Remote Desktop is a nifty little windows feature that allows you to remotely connect to another PC and manage it as if you were physically at the console.

The best Ctrl + Alt + Del Mac remote desktop alternative is the on-screen keyboard. Most remote desktop applications come with an on-screen keyboard that allows for the input of complex keyboard commands. Using the on-screen keyboard over physical one prevents clashes with the host operating system. Doing a Ctrl + Alt + Del on Remote Desktop. When you are logged in remotely to a server via Remote Desktop and you want to perform a Ctrl + Alt + Del on the remote server, you will soon discover that you usually can’t just hit that key combination, depending on the Client software your are using.

You can read my previous post on how to setup remote desktop in Windows XP. If you need to remote desktop into Windows 10, read this post.

When connecting to another machine, just about all keyboard actions are transmitted to the remote machine, i.e. pressing Enter, typing, pressing the Windows key, etc. However, that is not the case for some key combinations.

One that has bothered me for a very long time when using Remote Desktop in Windows is when I press Ctrl + Alt + Del while logged into the remote computer. Instead of sending the key combo to the remote computer, it would instead perform the action on my computer!

This was actually intended by Microsoft because there are many cases where you may not want that to be sent to the remote computer. So, by default, Ctrl + Alt + Del will only work for the local computer.

So how does one perform this same action on the remote computer? It’s pretty easy actually! In order to send Ctrl + Alt + Del to the remote PC, just press the following alternate key combination:

That’s it! Pretty easy eh? Unfortunately, I tend to use Remote Desktop rarely and therefore forget this key combo all the time!

Some people have also followed up with me and asked about multiple RDP sessions, i.e. A – B – C. So A is remotely connected to B and B is remotely connected to C. In this case, you have to load up the On-Screen Keyboard on the final machine (C). You can do that by running osk.exe (press Windows key + R and typing in osk).

Now on your host machine (A), press and hold the CTRL and ALT keys on your physical keyboard and then press the DEL key on the on-screen keyboard. That’s one way to do it.

You can also open the on-screen keyboard on computer B and then type CTRL + ALT + END, which will send CTRL + ALT + DEL to computer C.

Also, note that there are a bunch of other keyboard shortcuts you can use in Remote Desktop:

Those are pretty much all of the remote desktop keyboard shortcuts you will ever need! If you know of anymore, post a comment! Enjoy!

Having problems typing “Control-Alt-Delete” (also sometimes abbreviated as “Ctrl+Alt+Del”) in your Windows virtual machine on your Mac®? This article has everything you need to know about entering this important Windows shortcut.

See also: How to press Alt Key on Mac and other Windows shortcuts

Since I have already admitted one character flaw on this blog (font addiction), I might as well fess up about another: key combos. Unlike fonts—which I can’t get enough of—key combos are something that I just don’t use much at all. While they are speedy, they’re cumbersome, often require two hands, and for me, are hard to remember. I would much rather use a button on the Ribbon or choose a menu item than use a key combo.

So I’m rather fortunate that an extremely common key combo used in Windows, “Control-Alt-Delete,” has a menu alternative in Parallels Desktop® for Mac.

Sidebar: Why is “Control-Alt-Delete” so important in Windows?

“Control-Alt-Delete” is the ultimate non-hackable Windows control. (At least Microsoft hopes so and put in a great deal engineering work to make this true.) “Control-Alt-Delete” is used to get the log-on screen so that you can be sure you’re not being spoofed and your password is not being stolen. “Control-Alt-Delete” is also used to kill off an application that has hung or is otherwise running amok. There is no direct analog to “Control-Alt-Delete” on the Mac.

If you use a virtual machine in the Window view, just click on the reveal triangle in the window’s title bar to show the very useful status icons. (See Figure 1.)

(Figure 1.)

Then whenever you need “Control-Alt-Delete” in a Windows VM, click on the little keyboard status icon to see the many menu item equivalents of key combos. Since it’s so commonly used in Windows, “Control-Alt-Delete” is at the top of the menu. (See Figure 2.) No finger gymnastics needed.

(Figure 2.)

You don’t use Window View? If you use Coherence View, then just use the || menu in the Mac menu bar, as shown in Figure 3.

(Figure 3.)

You don’t use Window or Coherence view? If you use Full Screen view, then do the same thing as in Coherence after first moving your mouse cursor to the top edge of the screen in order to make the Mac menu bar appear, as shown in Figure 4.

(Figure 4.)

Microsoft Remote Desktop Ctrl Alt Del Mac Keyboard

Use Picture-in-Picture view? Access to the keyboard menu is just the same as in Coherence.

Of course, if you are a finger gymnast, you can always enter “Control-Alt-Delete” with the same three-finger salute as PC users.

Mac Microsoft Remote Desktop Ctrl Alt Del

I hope this helps Mac users when they need to type “Control-Alt-Delete.”

Microsoft Remote Desktop Ctrl Alt Del Mac Para

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