With all this Mac/PC talk heating up again, I figured this is a timely list. Plus, my wonderful husband who has been a long-time PC user has decided to fully make the switch to the Mac (of his own volition—without prodding from me!)
He bought a MacBook from us last year, but continued to use Windows on it (mostly because his work requires some PC-only programs, but also because he figured the learning curve was too steep to get onto the Mac side quickly). Well, several months, countless slowdowns and a handful of gray hairs later, he’s on OS X and loving it.
However, he was only at about a 98% satisfaction rate. With OS X, he gained speed, ease-of-use and integration, a much richer interface (with smoother fonts) and more, but there were a few things that he missed that Windows does well.
Here’s my top 5 tricks to tweak your Mac to be more like Windows for all you Switchers out there:
1) Full-Screen Windows Function: Miss being able to consistently maximize your windows when they’re open to full screen? Install SIMBL and the windows will do what you want, all the time.
2) Remote Desktop: This is the term apparently PC users use when referring to being able to hook up an external monitor and have the main laptop screen stay black at the same time.
The standard Mac way to handle external monitors is either to mirror the screens (both display the same information) or to use the extended desktop mode where the large screen is just an extention of the small laptop screen.
For those who don’t like those options, and just miss being able to only view the larger screen, simply plug in your display when your computer is off. Then, turn on your computer and quickly shut the lid. The external display will stay on as the sole screen while your laptop screen stays black.
3) IE integration: We’ve talked about the Internet Explorer workarounds before: here and here, so why not revisit? Miss being able to access certain websites that bafflingly, require IE to view? Try fooling them by selecting “Show Develop menu in the menu bar” in the Advanced section of Safari’s preference pane.
4) Dock Placement: Another complaint my husband had was that the dock seemed to be in the way a lot, especially when he was used to making windows show full-screen. There are a number of things you can do to make the dock do what you want, including hiding and showing it or placing it on the left or right (instead of the bottom). All of these can be found in the Dock prefs under the Apple (top lefthand part of the Menu bar).
5) Application Management: Here’s something that PC users are really used to: being able to add/delete programs right in the Control Panel. As Ed has mentioned in a previous issue, OS X does not have a great management system to uninstall apps in totality. We both like AppCleaner or AppDelete.
Hope all these help ease the transition!