A lot of keyboard shortcuts are blocked when remoting to a Windows machine from OS X

[Alexey Yudichev]

Hello. In order to work remotely on a windows machine from an OS X, I run Citrix Client for Windows in Windows XP running in Oracle Virtual Box. Why? Because in such configuration *all* the keyboard shortcuts work. And I need a lot of shortcuts - those developers using IDEs can understand me. If using native OS X Citrix client Alt+1 becomes special symbols like "¡", I can forget about things like Ctrl+Alt+right, Ctrl+Alt+Shift+S etc.

 

And even when I connect a Windows keyboard to the Mac it's actually treated as a normal Windows keyboard in my configuration.

 

So question is, is full keyboard interception planned in Citrix Receiver? If Virtual Box can do it, then surely OS X allows it. If I am remoted to Windows, my keyboard should behave like a windows keyboard and all the OS X shortcuts should be disabled. Alt+1 should be sent to the remote Windows as Alt+1 and not as "¡".  

 

Citrix - any plans?

I am sure there's a lot of remote developers with Mac connecting to corporate network via Citrix Receiver - how do you manage it?

[Alexander Ollischer1709151417]

I had this issue, too: https://discussions.citrix.com/topic/372159-yosemite-breaks-numpad-and-keycodes-renders-them-worthless-in-certain-published-applications/

[Alexey Yudichev]

Alexander, thanks. The issue is actually much more serious: you can't really use a lot of keyboard shortcuts, not just numbed + and -, see my original post.

[Shawn Mannen]

I too have a great deal of issues with keyboard shortcuts going from OS X through the Citrix Receiver client to a Windows RDP. It has actually gotten worse with v12.1+. Now, Ctrl+Tab no longer works. I'm not sure why Citrix makes this key mapping so complex. One of the engineers there needs to pull down VMware Fusion or VirtualBox and see how it's done. It ought to be very simple: Command = Windows key, Option/Alt = Alt, Control = Ctrl. There should be very few, if any, keyboard shortcuts that jump out of Windows back to OS X. The only one I can think of is Cmd+Tab. This nuisance makes me wish my employer had never switched from Microsoft's TSG to Citrix.

[Dan Smith1709156846]

Is this issue ever going to be addressed? Very frustrating to not be able to Alt+Tab. One of my applications requires Alt+Double-Click to apply a function which is currently impossible in any preference combination. I have to ask my co-worker (working from a PC) to apply the function for me, then go back in to finish the rest of the work. Please fix this ASAP!

[Shawn Mannen]

Ctrl+Tab seems to be working again in 12.2. However, Ctrl+F4 still does not work and the modifier key mapping could still be simplified. In addition, Alt+Space does not work because of the complex mapping. We must press Cmd+Alt+Space to get the "Alt" and that combination jumps us back out to the OS X host, opening a "Searching "This Mac"" Finder window.

[Chris Hodges]

download karabiner on your Mac, it's a key remapping software that actually lets you create shortcuts for windows keys that WILL wok in Citrix. I used to to set F13 on my keypad as INSERT https://pqrs.org/osx/karabiner/ that's the link to download. 

[Mike M]

On 9/19/2017 at 8:02 PM, Chris Hodges said:

download karabiner on your Mac, it's a key remapping software that actually lets you create shortcuts for windows keys that WILL wok in Citrix. I used to to set F13 on my keypad as INSERT https://pqrs.org/osx/karabiner/ that's the link to download. 

 

@starservco I have karabiner-elements, and am on Citrix Workspace for MacOS 10.12 Sierra. I am unable to determine how to send the Windows key to be used for shortcuts that employ the use of the Windows key. It's simple enough to swap the cmd and ctrl keys. But the option key doesn't seem to do anything no matter what key configuration options I set in Citrix preferences. Have you figured out how to simply send all modifier keys from the keyboard as they would be sent with Remote Desktop Client? I was using that previously, and had it all working great. But it seems Citrix forces its own keyboard modifier implementation that won't allow me to use all of the modifier keys, which I desperately need to do for the audio apps I'm using.