How to grab Cmd-Tab on Macintosh instead of sending to Screen Sharing?

keyboard-shortcuts osx-lion screen-sharing command-tab

5,396

Solution 1

Realize this is old but I have found that killing the 'RFBEventHelperd' process using the Activity Monitor app allows Command-Tab to work properly with Screen Sharing. I have not seen any side effects in killing this process.

Only issue is that you have to kill this process every time you launch a new instance of Screen Sharing.

Here is the link where I found this solution: http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20120221065822722

Solution 2

If you press optioncommandx, then the screen sharing window will go into 'observe mode', and won't accept any mouse or keyboard input. Then you can press commandtab and switch apps. I know this doesn't really fix your problem, but it's at least a quick workaround...

Solution 3

On macOS Catalina (10.15.5), I was able to have Cmd-Tab work on my host machine by unloading the RFBEventHelper daemon:

sudo launchctl unload /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.RFBEventHelper.plist

You need to have System Integrity Protection disabled
You check the status of SIP with csrutil status
Disabling SIP is not recommended

5,396

WilliamKF

Updated on September 18, 2022

Comments

WilliamKF over 1 year

I am using the Screen Sharing application on a Macintosh running OS X Lion. I use Command-Tab to rotate between applications similarly to Alt-Tab on a Windows machine. However, when the Screen Sharing application has focus, the Command-Tab is being interpreted by the target screen instead of my local Macintosh.

How can I override this behavior and have my Macintosh see the Command-Tab instead of the remote screen?
- HikeMike almost 12 years
  
  Good question. According to here, the hidden preference com.apple.ScreenSharing DoNotSendSystemKeys is ignored as of OS X Lion.
- WilliamKF almost 12 years
  
  Unfortunately, as stated on that page, this no longer works in OS X 10.7 anymore.
- kenorb over 11 years
  
  Try to change the mode to Full Screen.
- kenorb over 11 years
  
  are you connecting from Mac to Mac? Which Screen Sharing application do you use?
- WilliamKF over 11 years
  
  I'm connecting from a Mac to a Linux box. The Mac has an application called Screen Sharing that I am using.
- WilliamKF over 11 years
  
  In full screen mode, the Cmd-Tab still goes to Linux, not to the local Mac.
Blisterpeanuts almost 6 years

I actually have the opposite problem; I want cmd-tab to be captured by the remote host. Your solution works perfectly for this case. option-cmd-tab moves between remote apps! Thanks for the tip.
Adam almost 4 years

Warning: once you do this, you'll lose your remote management connection, and you won't be able to log into your computer remotely, and so you'll have to drive into work to check "remote management" again. This did reset the connection and problem solved, but then the issue came back 3 weeks later. Kill the 'RFBEventHelperd' process, as kanso's answer says to do, and problem solved.
Adam almost 4 years

I wanted my screen shared desktop to allow for command tab, and instead my local machine had overridden it (so I believe the opposite issue of what the original question was asking haha), but kanso's answer helped solved it for me, thanks kanso!
SFbay007 over 3 years

I tried to kill the process in catalina but every time I switch to screen sharing window the process comes back. I did not launch a new screen sharing session just switch to an opened one.
cwd over 3 years

@SFbay007 - I was having the same issue but I think I found a way around it. See my answer