2008-02-05

Proper Mapping of Modifer Keys for Synergy with Windows Server and Mac Client

Synergy is a great program that allows you to use one keyboard and mouse to drive a number of computers whose monitors are next to each other. See http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/. I have it set up so that my keyboard and mouse connected to my Windows box can be used on my Mac mini whose monitor is to the right of my Windows box monitors. When I move the mouse off the right edge of my Windows monitor it magically shows up on my Mac mini monitor, and if I then use the keyboard it magically sends to the Mac mini instead of the Windows box its physically connected to. I can also block and copy text between the two systems. At free its a heck of a lot cheaper than a KVM switch, and since switching between computers is as easy as moving the cursor from one monitor to the other, its a lot more convenient than hitting a switch to move.

In any event, the real purpose of this post is to show how to correctly map the modifier keys (Ctrl, Alt, Windows etc) when your Synergy Server is on a Windows box and your client is a Mac. By default, for me, the Alt key on my keyboard was acting like Command on my Mac. Here is how to get the Windows key on a keyboard connected to a Windows box to map to the Command key on a Mac.

Start up Synergy on the Windows box.
Click on the Configure button next to Screens & Links.
In the Screens box click on the name of your Mac, and then click the Edit button below the screens box.
In the Modifiers area assign Alt to Super and Super to Alt.
Click OK, exit Synergy, restart your Synergy server and it should work.

30 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for this -- helped me fix my command key problem.

Anonymous said...

You rock. This really needs to be in the Synergy FAQ.

Captain's Granddaugher said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Captain's Granddaugher said...

thank you! very helpful. Now I can run the windows machine as a server and take my mac laptop out of the picture with no impact, and when I plug it back, the command key works like a charm!! THANK YOU!!

venksster said...

awesome! thanks mann...i could finally get my Ctrl-C,Ctrl-V to work on Mac with Synergy :)

Matt said...

you da man!

Anonymous said...

Works great, Thanks!

Anonymous said...

Thanks! I just setup Synergy between my Windows and OS X boxes and this was bugging me.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for that. Very handy.

Anonymous said...

Perfect! I agree that this should be added to the Synergy FAQ.

hobot said...

Saved me some annoyance, thanks gai

Jasdeep Singh said...

Rocks ... thanks a ton!

Anonymous said...

You rock

Anonymous said...

AWESOME

Jeff L said...

Thanks for the nice post. I found a slight modification to your instructions works better for me and I wanted to share.

Just do this to make Control + C/X/V be the copy, cut, paste commands on both your windows machine and your mac.

Start up Synergy on the Windows box.
Click on the Configure button next to Screens & Links.
In the Screens box click on the name of your Mac, and then click the Edit button below the screens box.
In the Modifiers area assign Ctrl to Alt and Alt to Ctrl.
Click OK, exit Synergy, restart your Synergy server and it should work.

gustavolk-swagen said...

Worked for me. Between my Mac and Windows 7, hadn't thought about switching the server configuration, but this post got me thinking it and it worked. Now ALT is Command, on Mac and still ALT on Windows. Nifty.

Keith D. Moore said...

Thanks for posting this. I was wondering why sometimes it seemed the "Windows" button was working as the Mac Command button. However, I realized I was hitting the "Alt" button when it did work. Made the changes you suggested and all is well in my universe! Thanks for posting this!

Jasper said...

THANK YOU!!!!! I feel retarded that this was so easy, but it was driving me crazy.

google++;

DarkMennis said...

That's great! Thanks.

DarkMennis said...

Thanks! That's great

Anonymous said...

Thanx man!

Anonymous said...

Thank you, sir! This is just what I needed.

Roland said...

Cheers !

Joe Chacko said...

4 years on and still a great blog post. Thanks!

Anonymous said...

you da man... danke!

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much! I don't know you and I probably don't care but you helped me figure this Alt thing out. Thanks!

Anonymous said...

Thanks a lot, it worked perfectly!

Anonymous said...

sweet!! thanks so much. that's been pissing me off for a week :)

Valor said...

Oh, beautiful!
I just needed to understand that "Super" was the Windows key.

Unknown said...

Thanks for the tip! Double clicking on the monitor icon in Synergy wasn't super intuitive. Really liking Synergy so far. Version 1.7.5 even works great with Win10 and El Capitan 10.11.1