Windows Keyboard for Mac

Keep your Windows-keyboard muscle memory on macOS—on every keyboard or only the Windows keyboards you choose.

Open the interactive demo to pause, move to the previous or next scene, or use the arrow keys. The GIF keeps each scene visible for 7–9 seconds.

Prefer this as one native app, no Karabiner required? The same maintainer built Windsify — the free, open-source app version of this ruleset (source), with an optional one-time Pro upgrade for Finder cut-paste, system keys, and window management. This Karabiner edition stays maintained.

Windows Keyboard for Mac is a free, open-source Karabiner-Elements shortcut layer. Its community edition has been accepted into the official Karabiner-Elements community rules catalog. It gives macOS familiar Ctrl, Alt+Tab, Alt+F4, Finder, Terminal, screenshot, window-tiling, Home/End, and F1–F12 behavior without relying on a global macOS modifier-key swap.

Install from the Karabiner community catalog · Download the device-scoped edition · Quick start · Shortcut matrix

Both editions require macOS 15 or newer and Karabiner-Elements 16 or newer. The downloadable device-scoped edition remains an unsigned GitHub preview.

Choose an edition

Community catalog: all keyboards

1. Open Karabiner-Elements → Complex Modifications.
2. Choose Add predefined rule → Import more rules from the internet.
3. Search for Windows Keyboard for Mac (community edition), import it, and enable Windows Keyboard for Mac: complete Windows-style shortcuts (all keyboards).

This edition deliberately applies to every keyboard. Use the device-scoped edition below if the MacBook keyboard or any other keyboard should retain native macOS shortcuts.

Device-scoped GitHub edition: selected Windows keyboards

1. Install and open Karabiner-Elements, then approve its required macOS permissions.
2. Connect the Windows keyboard and download the latest release.
3. Extract it, Control-click install.command, choose Open, and select the keyboard or keyboards to convert.

What it gives you

• Windows-style editing, app switching, window closing, navigation, screenshots, and native macOS window tiling.
• Finder-specific rename, open, delete, move, and Backspace behavior that does not hijack filename or search-field editing.
• Terminal shortcuts that preserve real Ctrl+C interrupts and remote-desktop rules that send the expected physical modifiers.
• Device-scoped enrollment: the MacBook keyboard, Apple keyboards, virtual keyboards, and unselected keyboards remain unchanged.
• Automatic backup, live installation verification, diagnostics, rollback, and a reversible uninstaller.
• No telemetry, no account, and no app-specific personal shortcuts.

Why this architecture

The selected keyboard receives four device-level Simple Modifications. When a Mac app shows a shortcut using Apple symbols, use this reverse lookup:

So a Mac shortcut shown as ⌥⇧F is pressed as Alt+Shift+F on the Windows keyboard, while ⌘C is pressed as Ctrl+C. The Windows keyboard does have an Option equivalent: its Alt key.

Karabiner applies Simple Modifications before Complex Modifications. This means common shortcuts such as Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V, Ctrl+S, Ctrl+Z, and Ctrl+Shift+4 naturally become the macOS Command equivalents. Complex rules are reserved for shortcuts whose meaning differs between Windows and macOS.

Explicit Windows Keyboard for Mac shortcuts take priority over this general lookup. For example, physical Win+Space is reserved for input-source switching. When choosing a third-party app shortcut, avoid combinations already listed in the shortcut matrix.

Every Complex Modification also contains a device_if condition. The rules therefore do not leak onto the built-in Apple keyboard or another keyboard that was not selected during installation.

Requirements

• macOS 15 or newer;
• Karabiner-Elements 16 or newer;
• one connected non-Apple physical keyboard;
• macOS Modifier Keys set to their defaults;
• no active hidutil UserKeyMapping.

Karabiner needs macOS Input Monitoring, Accessibility, background-service, and DriverKit approvals. Apple requires the user to grant these permissions; no legitimate installer can silently bypass them.

Install

For the complete early-tester workflow, read docs/quick-start.md. Prebuilt preview archives are available from GitHub Releases.

1. Install and open Karabiner-Elements, then finish its macOS permission prompts.
2. Connect the Windows keyboard.
3. Double-click install.command.

If exactly one non-Apple keyboard is connected, it is selected automatically. If several are connected, the installer asks which keyboard(s) to convert.

The generated rules are not tied to Microsoft. Logitech, Dell, HP, Keychron-in-Windows-mode, and other standard USB/Bluetooth HID keyboards can use the same shortcut layer. The installer records each selected keyboard by its reported vendor and product IDs.

To add another keyboard later, connect it and double-click add-keyboard.command. Existing registered keyboards are retained even if they are disconnected at the time. Re-running install.command has the same additive behavior.

The installer also reads that Mac's enabled Input Sources system shortcut and uses it behind physical Win+Space. Spotlight actions open the Spotlight app directly rather than assuming Command+Space or Option+Space. This lets the same package follow each Mac's existing shortcut customization.

The installer stops without changing anything if it finds a macOS Modifier Keys mapping or an active hidutil mapping. This prevents the inconsistent “two remappers both touching Ctrl/Command” state.

For a terminal-driven install:

./install.command --non-interactive --device 1234:5678

Use the vendor and product IDs shown by:

'/Library/Application Support/org.pqrs/Karabiner-Elements/bin/karabiner_cli' --list-connected-devices

Diagnose

Double-click doctor.command, or run:

./doctor.command --non-interactive

The diagnostic checks Karabiner availability and version, the live profile, target devices, rule isolation, macOS Modifier Keys conflicts, and hidutil UserKeyMapping.

Uninstall or roll back

Double-click uninstall.command.

The uninstaller removes only the Windows Keyboard for Mac profile and reselects the profile that was active before installation. It backs up the current config before making the change. Historical backups are kept in:

~/.config/karabiner/windows-keyboard-for-mac-backups/

If live profile activation or restoration fails, the installer/uninstaller automatically restores the pre-operation configuration.

Shortcut coverage

See docs/shortcut-matrix.md for the complete behavior summary.

Highlights:

• common Windows Ctrl editing shortcuts work automatically;
• physical Win+Space switches input source;
• the public profile does not reserve Ctrl+Space for a particular app; users can choose their own dictation shortcut;
• Ctrl+Shift+3/4/5 invoke the corresponding macOS screenshot shortcuts;
• Win+Shift+S captures a selected area;
• Alt+Tab switches apps, while Alt+F4 closes the active top-level browser or Finder window instead of merely closing its current tab;
• the selected Windows keyboard keeps F1 through F12 as standard function keys even when macOS media-key mode is enabled;
• Windows-style Home/End is translated while editing text and otherwise passes through for native page navigation; Ctrl+Arrow and word deletion are translated;
• Finder gets Windows-style cut/move, Enter, F2, Delete, Shift+Delete and Backspace behavior without hijacking filename or search-field editing;
• terminal apps get raw Ctrl sequences and Ctrl+Shift+C/V/N/T/W;
• listed remote desktop/VM clients receive physical Ctrl and Windows modifiers natively;
• Win+Left/Right/Up/Down uses native macOS 15+ window tiling.

MVP versus a distributable product

This repository is a functional, reversible MVP. A friend can use it after installing Karabiner, but the .command bundle is not yet code-signed or notarized.

The next product-quality packaging step is a signed and notarized SwiftUI .app or .pkg that embeds the same profile generator and adds:

• a visual keyboard picker and shortcut test screen;
• a hot-plug prompt that offers to enroll a newly connected non-Apple keyboard;
• guided links to each required macOS permission;
• update checks and versioned migrations;
• a shortcut conflict detector and opt-in per-user overrides without shipping app-specific defaults;
• Standard, Developer, and Remote Desktop presets;
• signed releases so Gatekeeper does not show an unidentified-developer warning.

Even that app will still require the one-time Apple permission approvals for Karabiner.

Build and test

The distributable profile is generated from readable JavaScript without third-party packages:

npm run build
npm test

The tests cover profile generation, device scoping, JSON-with-comments input, install/readback, diagnostics, uninstall/restore, backups, and automatic rollback after a simulated live activation failure.

Privacy and public distribution

Windows Keyboard for Mac does not contain app-specific defaults, user names, email addresses, local file paths, or a pre-enrolled keyboard. It does not include telemetry or make network requests. The installer stores only the selected keyboard model identifiers and rollback state in the user's local Karabiner configuration directory.

Run the public-distribution audit and build a release archive with:

npm run audit
npm run package

The packaging command produces a ZIP and a SHA-256 checksum under release/. See docs/privacy.md and docs/releasing.md before publishing a GitHub Release.

The preview release intentionally remains unsigned rather than exposing an individual signing identity. See docs/signing.md for the future organization-signed App plan.

Prior art and references

The shortcut semantics were compared with the public-domain rux616/karabiner-windows-mode project. Windows Keyboard for Mac uses a different delivery architecture: device-level modifier translation, automatic device detection, dedicated-profile installation, conflict checks, live readback, and rollback.

Relevant Karabiner documentation:

• Input event modification chaining
• device_if conditions
• software_function.open_application
• Command line interface
• karabiner.json structure