Is there a way to disable command-tab in Microsoft Remote Desktop connection for Mac OS X?

Question

On my Mac, I use Microsoft's Remote Desktop app to connect to a Windows box. I can see in the preferences how to map the Command key to Alt, and the Option key to the Windows key, so that the Alt and Windows keys are in the same physical layout on my Mac RDP connection as they are on the actual Windows keyboard. That is, the Alt key (Command) is directly to the left of the space bar, and the Windows key (Option) is directly to the left of that.

But if I set it up that way, I can't use Alt-Tab on the Windows machine--the Mac intercepts it and treats it as a Command-Tab to switch away from the RDP app. I know some programs are able to prevent this--VirtualBox and VMWare, for instance, let you use Command-Tab as Alt-Tab inside a windows guest. (In fact, one solution to this I had was to use a Windows virtual machine on the mac, only to use that to RDP into another machine!)

Short of creating a windows virtual machine, is there any way I can get the Mac RDP app to send Command-Tab as Alt-Tab to the remote Windows machine?

Answer 1

Try using CoRD instead of Microsoft's RDP client.

Answer 2

Is Option-Tab not working? In RDP from a Mac I have gotten used to using the Option key as my Windows Alt. Using this allows me to maintain the Command key for my Mac hot keys and have the actions for alt register in my RDP window.

Answer 3

Native within OSX, you can remap existing menu items. If your application has a menu item for CMD+TAB, you are in luck.

For me, I needed to disable (or remap) CMD+W when using Microsoft Remote Desktop (muscle memory would press CMD+W to close a tab within a remote session and would accidentally close my remote session). I originally tried karabiner but it was way overkill for this.

How to remap a command for specific application:

1. Check your application menus for the command you want. NOTE THE exact COMMAND NAME.
2. Within System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Shortcuts Tab -> App Shortcuts pane -> Click the + button to add new application specific command remap
3. Create a new remap for your application. Note: The Menu Title has to match exactly to the command you identified in step 1.
4. Enjoy your newly remap/"disabled" key shortcut (remap it to some crazy combo to effectively disable it):

Answer 4

Old post, but here's a great solution. Use the mac app Karabiner. https://pqrs.org/osx/karabiner/

It allows you to do several things with remote desktop.

Go to the Change Key tab and look under For Applications

Answer 5

You could do this:

1. Swap the Command key and Option key in Mac Keyboard Preferences.
2. Set Alt to Option (default) in RDP Client Preferences and set Windows Start to Command.

This gives you the same layout as a Windows keyboard on Remote Desktop, though it does affect the remainder of your Mac applications. I find that it's not that big of a deal to get used to swapped option and command keys on the Mac. I spend a lot of time in an RDP session and I spend another 30% of my time on a PC, so it's just easier to use that layout for me.