Very odd RDP bug - Full-screen mode breaks shift keys

Question

When Remote Desktop is not full-screen (i.e. windowed, with scroll bars, or 75% zoom) the keyboard works just fine.

However, when Remote Desktop is full-screen the keyboard's shift keys don't work at all. The only way to emulate shift is to click the Caps Lock key twice to enable and twice again to disable. This is 100% completely reproducible.

I'm running Win10 Pro 21H1 in a Parallels 16 VM on a MacBook Pro running macOS 10.15.7. This has been happening for quite a while now over multiple versions of each part of the setup.

Thanks in advance ...

Cheers,
Steve

Answer 1

Hi @Andy YOU ,

1.Is there keyboard setting in Parallels 16?

2.If install "Microsoft remote desktop" app from windows store on your VM, will the same issue happen on this app?

1) Parallels 16 does not have any keyboard settings. It has a way to create menu items that generate customized key combinations (i.e. Ctrl+Alt+Delete) but nothing that alters the behaviour of the keyboard.

2) Hmmm... interesting idea. I'm old-school, I hadn't thought of that. But it works! The app-store version does not have the full-screen-breaks-shift-keys bug!

Thanks again for your investigation and for pointing me in the right direction!

Cheers,
Steve

Answer 2

HI SteveP-2630,

"I'm running Win10 Pro 21H1 in a Parallels 16 VM on a MacBook Pro running macOS 10.15.7."

0.Could you please enter winver in command prompt on win10 computer and look the os version and os version number ?[for example windows 10 enterprise 1809 (os build 17763.316)]

1.Do you remote access from Mac computer to win10(20h1) computer by using Microsoft remote desktop for Mac then reproduce your issue?

2.What's the version of Microsoft remote desktop do you use?

3.Did you try to download and install Microsoft Remote Desktop Beta for Mac Version 10.6.7 (1890) on your Mac computer, will the same issue happen?
Microsoft Remote Desktop Beta for Mac Version 10.6.7 (1890)
https://install.appcenter.ms/orgs/rdmacios-k2vy/apps/microsoft-remote-desktop-for-mac/distribution_groups/all-users-of-microsoft-remote-desktop-for-mac

Answer 3

Hiya @Andy YOU ! Thanks for responding!

0) Here are the details ...

• My computer is a MacBook Pro (macOS 10.15.7).
• My OS environment is Win10 Pro (21H1 build 19043.1023) running in a VM on Parallels Desktop Pro 16.5.0 (49183).
• I'm using the Win10 Remote Desktop Client (10.0.19041)
• The computers that I connect to are PCs that run either Server 2016 or Win10

1) The VPN required to access my client's computers only works on Windows so I can't run the Mac version of RDP . Sorry.
2) 10.0.19041
3) Sorry, I need to use the Win10 version.

I'd be happy to demo the issue on a Teams session if that would help. Thanks again for responding.

Cheers,
Steve

Answer 4

Do you mean you have below condition?
You have Win10 Pro (21H1 build 19043.1023) running in a VM on Parallels Desktop Pro 16.5.0 (49183).
You logon this VM and connect to VPN on this VM then remote access from this VM to other
win10 computers(or windows server 2016 server), is it true?

Yes @Andy YOU , you have correctly described the conditions. Under these conditions...

• when the Remote Desktop app is not in full-screen mode the keyboard functions correctly
• when the Remote Desktop app is in full-screen mode the keyboard's shift keys do not function. To type a capital letter I must hit the CapsLock key twice to engage caps lock (and twice again to disengage it).

This is very odd behaviour indeed. Thanks for looking into it!

Cheers,
Steve

Answer 5

HI SteveP-2630,

You are welcome!

I am glad to hear that your issue can be solved by using "Microsoft remote desktop" store app.

You can also post your original issue in blow forum so that PG can investigate this issue.
https://remotedesktop.uservoice.com/forums/266795-remote-desktop-services

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