Do you just like using the well-designed Apple keyboard with your work PC? If so, you know that there are inevitably some drawbacks to using Apple’s own QWERTYUIOP bar with Windows, mainly in the fact that many keys — such a print screen, volume control, eject and more — don’t work outside of OS X.
As is often the case, if you want to use your Apple keyboard as Steve intended within the Windows environment, there’s an app for that. It’s called Apple Keyboard Helper, and it’s a free download. Here’s what it does.
Simply download the app from the official website and install it on your Windows machine. Once you have done so, the following keys will work as they are meant to:
F3: Print Screen
F4: Task Manager
F7-F9: iTunes control
F10-F12: System volume Control
Eject button toggles Fkeys/Functions.
Fn + F key triggers function
Fn + Backspace = Delete
Fn+ Eject: Eject CD
And more!
Of course, your other option is to get yourself a Mac and run Boot Camp: the Apple keyboard in Boot Camp works just fine. Still, for those stuck on a Windows PC for whatever reason, this is a fine solution.
[via Lifehacker]
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
14 responses to “Make An Apple Keyboard Work Correctly With A Windows PC Using This Free App”
This is a 2-year-old article, but in case this helps anone, here’s how I got my apple wireless keyboard to work correctly on a non-apple pc.
Short explanation:
You need to install AppleKeyboardInstaller64.exe
Long explanation:
I have a macbook, and by starting up Boot Camp Assistant on it and installing the windows support software on a usb stick, AppleKeyboardInstaller64.exe could be found under the Drivers folder. Just running that file under Windows did the trick.
If you don’t have a mac, that file can be found, for example, here http://www.multiupload.com/LMR5ROCUBX