Making macOS Feel Like Windows with Karabiner Elements

06 Feb, 2025

After using Windows for over 20 years, switching to macOS meant retraining my muscle memory. The Command key being the primary modifier instead of Control was particularly jarring. Enter Karabiner Elements, a powerful keyboard customizer that helped me maintain my Windows muscle memory while enjoying macOS.

What is Karabiner Elements?

Karabiner is a free, open-source keyboard customizer for macOS. It's incredibly powerful and, importantly, takes privacy seriously - all keyboard processing happens locally on your machine.

My Complete Configuration

Basic Key Remapping

• Swapped Control and Command keys
  • left_control ↔️ fn
  • Swap left/right command with left/right option
• Mapped non_us_backslash to grave_accent_and_tilde (~)

Function Keys

• F1-F12 keys mapped to standard functions:
  • fn + f1 → Display brightness decrement
  • fn + f2 → Display brightness increment
  • fn + f3 → Mission control
  • fn + f4 → Spotlight
  • fn + f5 → Dictation
  • fn + f6 → F6
  • fn + f7 → Rewind
  • fn + f8 → Play/pause
  • fn + f9 → Fast forward
  • fn + f10 → Mute
  • fn + f11 → Volume decrement
  • fn + f12 → Volume increment

Text Editing and Navigation

• Disabled Accent Mark Combinations

  • Disable option+u from producing accent mark
  • Disable option+' from producing accent mark
  • Disable option+e from producing accent mark

• Basic Windows Commands

  • Ctrl + A → Select all (Cmd + A)
  • Ctrl + B → Bold (Cmd + B)
  • Ctrl + C, Ctrl + V, Ctrl + X → Copy, Paste, Cut (Cmd + C, Cmd + V, Cmd + X)
  • Ctrl + I → Italic (Cmd + I)
  • Ctrl + F → Find (Cmd + F)
  • Ctrl + N → New (Cmd + N)
  • Ctrl + S → Save (Cmd + S)
  • Ctrl + Z → Undo (Cmd + Z)
  • Ctrl + Y → Redo (Cmd + Shift + Y)
  • Ctrl + L → Open URL location (Only in browsers)
  • Ctrl + T → New tab (Cmd + T)
  • Ctrl + W → Close (Cmd + W)

• Navigation Keys

  • Home → Move cursor to beginning of line (Cmd + Left arrow)
  • Shift + Home → Move cursor to beginning of line with selection (Cmd + Shift + Left arrow)
  • Ctrl + Home, Ctrl + Shift + Home → Move cursor to beginning of file with and without selection (Cmd + Up arrow, Cmd + Shift + Up arrow)
  • End → Move cursor to end of line (Cmd + Right arrow)
  • Shift + End → Move cursor to end of line with selection (Cmd + Shift + Right arrow)
  • Ctrl + End, Ctrl + Shift + End → Move cursor to end of file with and without selection (Cmd + Down arrow, Cmd + Shift + down arrow)
  • Ctrl + (Shift) + Right/Left arrow → Move cursor one word with and without selection (Alt + (Shift) + Right/Left arrow)
  • Ctrl + Up/Down arrow → Move cursor up/down (Up/Down arrow)

Window Management

• Alt + F4 → Exit application (Cmd + Q)
• Ctrl + Esc → Open Launchpad
• Ctrl + Tab → Switch application (Cmd + Tab)
• Cmd + Tab → Mission control (Cmd + Alt + 0)
• Cmd + L → Logout (CGSession -suspend)

System Commands

• Ctrl + Shift + Esc → Open Activity Monitor

Browser and Finder Specific

• Ctrl + R → Reload page (Only in browsers)
• Return → Open (Cmd + O) (Only in Finder)
• F2 → Rename (Only in Finder)
• Ctrl + Left Click → Multi-select (Cmd + Left Click)

Special Character Input

• Use the caps lock key state for other rules
• Convert Caps Lock with:
  • [aou] → [äöü]
  • [AOU] → [ÄÖÜ] (in combination with Shift)
  • [s] → [ß] (Eszett)

Complete Configuration

I've made my entire configuration available in my GitHub repository. The configuration includes all the mappings described above, plus additional application-specific rules for:

• Remote desktop applications (Microsoft RDP, TeamViewer, etc.)
• Terminal emulators (iTerm2, Terminal.app, etc.)
• Virtual machines (Parallels, VirtualBox, etc.)
• And more

Feel free to view, download, and use.

Final Thoughts

Setting up these configurations took some trial and error. The Event Viewer became my best friend - it's this neat little tool that shows you exactly which keys and modifiers you're pressing. Perfect for those "why isn't this working?" moments.

Privacy was a big concern when I started looking for keyboard customization tools. What sold me on Karabiner was its no-nonsense approach: everything stays on your machine, no cloud sync, no telemetry. It just asks for the permissions it needs (input monitoring and admin privileges) and does its job.

If you want to try this setup yourself, grab Karabiner Elements from their official website. You'll need to grant some permissions in System Preferences, but it's pretty straightforward.

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