RealVNC Viewer: How can I escape from the remote desktop screen by using keys?

I don't know about any hotkey for escaping nor way to define it at RealVNC Viewer. I would really love to know.

Meanwhile, I use two workarounds for this:

  • Pressing some hotkey that is defined (say Ctrl+Shift+E for Windows Explorer) for a local program (on the computer running VNC Client), as long as they are prioritized by RealVNC Viewer. This automatically send focus to local desktop. Problem: such hotkey will not work on the remote machine (you can not define Ctrl+Shift+E for Windows Explorer on the computer running VNC Server) .
  • Pressing this key sequence: F8, then n (to minimize; maybe any other on your Windows). Problem: this minimizes the window that shows the remote desktop, and some times you don't want this.

The first one is preferred for me, since a sequence is always slower than a direct hotkey.


I fixed this by disabling the "send special characters" setting in Real VNC's advanced settings. I use OSX, so now I can command+tab to switch to a different app.