Alt key

Im using Mac OS X 10.5.4 on an iMac (im using PLEOMAX keyboard). I've installed Win XP SP3 using NTFS format (190GB).
The ALT key will not bring the OS windows, it works with only Apple keyboard.
When using XP i can go to Startup Desk and choose either (Win XP & Mac), but when using OS X Startup Desk option is only (Mac).
Does this means that i have to use Apple keyboard (which i hate) in order to switch between OS's or there is a workaround to this?

any solutions ?

Similar Messages

Problem with alt key in Photoshop CC2014

I'm running Photoshop CC 2014.2.2 Release under Win 7 on a dual monitor system 12 G ram, i7 processor, and a Radeon HD 6700 Graphics card. Everything was working fine until a few days ago. The first problem I noticed was in using ALT-left click to reduce zoom. CTRL-left click zoomed up OK but ALT-left click acted almost like I was pressing the F key to change the view. There are work-arounds for zooming so I continued working. Then I found I could not add a black mask to a layer by pressing ALT while clicking the add layer mask button on the layer panel. I also found that ALT didn't work right in ACR. For example in ACR holding down the ALT key changes the Cancel button to Reset, but clicking on Reset doesn't in fact reset any of the sliders.
I've closed and reopened Photoshop which helped for a short while but the problem came back. I opened Photoshop with the SHIFT-CTRL-ALT keys held down and accepted the resulting dialog box offer to delete preferences, which helped but again the problem returned. I've deleted and redownloaded Photoshop two or three times to no avail, and the last time I also checked that alt key combinations in both Bridge and Lightroom work OK at the same time they are not working in Photoshop. I haven't seen the Alt key misbehave in any application but Photoshop.
I would any suggestions any of you might have about what is wrong.
Message was edited by: Bob Roby to fix typos.

Just to clarify, are you referring to Alt Space bar left click and drag for zoom? If yes, then that needs 'Use GPU' enabled in Preferences > Performance. So can you check that? It actually works with either Ctrl or Alt together with the space bar. Left mouse click and drag left and right to zoom in and out.
If GPU is checked, can you try some different settings?
Photoshop CC and CC 2014 GPU FAQ
You should also make sure the video card driver is fully up to date, and from the card maker's web site.

A desperate cry for help; My alt key has rendered my mac useless!

Hi!
A few weeks ago I spilled a little glass of water on my macbook pro (2010/15") and as a consequence of this the alt key became dysfunctional. Although not mechanically jammed, the macbook seems to be registering a constantly activated alt key. This obviously renders the whole keyboard useless as every button I press results in: •Ωé†µüıœπ˙ß∂ƒ¸˛√ªﬁö÷≈ç‹›‘’‚ and various secondary functions.
These are solutions i have tried:
Resetting the PRAM and SMC
Disabling the alt the key in system preferences
Removing the alt keys and cleaning the switches
Plain ol' baning away at the keyboard in sheer frustation
I figured that the only solution would be getting the macbook pro repaired, but this is pretty costly here in Denmark; 3000 Dkk = 550 usd = 330 gbp. I never really got around to doing this and have been using a seperate keyboard ever since.
But get this! In the small hours of chirstmas eve/day, I blow out all the christmas candles and go to turn of my macbook pro... there must have been some christmas magic in the air because the "f*•Ω∂é" thing just suddenly worked!!! ;D
But alas, after a single restart im back to square one!
Although extremely frustrated, I'm also a little hopeful that there might be a solution which doesnt involve replacing a whole component just because of one single key... ( I swear I sometimes hear that alt key laughing at me! ;p)
Any advice, suggestions or thoughts would be greatly aprreciated
Merry Christmas/Happy holidays and a happy New Year!
Thanks in adavance

Yea I know, this solution seems unevitable............ But im trying to avoid it
I dont understand how a simple restart reversed the whole thing, i didnt even move the macbook.......?
But then again I don't know what made it work in the first place..
I was afraid that the water caused a short-circuit and that the alt key contact was somehow fried. But the fact that it worked again + the fact that a restart reversed this, might mean this is a software issue or at least an issue that can be resolved by some DIY, ................................or what?

Ctrl/Alt Keys not Working in Parallels

Hi,
I'm running Illustrator CS6 using Parallels Desktop 8 and Windows 7. It appears that the ctrl/alt keys do not work. Has anyone found a solution? I've tried resetting my preferences and restarting my computer. Any help would be greatly appreciaed.

Although this is an old thread, I also seem to be having the same sort of issues with Illustrator CS2 in Snow Leopard running under Parallels Desktop 9.
Re. the proposed solution, there does not seem to be a 'Virtual Machine -> Configure -> Options -> Advanced -> Optimize modifier keys for games' option in Desktop 9 - or I've not found it.
I will pursue this in the Parallels forums, but if anyone here has found a solution, I'd be interested to hear it.

Boot Camp partition not showing in startup disk or when holding alt key

I've read countless discussions about similar questions to this one, however, I still haven't been able to find any solution.
I have an old 2006 MacBook that has just been fully updated and reformatted. I'm running OSX 10.7.5 and Boot Camp 4.
I went through the Boot Camp installation from an Windows ISO image in my usb drive, where it succesfully downloaded all files needed, and prompted me to make the partition, after which it restarted and was supposed to take me to the installation manager in the Windows partition. I first got the "No bootable driver" error, to which I read I was supposed to restart the computer, hold the alt key, and choose the boot camp partition. However, it does not show up. I only get Mac and Recover drivers.
I went into the Mac's startup disk, and only the Mac driver is showing, no Boot Camp driver, however, when I go into Disk Utilities, I can see that the BootCamp driver there.
I read somewhere that I should zap pram and reset SMC, which I did with their instructions. It didn't change anything, I still only get the Mac driver and Recovery when hitting the alt key.
Does it have something to do with my MacBook being older? That's the only reason I can think that would not allow me to do this.
Let me know what other info I can give you so that you can please help me!! Thanks in advance!

In last resort I solved my missing BOOTCAMP partition problem using a program called: iPartition from coriolis systems located in the United Kingdom http://www.coriolis-systems.com/iPartition.php it took me a coupleof days to figure out the credit card system they have Hint: use your 9 digit zip code to find your credit card address and call your bank if you have an overseas hold on the card!!!! The program found my missing BOOTCAMP partition and restored it. It did take a couple of e-mails to learn to use their program. Let me know how you turn out!

Is There a way of using an alt key on the iphone (to so alt characters)

Is There a way of using an alt key on the iphone (to so alt characters)??
Cheers all.

There is no alt key, so no, but there are a lot of preloaded symbols already on the phone, all you have to do is hold a key and extra options will come up. For example, if you want an accent over a, hold a, and it will give you options for it. This also works with the symbols, for example, the $ symbol can be held to provide the money symbol for euros, yens, pounds, etc.

No alt key access to top menus in full screen mode Ps CS5 Ext?

I'm using the trial version of CS5 on a Win7 machine, after using Ps CS3 for a fair amount of time. When painting in Ps, I am almost always in full screen mode. In CS3, you could be in full screen mode and hit the alt key plus the active letter of a top bar menu, like F for File or T for Filter or W for Window, and that menu would appear, and you could hit subsequent active letters to get the associated function. I used alt+I then E then H to flip the canvas horizontally. Super quick and awesome! Now the E has been changed to a G, but no matter. The big deal is that in full screen mode, this no longer works! I just get an error sound when I hit the alt and I button together. I have to hit Tab to bring up the menus and palettes before I can use the alt + top menu letter functionality.
Is this an oversight, or is there functionality to disabling this hotkey use when in full screen mode?
Any ideas? Should I put this in the feature request forum?
Thanks!
db

Hmmmm....
When NOT in full screen mode, people on this forum sometimes complain that the Alt modifier key is activating the menus and causing subsequent operations for which they're using Alt (e.g., zoom out) to irritatingly trigger the Windows "ding" sound.
Notably when IN full screen mode that's not happening with CS5 because the Alt key simply doesn't activate the menus.
Interesting thought...
Perhaps Adobe made it work this way on purpose so that they could tell people complaining about the first issue to run Photoshop in Full Screen mode. That's just a guess.
As a workaround to your issue, you could of course expand the Photoshop window to be very close to the full size of the screen and just keep running it as a Window, rather than using full screen mode at all. Yes, I realize this isn't a fix, but just a possible workaround until such time (if ever) Adobe gets around to fixing the modifier keys to work properly (again). I have chosen to use Photoshop this way myself, and other than wasting a bit of screen space it seems to be a pretty decent workaround to using F mode.
Funny thing is it seemed Adobe had the modifier keys working pretty much properly in Photoshop CS4. I wonder why they changed it.
-Noel

No alt key access to top menus in full screen mode Ps CS5

I'm using photoshop CS5 on a Win7 machine, after using Ps CS3 for a fair amount of time. When painting in Ps, I am almost always in full screen mode. In CS3, you could be in full screen mode and hit the alt key plus the active letter of a top bar menu, like F for File or T for Filter or W for Window, and that menu would appear, and you could hit subsequent active letters to get the associated function. I used alt+I then E then H to flip the canvas horizontally. Super quick and awesome! Now the E has been changed to a G, but no matter. The big deal is that in full screen mode, this no longer works! I just get an error sound when I hit the alt and I button together. I have to hit Tab to bring up the menus and palettes before I can use the alt + top menu letter functionality.
please answer me its urgent thank u

What you describe is just the way it works. You need to use Full Screen with Menus mode if you want to access the menu functionality.
-Noel

I have MacAir with OS 10.8.4, how can I cancel the automatic link of my USB flashdisk to Mac instead of BootCamp, since I have one time press the ALT key before choosing "MAC" or "BOOTCAMP". Thanks

I have MacAir with OS 10.8.4, how can I cancel the automatic link of my USB flashdisk to Mac instead of BootCamp, since I have one time press the ALT key before choosing "MAC" or "BOOTCAMP". Thanks

That only happens when you are running Windows in a Virtual Machine with OS X as the host. Shut down the VM and restart your Mac. Once the VM is running again and you insert a USB flash drive you should get that prompt again.

Why doesn't my alt key work?

In my Photoshop CC, the alt key only duplicates the layer; I can’t use the clone tool or the healing brush. Does anyone know what is going on here?

Or Diane might be trying to use the Spot Healing brush and Clone tools on empty layers without Sample all layers checked. Or working outside an active selection. I expect there are conditions that would cause such behaviour.
Diane, if you are convinced everything is set right, and there is no user error (we all do user error now and again) then you might need to reset the tool from the Preset panel or Options bar. Or if that doesn't help, it might be time to reset Preferences (hold down Shift Ctrl Alt - Shift Cmd Opt while starting Photoshop.)

Getting white screen when booting with alt key

Hi, I've installed windows 7 with boot camp on my brand new iMac 27" on OS X Lion.
Everything works fine when I configure boot camp to start as mac, or as windows.
However If I press the alt key when booting, as per this tutorial http://labnol.blogspot.com/2006/04/boot-camp-tutorial-install-windows-xp.html I get a white screen and that's it. Any Idea as to what might be the problem?

Hi
Try resetting the Parameter RAM (PRAM) - pronounced peeram. Restart the mac and depress the P, R, alt and command keys simultaneously. You should hear the boot chime. Keep the keys depressed until you hear the boot chime three more times. Release the keys thereafter.
Other possibilities are: you're filling up the hard drive and you need to clear some space; a problem is developing with the hard drive and/or directory structure. You need to run a disk repair utility such as fsck, DU's Repair Disk coupled with Repairing Privileges or something 3rd-Party such as Disk Warrior.
Tony

Problem with ALT key display

Hello,
I am having an aesthetic problem with my q10 that i just got today. I was entering some contacts into my phone when I realized that the ALT key is activated whenever I add phone numbers. When I first got the phone the ALT key did not light up whenever I put contact numbers on my phone. I restarted, and set the phone to the factory settings but this will still not disapear.
I am wondering if there is a way if I could the ALT key to not be showing while I put in contact numbers. It does not effect my phone, its just annoying to see something that didn't used to be there.
Thanks

Just to clarify, are you referring to Alt Space bar left click and drag for zoom? If yes, then that needs 'Use GPU' enabled in Preferences > Performance. So can you check that? It actually works with either Ctrl or Alt together with the space bar. Left mouse click and drag left and right to zoom in and out.
If GPU is checked, can you try some different settings?
Photoshop CC and CC 2014 GPU FAQ
You should also make sure the video card driver is fully up to date, and from the card maker's web site.

Problem with ALT key in X apps through ssh

Hello
I am using gnome-shell with no problems so far. I use a couple of programs in remote machines made with QT, like kwrite for example.
I connect to the remote machine using:
ssh -Y user@remotehost
In the ssh console everything works just fine, but when I start any remote QT application, I see that there's something wrong with the keyboard. The right ALT key doesn't seem to work.
I use Spanish from Spain in my computer and in the remote machines and I use the right ALT to access characteres like #, {}, []. €....
When I try to write € for example (the euro symbol is in the "e" key), I get an "e", not the euro, as if right alt does not work at all. The same happens with the others as far as I tried.
I also get a bunch of errors or warnings in the console when I open, for example kwrite, but I don' t think they have anything to do with the problem I'm trying to fix here. Just in case, this is what I get when I start kwrite en the remote machine:
X Error: BadAccess (attempt to access private resource denied) 10
Major opcode: 2 (X_ChangeWindowAttributes)
Resource id: 0x15a
kdeinit4: preparing to launch /usr/lib/libkdeinit4_klauncher.so
kdeinit4: preparing to launch /usr/lib/libkdeinit4_kded4.so
X Error: BadAccess (attempt to access private resource denied) 10
Major opcode: 2 (X_ChangeWindowAttributes)
Resource id: 0x15a
kdeinit4: preparing to launch /usr/lib/libkdeinit4_kbuildsycoca4.so
kbuildsycoca4 running...
kdeinit4: preparing to launch /usr/lib/libkdeinit4_kbuildsycoca4.so
kbuildsycoca4 running...
kdeinit4: preparing to launch /usr/lib/libkdeinit4_kconf_update.so
QPainter::setCompositionMode: PorterDuff modes not supported on device
I use konsole locally, so I installed it along with its dependencies of kdebase, but didn't change anything.
By the way, remote QT apps look awful, the buttons are like... VGA, and the fonts look sawed and sharp. (Locally, I have the Ubuntu's patched fonts and they look really good)
I don't know how to begin a diagnose of the problem, any help would be apreciated.
Thanks
Last edited by martin_legion (2011-07-19 08:19:02)

Inxsible wrote:The Alt key is probably used by the wm/de or by xbindkeys and there is a conflict. Check to see if your wm/de is reserving the use of that key .
Ok, I'll see what I can find about that.
And what about the ugliness of the fonts and qt controls ingeneral?
Thanks

Problem getting (ALT key) to work in Flash

Hi All,
I hope there is somebody who can help me with the following issue:
I can not get ALT key to work in Flash, if I want to use it in combination with other keys nor I can use it alone.
For example, I have created an application which requires the usage of (ALT+F) in order to access certain thing, This does not seem to fire the key event.
however if i use the same thing with (CTRL+F) or (SHIFT+F), it works fine.
It is only ALT which causes the key event not to fire.
Is there a bug in Flash for using ALT key? Can anyone help me please?

see here:
http://forums.adobe.com/message/2127570

I copied our entire music folder from old PC on tovnew iMac, all our muisc is there, but not our individual libraries have gone. and holding down the alt key when opening iTunes, brings up no options to choose or create libarys, can i recover our liba

Hi
I copied our entire music folder from our old pc on to the new imac, and all the apps, music etc is there, but no individual libarys, we had 5 very different ones, when pressing and holding the alt key on opeing itunes, nothing happens it just opens into itunes, no option to choose or create a libary, what am i doing wrong?

Did you copy the entire iTunes folder, not just media? This includes the critical library.itl file.
Image of folder structure and explanation of different iTunes versions (turingtest2 post) - https://discussions.apple.com/message/13025536 and https://discussions.apple.com/message/17457605
Now you say you had 5 libraries. If you really mean that then you would have to have copied 5 different iTunes folders in their entirety, not just one folder. Anyway, something makes me feel you did not copy a whole iTunes folder and all its subfolders and files, you only copied the music.
On the starting with the option (alt) key held down I really don't know what to advise. It works for me hundreds of times and just about everybody else here. The only thing I can suggest is to hold the key down longer or perhaps start iTunes and then 1 second later hold down the key for a few seconds.

I have a new HD installed and bought a new mac os x 10.6 don't have the admin password, after booting and pressing alt key a padlock shows up but don't have a password. what can i do

i just got a macbook pro harddrive wasn't good so got a new one in and bought mac os x 10.6 to install.
unfortunately after inserted the disc in the drive, and press the alt key, a padlock shows up requiring a password but a don't have the password. there is nothing on the harddrive running. is there anything you can help me with. thank you.
caboampong

caboampong wrote:
bought mac os x 10.6 to install.unfortunately after inserted the disc in the drive,.....
I'm confused
I took this to mean that your DID have an install disk.
By holding down the "C" key, you are booting to the install CD.
Alternatively, you can hold down the "option" key, to select which drive to which you want to boot.

Alt key

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