Onekeyboard - Apple Keyboard Layout under Windows

This small autohotkey script simulates the Macintosh OSX keyboard layout under Windows.

About this project

This project is for everyone who wants to use the Mac OSX keyboard layout under Windows too. I started this project because my work forced me to regularly switch between OS X and Windows. This was really frustrating for me, because even the basic keyboard shortcuts were different and I had to adapt for the changes every time again.

As I'm quite happy with the Mac keyboard layout I decided to simulate this layout under Windows. For instance, I wanted to press ⌘ + c instead of ^ + c.

As I couldn't find very useful other layouts on the Internet and the support of VMs such as Parallels Desktop were quite unsatisfying, I decided to start fresh and create my own layout.

What exactly does it do?

It simulates the following Mac OSX keyboard behavior under Windows:

• Text navigation (⌥ + Left, ⌘ + Shift + Left, ...)
• Copy&Paste (⌘ + C, ⌘ + X, ⌘ + V)
• Symbols (@, [](){}/|, ...)
• Some typical OSX shortcuts (⌘ + Q, ⌘ + ⌥ + ESC, ⌘ + ⇧ + Z, ...)
• Finder shortcuts for Explorer (⌘ + DOWN, ⌘ + Ö, ⌘ + I, ...)
• Windows key is still accessible through CTRL (^)

How to get it working

Requirements

• autohotkey - lightweight program to interpret customized hotkeys.
• mac.ahk script to correctly map the hotkeys (e.g. the script that does all the work).
• Some customization to swap the CMD (⌘) and the CTRL (^) keys lowlevel (see the following paragraph).
• German keyboard layout (or you probably need to adjust the mac.ahk script for your language).

Installation Guide

At first we have to swap the CMD (⌘) key with the CTRL (^) key. This is something that we shouldn't do with autohotkey, because it is more reliable to change such an important key on a lower level. There are multiple options to achieve this:

• If you are using Windows through a VM such as Parallels Desktop, you could swap the keys by using the Parallels shortcut settings (Example).
• You could swap the keys by mapping them through the registry by applying the ctrlswap.reg file.
• You could also use a free program to swap the keys (such as KeyTweak) but it produces the same registry entry anyway. You could use the ctrlswap.ktw configuration file for KeyTweak to swap the keys.

After you have successfully swapped the two keys, you just need to install autohotkey and start the mac.ahk script. If you don't use a German keyboard layout, you probably want to adjust the mac.ahk script to map special characters (such as [](){}?@<>) to the correct position. You are welcome to do so and create a pull request :)

Todo aka What's next?

• Splitting the ahk script in multiple scripts to
• support other layouts (English, Spanish, ...)
• Shortcuts for other applications