Command (⌘).

Backspace or Delete: Press Delete.

Enter or ⏎: Press Return.

Alt (left): Press Option (⌥).

Alt GR (right): Press Option + Control.

Applications: This key isn't available on Apple keyboards.

Use the On-Screen Keyboard for other functions

If your Apple keyboard doesn't include the following keys, you can recreate them in Windows using the On-Screen Keyboard.

Use the Snipping Tool to print screen

To recreate the Print Screen and Print Active Window function in Windows, use the Snipping Tool.

If your keyboard isn't working as expected in Windows

If your Apple keyboard works as expected in macOS but not in Windows, try these solutions:

Mac Keyboard Adjust For Windows 10

• Install the latest Apple software updates for Windows.
• Install the latest Windows support software.
• If you're using Microsoft Windows 10 N, install the latest Media Feature Pack.

Using Mac Keyboard On Windows

Learn more

• Microsoft provides a keyboard mapping article that describes using a Windows keyboard with macOS.
• Use Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator to find key combinations for the unique characters used by the language and region your Apple keyboard is designed to support:
  1. Download, install, and open the Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator.
  2. Choose File > Load Existing Keyboard.
  3. Select the keyboard you want to see.
  4. Find the country or region name in the keyboard list that's followed by '(Apple)'.
  5. Follow the instructions provided with the app. You can print images of the keyboard, including what keys look like when holding modifiers like Shift, Option, or Fn.