Keyboard shortcuts¶

DOSBox Staging has two layers of key bindings: shortcuts that control the emulator itself (fullscreen toggle, screenshots, CPU speed, etc.) and DOS key mappings that pass keyboard input through to the emulated DOS environment.

All bindings can be customised in the key mapper, accessible via Ctrl+F1 on Windows/Linux or Cmd+F1 on macOS. Shortcuts use a “primary modifier” key: Ctrl on Windows and Linux, Cmd on macOS.

Default shortcuts¶

General¶

Windows / Linux	macOS	Action
`Ctrl`+`F1`	`Cmd`+`F1`	Open key mapper
`Alt`+`Enter`	`Alt`+`Enter`	Toggle fullscreen
`Alt`+`Pause`	`Cmd`+`P`	Pause emulation
`Ctrl`+`F9`	`Cmd`+`F9`	Shut down DOSBox
`Ctrl`+`Alt`+`Home`	`Cmd`+`Ctrl`+`Home`	Restart DOSBox
`Alt`+`F12`	`Alt`+`F12`	Toggle turbo speed

CPU¶

Windows / Linux	macOS	Action
`Ctrl`+`F11`	`Cmd`+`F11`	Decrease CPU cycles
`Ctrl`+`F12`	`Cmd`+`F12`	Increase CPU cycles

Audio¶

Windows / Linux	macOS	Action
`Ctrl`+`F8`	`Cmd`+`F8`	Mute audio

Capture¶

Windows / Linux	macOS	Action
`Ctrl`+`F5`	`Cmd`+`F5`	Take screenshot (default format)
`Alt`+`F5`	`Alt`+`F5`	Take rendered screenshot
`Ctrl`+`F6`	`Cmd`+`F6`	Start/stop audio recording
`Ctrl`+`Alt`+`F6`	`Cmd`+`Alt`+`F6`	Start/stop MIDI recording
`Ctrl`+`F7`	`Cmd`+`F7`	Start/stop video recording

Display¶

Windows / Linux	macOS	Action
`Ctrl`+`F2`	`Cmd`+`F2`	Reload current shader

Input¶

Windows / Linux	macOS	Action
`Ctrl`+`F10`	`Cmd`+`F10`	Toggle mouse capture
`Ctrl`+`F4`	`Cmd`+`F4`	Swap mounted disk image

Joystick calibration¶

These shortcuts are only active when use_joy_calibration_hotkeys is enabled in the joystick settings.

Windows / Linux	macOS	Action
`Ctrl`+`Left`	`Cmd`+`Left`	X scalar left
`Ctrl`+`Right`	`Cmd`+`Right`	X scalar right
`Alt`+`Left`	`Alt`+`Left`	X offset left
`Alt`+`Right`	`Alt`+`Right`	X offset right
`Ctrl`+`Del`	`Cmd`+`Del`	Reset X calibration
`Ctrl`+`Up`	`Cmd`+`Up`	Y scalar up
`Ctrl`+`Down`	`Cmd`+`Down`	Y scalar down
`Alt`+`Up`	`Alt`+`Up`	Y offset up
`Alt`+`Down`	`Alt`+`Down`	Y offset down
`Ctrl`+`Home`	`Cmd`+`Home`	Reset Y calibration

Video adapter-specific¶

These shortcuts are only available when emulating specific machine types.

Shortcut	Machine type	Action
`F11`	`hercules`	Cycle Hercules palette
`F11`	`cga_mono`	Cycle mono CGA palette
`F12`	`cga` / `pcjr` / `tandy`	Toggle composite mode
`F10`	`cga` / `pcjr` / `tandy`	Select composite adjustment knob
`F11`	`cga` / `pcjr` / `tandy`	Increase composite adjustment
`Alt`+`F11`	`cga` / `pcjr` / `tandy`	Decrease composite adjustment