A long-standing feature in the Mac OS, predating OS X, is the ability to enter certain special characters from the keyboard using the Option key as an additional modifier key. For instance, on the Mac, Option - G produces the copyright symbol (©) and Shift - Option - = produces the plus/minus symbol (±). Windows also has a method, albeit one that is more complex, for entering special characters from the keyboard by holding the Alt key and then entering a numeric code. The same characters are generated from the keyboard in Windows by Alt - 0169 (©) and Alt - 241 (±). The caveat is that Windows requires memorizing a numeric code instead of a single key and the numeric code must be entered from the numeric keypad; the latter would be an issue on Macs with the small keyboard.
Third-party Mac keyboards can be purchased that show the characters that will be produced by using the Option modifier key in combination with the alphanumeric keys, but due to the methodology used in Windows there is no similar Windows keyboard. As I am now running Windows within a VM at work, I wanted to know if there is a way to map the Option key shortcuts in OS X to the Alt key codes in Windows. My keyboard profile for the VM is already set up to do things such as treat ⌘ - C as ctrl - C when I am in a Windows app, but the keyboard profile in the settings will not permit me to enter keyboard shortcuts such as Alt - 0233 (é) for Windows, or Option - E followed by pressing E again on the Mac (é).
The special keyboard map on the Mac and extended ASCII character set accessible in Windows are not 100% matched—for instance, there is no Alt code for (Shift - Option - K), and no Option key combination for ¾ (Alt - 0190)—but it would be nice special characters that can be generated by both keyboard methods.