Moving from Windows to a Mac: the first two hours
· 6 min read
Most of the difficulty in moving to a Mac is not conceptual. It is that your hands know where things are, and for a fortnight they will be wrong. The concepts transfer in an afternoon; the reflexes take longer.
These are the differences worth learning deliberately, rather than discovering one frustration at a time.
The modifier key, which is the whole thing
On Windows, Control is the shortcut key. On a Mac it is Command, the key beside the space bar.
Copy is Command-C, not Control-C. Save is Command-S. Quit is Command-Q. Almost every shortcut you know transfers with Command substituted for Control, which means you already know most Mac shortcuts and your thumb does not.
The exception worth learning immediately: Command-Q quits an application entirely; closing the last window does not. On Windows, closing the window usually ends the program. On a Mac an application with no windows is still running, still in the Dock, still using memory. That single difference accounts for a great deal of early confusion.
There is no maximise button
The green button toggles full screen, which is a mode rather than a window size: the application takes over the display and gets its own Space.
To make a window merely larger, drag its edge, or double-click the title bar, or hold Option while clicking the green button, which zooms to fit content rather than going full screen.
If you want side-by-side windows, hold the green button and choose a tiling option, or drag a window to a screen edge. Split View and tiling windows covers the current arrangements.
Finder is not File Explorer
Three differences that matter.
There is no cut and paste for files, exactly. Copy with Command-C, then paste-and-move with Command-Option-V. Plain Command-V copies.
The path bar is off by default. Turn it on from the View menu, along with the status bar. Both make Finder considerably more legible.
Deleting is Command-Delete, not the Delete key. The Delete key on a Mac is a backspace.
Also worth doing on day one: drag your working folders into the Finder sidebar. It is the fastest navigation the Mac has and it is empty until you fill it.
Installing software
Windows habits do not transfer here, and this is where new Mac users are most exposed.
Most Mac software arrives as a .dmg disk image. Double-click it, a window opens, drag the application to the Applications folder, then eject the disk image. The application is now installed. Many people run the app from the mounted image for weeks without realising it was never installed.
Some software uses a .pkg installer, which behaves more like a Windows installer.
Get software from the developer’s own site or the App Store. Search results for popular Mac applications are a known target for imitation sites, and the fake download will run and look correct. Type the address directly.
Expect Gatekeeper to block something at least once. That is normal for software from outside the App Store. Gatekeeper explained covers what the warnings mean and which deserve attention.
Uninstalling
Drag the application to the Trash. That is genuinely most of it.
What it leaves is preference files and support folders in ~/Library, which are small and harmless. There is no equivalent of Add or Remove Programs, and for the great majority of software the drag is sufficient.
Applications that installed background helpers leave those behind too, and those are worth checking. Login items on a Mac covers finding them.
Settings worth changing immediately
Four adjustments that remove most of the early friction.
Enable Tap to Click. System Settings, Trackpad. On by default on laptops, off on the Magic Trackpad.
Turn up tracking speed. The default is conservative and makes the Mac feel slower than it is.
Set key repeat to fast and delay to short. System Settings, Keyboard. If you type, this is the most noticeable single change available.
Decide about natural scrolling. Scroll direction is reversed relative to Windows by default. Either commit to it for a week or switch it off in Trackpad settings. Switching back and forth is the worst option.
Moving your files
Windows Migration Assistant, installed on the PC, moves documents, mail, contacts and calendars. It does not move applications, which do not run on a Mac anyway.
For a simpler transfer, an external drive works, with one caveat: format it exFAT so both machines can write to it. NTFS drives mount read-only on a Mac by default.
What you will miss, honestly
Some Windows software has no Mac version. Check before you commit to anything important. Options are a web version, an equivalent Mac application, or running Windows in a virtual machine, which works well on Apple silicon for most things and not for everything.
File compatibility is rarely the problem people expect. Office documents move between platforms without difficulty. Handing work to someone who does not use a Mac covers the cases that do need care.
Questions
Where is the Start menu? Spotlight, opened with Command-Space. Type a few letters of an application’s name and press Return. It is faster than the Start menu ever was. Spotlight covers what else it does.
Where is Task Manager? Activity Monitor, in Applications, Utilities. To force-quit something, Command-Option-Escape.
How do I right-click? Two-finger tap on a trackpad, or Control-click. A Magic Mouse supports right-click once enabled in settings.
Can I use my Windows keyboard? Yes. Command and Option map to the Windows and Alt keys, in an order that feels wrong until you swap them in Keyboard settings. Using a Windows keyboard on a Mac covers the remapping.