Windows Key for Mac Keyboard

At work, I use my MBP to access to Windows VM. Recently, I find s shortcut for access Desktop in Windows: Windows key + D. However, MBP does not have a Windows key. Quickly, I found an awesome solution from AskDeferent: Right Command + D!

This works beautifully, the corresponding Windows key in MBP is Right Command.

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In addition to that, I also found a shortcut key to show and hide my Dock in small size: Option+Command+D.

Reference

• AskDiferent: Windows key when running windows through virtual box on a mac

Finder and Alias

Finder is a UI interface to access to Mac file system. This UI is a pure UI interface with no direct way to enter a path, such as address text box in a browser or Windows File Explorer. In Finder's menu, there is one menu item Go to Folder... under Go, or press Shift+Command+G. From there you can type in a path.

The first issue I open encounter is how to get the full path of a folder. From Finder's status bar (if enabled in Preference), or Header area on top(in Mountain Lions +), the full path are layout like a hierarchy chain, which is not full path for copying.

The second issue is that in a browser, if you try to upload or attach a file, a Finder like dialog does not have "Go to Folder..." menu. From this pure UI, it is really hard to browse to a deep path on your Mac.

Here I found a solution to resolve the issue: using Mac alias. Mac is Unix system, alias. Alias is a small file reference to another object in Unix file system, file or folder, for example. I put an alias on left panel of Finder. This is a quick shortcut to a folder.

There are many ways to create alias. Here are two I found very convenient.

Create Alias in a Folder

I use Automator to create an alias in a specified folder, for example, MyAlias. I create this folder first at my home account, and then place it on the left panel of my Finder.

The service created by Automator is a very simple one like this:

Select Service.

First block: Service received selected "Files or Folders" in "Finder.app",
Second block is New Alias and in "MyAlias"

Save the service as "AddToMyAlias". Now this service is ready for use.

For example, try to review a photo in iPhoto app to Finder. Right click on the folder, select "AddToMyaAias" from services.

A new alia is created in MyAlias folder!

Using Terminal ln Command

An alias can be easily created in Terminal by Unix command. The command is ln with source path and an alias name. The source path may be a long string as a full path, for example, the above one. I prefer to find out a convenient way to get full path, instead of typing it from Finder.

Here I use Automator again to create a tool, which is used to get full path in Finder. The auto-workflow is a very simple one, just passing Finder's file or folder to clipboard:

I give the service a name as CopyPathToClipboard.

With a full path available, an alias can be easily created by ln command in a Terminal.

~ myAccount$ ln -s /Users/myAccount/Library/Services ~/MyAlias/MyServices

The above command creates a symbolic alias "MyServies" to my account's Library/Services folder. As a result, I can easily see what are in my services from Finder:

By the way, alias is a kind of shortcut to a file or folder. Deleting it will not cause original one lost.

AIM Very Slow On Windows

During my vacation in China, I tried to install AIM on my friends' Windows XP machine (notebooks). The reason is that I thought it might be easy to do video chat with my iMac since iChat only supports AIM accounts.

I only had once success to see my iMac side since I did not have video camera in China. Later on I realized that the Windows browsing becomes very slow. I am not sure it is AIM issue or the internet connection issue. The connections are all ADSL through telephone line. By chance, when I uninstalled AIM on one machine, the painful connection retained back to normal. I am not sure why.

It is too sad that I have no choice to use Skype to do video chatting.

Right Click for Remote Desktop Connection

The Remote Desktop Connection tool for Mac is one for connecting to Windows machine. The only problem for me is that each time when I run this one into Windows, I had to change my secondary mouse click to the right click, and change it back when I close RDC.

Today I figured out one way to avoid these changes. In the RDC's preference, I saw the keyboard settings:



The default is set Command+Shift Click to Secondary Mouse Button. That's great. It makes the Windows' right click available and it is different from the Mac' context menu click. There are more settings for keyboard mappings there.

SilverLight 2.0 for Mac

Just noticed that Miscrosoft's SilverLight 2.0 is available for Mac when I tried to open ASP.Net. I think I installed this (old version?) before. The SilverLight works in Mac. This new version may have more features available for web applications?

Actually, web browser handls HTML contents with JavaScripts very well. That's native advantages of browsers. However, there are so many plug-ins to add additional application specific features on web now. SilverLight is one from Microsoft. I posted a blog on my programming blog on SrouptCore framework. This is a nice tool and new trend, I think, for web based applications.

Silverlight for Mac

Today I just watched a video on ASP.Net MVC. The video requires to install Microsoft new package of Silverlight. I thought that is Microsoft .Net framework based application. However, when I clicked on the Silverlight graphic icon. I got prompt to install Silverlight.dmg.

After the installation, I can watch the video on my Mac. That's really cool. The barriers between Windows and Mac seem much less in terms of Web Browser. By the way, I am using Firefox to view the video.

Google also has very impressive Chrome beta version released recently. However it is only available for Windows. The Mac version will be available but not time table yet. I tried Chrome on Windows. It is really fast. I like Chrome' tools for searching and viewing source codes. It has very good tools for developers. I am waiting Chrome for Mac.

Remote Desktop Connection to Windows

Still Windows is my favorite OS computer even I like Mac so much. There are some thing I still have to use Windows to my work.

Recently I moved all my Windows computer to one room, where there is one Ethernet cable. In order to make them accessible to Internet, I added one router to the Ethernet cable, then three Windows PCs are connected to the router. There is no problem to connection to Internet from any one of PCs. However, my previous Remote Desktop connection from Mac to Windows does not work any more. I just cannot connect to PCs behind a router. This is the same case I cannot connect directly from outside my home to my home PC or Mac. I guess I could do that if I open some ports on the router or configure my computer IP on the router as opened one. However, that's too complicated. If I could do it once, I don't think I can remember to do it again in case some thing is wrong again.

Finally, I found a solution. Instead of using a router, I use a switch box to make three PCs in the same LAN network as Mac. As a result, I can make remote connection again to the PC from my Mac. That's very simple. The switch box has 5 ports so I have two more available in one room. By using a switch box, it makes my local networking connection much easy and expendable. I also realize that there is no firewall feature in a switch box. That's OK in my local network since I don't need firewall to block sub-areas.

Migrate to Mac

As a long time Windows user, the start experience of using Mac is quick challenge, but it is really worthwhile to spend some time to learn Mac.

Mouse Configuration

First, it is the mouse click. By default, my new Mac's mouse is configured with both left and right mouse buttons being same. Since the outside appearance of the mouse does not show these buttons clearly, I thought there was not right click button! Finally, I found the configuration from System Preference, where you can configure the right click as the secondary button. I changed it and it works!

Home and End Keys

As I mentioned that I installed Firefox in my Mac since I am not happy with the limitations of add-ins available for the Safari, and all the tabs opened in the previous session cannot be restored. Actually, there are some places where some scripts are provided to enable this feature, but I don't like this way. What happens if I change my Mac or I get another one like laptops. I have to recall to do this again. In addition to this, Firebox has more features available and I know it very well.

The problem I had when I first used Firefox in Mac is that the Home and End keys do not work in the same way as in Windows. It was very frustrating without the feature. I always to want to highlight all the text and retype new works or links again. I searched on web for solutions. There are some suggestions to configure Home and End keys for Firefox. It is very interesting to know that some configuration can be set in my home's Library folder. Basically, you can add your configuration for keys.

However, I found out this actually is not necessary at all. Some one suggested to use the default Mac keys to resolve the issue. That's very simple. You just have to learn the Mac first. Don't force the Mac in the same way like Windows. For example, Command + left arrow key is equivalent to the beginning of the current line and the combination of right arrow key is to the end of the line. That's very simple and solves my problem!

By the way, the Command key is very similar to Control key in Windows, or PC I should say correctly. Command + C is for cut, Command + V for paste, Command + A for select all, Command + Z for undo, and so on. For Firefox, Command + L is to jumping the current focus to Address bar control. I have not find out a short-cut to move to google search bar control yet.

Learn Mac 101

I realized that I have to spend some time to learn Mac OS and basics, just like I did for Windows long time ago. I have been keeping learning Windows all the time as well. Therefore, the basics of Mac is very important for me. I think this is the right step to migrate to Mac. Apple's Mac 101 is a great resource to start.