Works Like You Do

I still use one old DOS program. It uses function keys, including F9 and F10. Anyone using Parallels knows that the MAC and Expose use these same keys and no matter what mode you are in, they default to MAC behavior. There are workarounds for Windows, but I couldn;t find anything about DOS. Here’s what I discovered:

You can use these keys but you need to be careful. FN+CMD+F9 and FN+CMD+F10 will do the job but if you take your finger off the FN key first, Windows will respond to the CMD key and display the Windows Start menu, taking you out of the DOS window. If you just hold them down and don’t let go, it works most of the time; but if you are careful, you can get to the point where it’s relatively consistent.

So there is my first tip. For all you Neanderthals like me who insist on using a program that’s 20 years old on a computer that’s brand new, you can do it successfully!