I use the Apple bluetooth wireless keyboard, but I use it with my Windows computer, not a Mac. I love it though, and I think it’s the best bluetooth keyboard around – the problem is, while most keys generally work fine, certain keys are missing.

For instance, on the Apple keyboard, the command key is the Windows key by default, so that’s convenient. However, I don’t have the Home and End keys, which make text-editing cumbersome. Furthermore, I have no Delete key. That sucks, because you can’t even delete a file in Explorer with the keyboard this way. In addition, the keyboard has the left Alt key and the left Windows key completely opposite from my notebook (a Lenovo Thinkpad T410s).

So I went about looking for a solution, and found it in the form of AutoHotKey. It’s a free, open-source utility for Windows that enables you to create scripts for automating keystrokes and mouse clicks. What’s important though, is that it allows you to remap keys as well.

I chose this solution over SharpKeys (another key re-mapping utility) primarily because AutoHotKey allows for “profiles”, which is useful because sometimes I use my notebook alone without my external keyboard, and I want the default key mappings to be restored. With AutoHotKey, I just run a script that remaps the keys that I want, and whenever I’m outside with just my notebook, I disable the script and I’m back to my default key settings.

I had to use a script that was generously given to the community, and modify it to suit my needs. If you’re interested, here it is: AutoHotKey script for Apple Keyboard.

Instructions:

1. You’ll first need to install AutoHotKey.
2. Then, download my zip archive (AutoHotKey script for Apple Keyboard), and extract it to wherever you want.
3. Now, just run the file “Keyboard Media Keys.ahk”.
4. All set!

Explanation:

What this script does is to remap the eject key on the keyboard to be a Delete key. I’ve also modified some of the Apple keyboard keys to suit me though, and you can change it in the file “Keyboard Media Keys.ahk”. Look for them from line 46-49, and they’ll look like this:

LAlt::LWin
LWin::LAlt
RAlt::End
RWin::Home

So what that means is that I’ve swapped the positions of the left Alt key and the left Windows key. I’ve also set the right Alt key to be End and the right Windows key to be Home.

Hope you find this useful and let me know if you need further help with it!