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I'm completely new to the Mac and I have a whole lot of problems with the shortcuts etc.

Is it possible to remap the keys to match my windows expirience? For example I'd like to have CTRL+C, CTRL+V as Copy & Paste.

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    You really should learn the Mac way of doing shortcuts (the Command key). After a few weeks of using both platforms, your brain will learn to use Command on the Mac and Control on Windows without you having to think about it.
    – Cajunluke
    Commented Mar 19, 2011 at 14:41
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    That's not an option. I need it remapped.
    – mseo
    Commented Mar 23, 2011 at 9:50
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    Why is is not an option?
    – Cajunluke
    Commented Mar 23, 2011 at 15:18
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    @Cajunluke Because that is what he wants, just as I want the same.
    – Karl Morrison
    Commented Apr 7, 2021 at 11:01
  • Guys you can argue day and night but basic shortcuts at Mac are stupid, like deleting file you have to use Command+Delete, huh who does that, if there is key with name "delete" then using command with that what kind of logic is that,, same goes with Command+Enter. This is stupid and completely insane. Just moved from Windows and now I see that Windows is Democracy and Mac is Communism.
    – Pushpendra
    Commented Dec 6, 2021 at 6:01

5 Answers 5

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What I recommend for you is remapping the keys so that pressing the Control button on your keyboard tells you computer that you're pressing command. That way, you can use the button you're used to automatically without having to set up each shortcut you want. Here's how:

Go to System Preferences (in your Applications folder) and click Keyboard. Go to the Keyboard tab and click the Modifier Keys... button.

Select your keyboard from the Select keyboard... menu.
To give yourself a Windows-like experience, do the following:
In the first menu, Leave Caps Lock alone.
Set the second menu to Command so that the line reads like this: Control (^) Key: ⌘ Command
Change the third menu to Option.
Change the fourth menu to Control.

With this setup, pressing the Control button will make the computer think you've pressed Command. So, any shortcut that says command-v will work when you press control-v. The option key behaves like the alt key. The command button works as the control key usually does on a Mac. You can use it for things such as right-clicking.

Hope this works for you!

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The best solution I found was the free KeyRemap4MacBook utility -- it lets you change the keyboard in many ways. My personal modifications (for the MacBook Air 2012 model):

  • "fn + cursor left/right" for Home/End and "fn + up/down" for PgUp/PgDown, via For PC Users: Use PC Style Home/End, Use PC Style PageUp/PageDown
  • switching the function keys to work like on "PC" notebooks, i.e. F1-F12 without modifier and "fn + Fx" for the screen brightness etc changes, via Functional Keys to F1..F12 plus Fn+F1..F12 to Functional Keys.
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You can also try Karabiner Elements, a more complete tool for remapping keys.

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Context

As a follow up to @Premek's excellent answer updated for 2024. This tool has been deprecated and merged into Karabiner Elements.

How to install the shortcuts quickly:
  • Install the application: brew install --cask karabiner-elements
  • Start the application, and give it the correct permissions
  • Download the correct set of shortcuts:
    • Click import on Windows shortcuts on MacOS on the Karabiner-Elements complex_modifications rules Website. Windows Shortcuts on MacOS - Karabiner Elements
      • Alternatively, I found PC-Style Shortcuts to be fairly compelling as well
      • If you use the AltTab for Mac (another great windows experience tool in Mac), you may want to make sure the keys don't collide
    • Scroll down all the way and enable all shortcuts like so:enable shortcuts in Karabiner
  • Voila! Enjoy lesser struggle in your life :)

*NOTE* I wrote a significantly more detailed Medium Article on this and more!

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go to system preferences --> Keyboard --> Keyboard Shortcut from left windows choose Application Shortcut and in the below of right window press + button and in Application choose All application and in menu title choose Copy and in keyboard shortcut press ctrl+c and do the same thing for paste shortcut.

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  • This will certainly work, but it's less than ideal to have to reconfigure every shortcut, especially since not all apps obey SysPrefs-configured shortcuts.
    – Nathan Greenstein
    Commented Mar 19, 2011 at 20:59
  • Didn't work for me :(
    – mseo
    Commented Mar 23, 2011 at 9:50

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