Apple has always been a world leader, in terms of mixing technology with style, to the point that even Windows users find themselves envying the shiny white ’shrink-wrapped’ boxes, and the masterpieces inside them.
It feels like poking a marshmallow, yet it smells like a bin (if you go close enough).
The Apple Wired Keyboard is more widely preferred, thanks to its full set of characters (unlike its wireless sibling, it doesn’t lack the numeric keypad, or the ‘transition keys’ (which, I presume, are named after the periodic table).
It simply plugs in via USB. Because it has two USB ports, I don’t recommend you plug it into an un-powered USB hub (although I don’t recommend plugging any keyboard anywhere other than directly into your computer, regardless of the manufacturer). Once plugged in via USB, it works!
The reason why Apple made such a fuss about being compatible with Windows, is Bootcamp. If you didn’t know already, Bootcamp is a component of the Apple OS (Intel-breed, of course) designed for dual-booting into Linux or Windows. It is for this reason that the keyboard has to map easily to Windows keys, to avoid bugs.
But no! It doesn’t stop there, either! Because they want to provide an out-of-the-box experience for Macs, even with Windows installed, they even provide us with the drivers! Now you can get all those hotkeys (and the alternate = key that nobody can explain) to work with Windows too!
All of the drivers are available, by running the Bootcamp driver disk. By this point, if you’re still reading, you clearly don’t have OS X, or even a Mac, and as Bootcamp comes with it, you’re going to need the files.
Simply get hold of them via Google. Alternatively, you can rely on my Googling skills to get there even quicker. Some kind InsanelyMac member saved me a lot of time when trying to find it for my testing machine.
Remarkably, the process remains pretty much the same for the Wireless keyboard, although it is recommended you stick to the built-in Windows Bluetooth drivers if you can, as the drivers inside the dongles etc. generally have a far higher failure rate when used with the keyboards. Although it remains untested, the key mapping drivers are near the same, so try to use the link mentioned above. If that fails, you’re almost likely to find it with a bit of luck in Google. Let us know how that pans out for you via a comment.
Look! Even Dr Who has one!
There are plenty of alternative techniques, but I thought I’d share with you the simplest, as to be honest, you deserve it, if you had the sense to purchase a Apple keyboard. Oh and by the way, if you haven’t got one, it feels like poking a marshmallow, yet it smells like a bin (if you go close enough). I guess the elegance cancels it out?
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