Special Keys - dosbox-staging/dosbox-staging GitHub Wiki
This page lists the default DOSBox Staging special keys for Windows and Linux. macOS users, please refer to the macOS notes section.
You can always remap these to your liking using the Keymapper.
Note that there are a few other less important actions that are not assigned to any keys by default.
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| Alt+Enter | Toggle windowed and fullscreen mode |
| Ctrl+F10 | Capture/release the mouse (you can also middle-click to release the mouse) |
| Ctrl+F1 | Start the Keymapper |
| Ctrl+F4 | Update filesystem cache of the mounted drives. Useful if you changed something on a mounted drive outside of DOSBox Staging. Also cycles through multiple disk images mounted with the IMGMOUNT command (useful for multi-CD games).
|
| Ctrl+F8 | Mute/unmute all audio output |
| Ctrl+F9 | Shut down DOSBox Staging |
| Ctrl+Alt+Home | Restart DOSBox Staging & reload the config |
| Ctrl+F2 | Reload the current shader from disk (useful for tweaking shader settings) |
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| Ctrl+F11 | Decrease the CPU cycles setting (slows down the emulation) |
| Ctrl+F12 | Increase the CPU cycles setting (speeds up the emulation) |
| Alt+F12 | Fast-forward mode ("turbo button", or "unlock speed"). Only active while the special key is held down. |
| Alt+Pause | Pause/unpause emulation |
All captured files go into the capture folder which is by default within the DOSBox Staging folder in your user folder. You can change the capture path with the capture config setting in the [dosbox] section.
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| Ctrl+F5 | Save an upscaled screenshot in the correct aspect ratio |
| Alt+F5 | Save a post-shader screenshot—what you see on the screen |
| Ctrl+F6 | Start/stop recording sound output to a 16-bit 44.1kHz WAV file |
| Ctrl+F7 | Start/stop recording video output to a ZMBV file |
Composite emulation is only available for the cga, pcjr and tandy machine types (e.g., machine = cga in the [dosbox] section).
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| F10 | Select composite control |
| F11 / Alt+F11 | Increase/decrease the value of the selected composite control |
| F12 | Cycles through composite modes (on, off, auto) |
Monochrome emulation is only available for the hercules and cga_mono machine types (e.g., machine = hercules in the [dosbox] section).
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| F11 | Cycle through amber, green, white, and paperwhite monochrome monitor colours |
On macOS, use Command key instead of Ctrl key, and the Option key instead of the Alt key.
This works for the majority of the special keys, but some have special macOS equivalents:
- Pause/unpause is Cmd+P
- Restart DOSBox Staging & reload the config is Ctrl+Opt+Fn+Left on MacBooks with no Home key
If you're having trouble with the function keys, you may need to set your F keys to behave as function keys. You can do this by going to System Preferences > Keyboard, and then enabling the Use F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys option.