How to Use Function Keys in Windows on the New MacBook
It’s not uncommon to start Windows on your MacBook, but launching it on the new MacBook Pro’s Touch Bar has its own set of issues due to the removal of function keys. Luckily, a journey through your MacBook’s settings can bring back those precious keys when using Windows 10, virtually or natively.
The MacBook Pro with Touch Bar ditches traditional function keys in favor of a bunch of system preferences like brightness and volume, leaving Windows users without some of the important keys they’ll need to use their OS. Function keys that provide convenient functions such as instant browser refresh or screenshots are lost if you do not hold down the fn key on your keyboard.
Using parallels
If you are using Windows 10 through Parallels (or any virtual machine application) on your MacBook, you can make some simple changes to your keyboard preferences to enable function keys in the application or any virtualized Windows application.
Go to the System Preferences of your MacBook, select Keyboard, then select Shortcuts. From there, select the Function Keys section and click the + button. You can add Parallels to the list of applications that open the function menu. You can even choose specific virtualized apps by configuring keys for each app, if you know which ones depend on their availability.
Using Bootcamp
Dual-booting your computer with Apple Boot Camp will allow you to start Windows normally, but will still limit touchpad support to Apple’s default settings. Windows recognizes the touchpad itself, but applications do not support it, displaying a set of static but useful control keys.
To get your precious function keys back, you need to visit the Apple Boot Camp Control Panel. From there, select Keyboard, then check Use all F1, F2, etc. as standard function keys. This will switch the default touchpad setting to function keys, although you can access the convenient brightness and volume buttons by holding down the “fn” key in the lower left corner of the keyboard.