No shortcut works when Focus is running

Hi devolutions88,

Thanks for the details. The thread you found is on the right track but missing the key part.

In RDM each shortcut has a key combination and a Mode, both in File – Settings – User interface – Keyboard. The Mode decides when RDM is allowed to listen. Only Global hotkey works while your focus is inside the remote desktop, because the RDP view captures your keystrokes and forwards them to the remote machine before RDM can see them. That is why your combos do nothing in a session.

To set it up:

1. Open File – Settings – User interface – Keyboard

2. Find Select next tab / Select previous tab (Ctrl+Shift+Right / Ctrl+Shift+Left by default). For RDCMan-style "back to the last session I used", also bind Back and Forward, which are unbound out of the box

3. Set each one's Mode to Global hotkey

4. Click OK and restart RDM

Keep in mind a global hotkey is reserved system-wide while RDM runs, so pick combinations you do not use in other applications.

Could you please share:

• Your RDM edition and exact version (Help – About)

• Your workspace type (local, SQL Server, Devolutions Server, Devolutions Hub)

• The actions and combinations you assigned, and the Mode each was set to

If it still does not switch on the latest version, a short screen recording would help and I will look at it with our developer team.

Best regards,

Hi devolutions88,

Thanks for the screenshots, and fair enough on the screencast.

They actually show the problem, and it is on us: I sent you to the wrong mode. Global hotkey is for firing a shortcut when RDM is not the active app at all. The mode that reaches into an open session is Default.

So in File – Settings – User interface – Keyboard, set Select previous tab and Select the next tab to Default, keep your Ctrl+Shift+Left/Right, click Save and restart RDM.

And for what you asked for originally, jumping back to the session you came from instead of stepping through tabs in order: since 2026.2 we have Navigate back and Navigate forward. The buttons are in the Window ribbon tab under Windows, and they retrace your tab history like a browser. No shortcut is assigned by default, so bind them in the same Keyboard screen, also on Default. Try the buttons with the mouse first to see if that is the behaviour you want.

Your KB5101650 lead is a good catch by the way. That update did change hotkey cleanup behaviour, which hits the Global hotkey path, so it fits what you saw. Worth installing your pending updates too, you are two cumulative updates behind.

If Default still does nothing inside your RDP sessions, let me know and I will take it to our developer team.

Best regards,

Hi,

I tested the "Default" setting but couldn't get any other result, shortcuts still not working for me.

hmm....

Hi devolutions88,

Thanks for trying it and let me know.

There is one setting we have not checked yet (or maybe you already did), and it is entry-level rather than global: open your RDP entry's properties, go to Local Resources – Keyboard, and make sure Apply Windows key combinations is set to On the local computer. If that is sending combos to the remote host, they never reach RDM.

Beyond that I would like to log this with our developer team, and three quick answers would make that report solid:

• Does Ctrl+Shift+Right switch tabs if you click the connection tree first, so the focus is not inside a session?

• Do the Navigate back / Navigate forward buttons in the Window ribbon tab work with the mouse?

• Same behaviour in a non-RDP tab, for example an SSH session or a website entry?

Those tell us whether the shortcut is dead everywhere or only inside RDP, which points at very different causes.

In the meantime the ribbon buttons give you the jump-back behaviour, just not on a key.

Thanks for your cooperation and best regards,