Guys and gals, there has always been a lot of user tempted to jump from Windows to Mac, but most of them hesitated as they think that it's a whole new world for them to re-learn everything they know about "computer"... I'm one of them actually. 1 year ago I was tempted by the specs of Macbook Pro with Retina Display, but I was wondering whether I can really make the "leap of faith" to jump into a whole new OS platform. But after much consideration and fed up with Windows... I decided to take a gamble. And ever since then, I have never look back. For me, Mac OS X is a much better operating system in whole, although I do admit sometimes things are a little easier for Windows than on a Mac, but all in all, one will surely get to love it if you are willing to spend some time learning it, stay with it, and live with it.

Ok, enough of the non-sense sharing. So what I'm trying to do here is to create a platform of discussion for those who are interested to jump-ship from Windows to Mac. There's always google out there, but I know sometime people is just lazy or they have no idea how to google the information they need. So I'm planning to put down a summary/comparison here of the things you need to know when jumping from Windows to Mac. Here are some of the titles which I'm planning to write into, and for those experienced user out there, feel free to contribute by PM me or reply to the question posted by others, I'll try to include as much as possible here into the main posting, and hopefully this will help you to decide whether or not to switch to Mac, and for those new Mac user, hope this will let you adapt to the new environment easier and faster.

I will continue to develop this thread, so please give me some time before everything gets into order. Till then, hope this thread will bring some help to all the Mac users out there. Thank you and have a nice day!

1. From Windows to Mac
2. Migrating your files from Windows to Mac
3. Apps replacement from Windows to Mac
4. Keyboard shortcut
5. Optimizing your touchpad
6. Optimizing your Mac
7. Living harmoniously between Windows and Mac
8. Mac Security
9. Reserve for future topic
10. Reserve for future topic

This post has been edited by beelze_gpwk: Oct 5 2013, 06:47 PM

1. From Windows to Mac

It's not really a leap of faith by switching from Windows to Mac, or by diving into the world of both. Basically, Mac OS and Windows are not that different, it just that some of the things are a little different between both of them, so there's quite a learning curve you will probably need to overcome initially, and once you overcome it, everything will just fall into places, and you will starts to get comfortable with both OS. Just like Android and iOS, basically the same, there are differences here and there.

Some may think that Mac OS is very limited, very hard to use and etc. I can't deny these statement completely as it really depends on what you do most of the time, some of the things/task is really easier to be done on Windows rather than on Mac, while there are some which are the opposite as well. And people may worry about the software they love and used daily will not be available in Mac and etc. Well, the truth is, this is not an issue at all as you can actually run Windows software on Mac with a little help from some third party app (more about this later). Besides that, Mac App Store is full of wonderful, useful and powerful app that can simply replace those apps that you used to love and used all the time. Some App discussion can be found here: https://forum.lowyat.net/topic/202116

For those who enjoyed customized their Windows PC (like I used to) to their like and taste, you can basically do the same with Mac as well. There's a forum discussion on this which you may want to take a look at it: https://forum.lowyat.net/topic/441943

Also, for those who game a lot, some of the game may not release for Mac platform (most of the big names for games are releasing both Windows and Mac version recently), then you may need to consider running bootcamp on your Mac. This is basically partitioning your machine into 2 partition, one with Windows installed and the other with Mac OS, so you will get to choose which OS to boot into when you load your machine. This is the best option for gamer as it is more stable compared to other methods such as VMware and Parallel Desktop which runs the Windows OS "virtually" in your Mac OS. More about this discussion can be found here: https://forum.lowyat.net/topic/979861

Hardware wise a Mac is virtually the same as a PC, so there's nothing to alien about. there are helpful Mac community here in the forum who can give you some good advise on what to do next when you are facing some problem with your Mac: https://forum.lowyat.net/topic/989327

It doesn't really matter whether you jump into Mac OS because you just want to show off yourself in front of others with a Macbook during your college time, or you have enough of the blue screen horror from Microsoft, or you just wanted to try something new and different, or you are attracted by the hardware and software integration of Apple product (I fall into this category). Now that you are here, spend sometime reading through the web, books, or maybe this tiny little sharing guide here to get yourself started to learn about a new OS. You may end up loving it, just like i did. And you may ended up cursing it as well, anyway, give it a shot at least before you can judge on it

There are all sorts of interesting (and some, funny) discussion about Windows and Mac from the internet (such as this one: http://lifehacker.com/mac-vs-windows-your-...ents-486125257), just google about it and get yourself some feel about their differences, their weakness and strength, and then try to adapt, workaround and maximize each OS to their fullest.

This post has been edited by beelze_gpwk: Nov 23 2013, 12:28 PM

2. Migrating your files from Windows to Mac

There are a few ways to migrate from Windows to Mac, the "easier" way is to use the "migration assistant" program provided by Mac.
Or you can do it the hard way: copy them into external HDD and copy them back to your new Mac.
Migration Assistant will work too when you are replacing your old Macbook/iMac to a new one.
But take note that this Migration Assistant required the new and old PC/Mac to be connected to the same network, it actually uses the internet network as a platform to transfer file. In other words, you better make sure they are all wired to the internet instead of running wirelessly because it may take ages to transfer all the files if you use the later way.

Here's a helpful link to get you started:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2518
http://www.macworld.com/article/2036233/sw...c-to-a-mac.html

People tends to have this mindset, where Apple is close system and only limited file types are supported by Mac, so you will have issue using all the files you are running up to now. This mindset is a bit of "true" and "not true". It's true that Mac by itself is "closed" and have limited support to only certain file types, but don't worry, all your other file types will still be supported nicely by all their respective apps. Almost all of the major app out there are supporting both Windows and Mac platform, so there isn't really anything to worry about

This post has been edited by beelze_gpwk: Sep 29 2013, 09:04 AM

3. Apps replacement from Windows to Mac

Here's a good comparison between some of the basic function/apps in Windows and in Mac:
http://www.macworld.com/article/2039343/sw...ws-to-os-x.html

Other than that, here are some of the comparison of default apps from Windows and Mac

1. Paint/Picture Viewer vs Preview
Most of us are used to running software such as Paint in Windows. In Mac, there's a simple yet powerful app call "Preview" which can do more or less the same thing, and even more. When you open an image, it will open through "Preview" app by default. There, you can make the necessary simple adjustment such as adding lines, shape, text, rotating, resizing the picture and etc. Other than that, "Preview" app also is the default app to view pdf files. Yes, this is something Windows lack on. "Preview" will not just open the pdf file, it will allow you to perform a certain level of editing work on the pdf file itself. Other than that, you can fill up pdf forms and even have your signature signed into the pdf document itself!

2. Windows Media Player vs iTunes
Both players are actually quite similar, as both of them also has a lot of limitation of their own, and problems of their own. You will get the usual playlist creating, ratings, mini player mode and etc on both players. iTunes up one with the integration of iTunes store, whereby you can purchase musics and songs directly and get it downloaded. Besides, you will be able to have those purchased musics with you wherever you go and on all of your iDevices, as they are all link to your Apple ID. You can install iTunes on Windows as well. So if you are curious about how good or bad iTunes is, feel free to download and try it out on your current PC. Windows Media Player took the upper hand as it supports video, iTunes is only meant for mainly music, while video will be taken care my QuickTime Player in Mac. Anyway, most user will use third party app such as Movist, VLC Player or MPlayerX for movie playback as these software support more file types.

3. Internet Explorer vs Safari
Ok, I'm not sure about you, but for me, any other browser out there in the world will surely be better than internet explorer. Anyway, the good thing about using Safari is that it is linked to your Apple ID, again, if you have other iDevices, all your reading list, bookmarks etc will sync across seamlessly. There's always alternative such as Google Chrome, which can run on both Mac and Windows. Therefore, even more seamless integration when you are often hopping between the two OS. And it is compatible with other iDevice and Android too.

4. Windows Explorer vs Finder
They are essentially the same thing, both are sort of like "file manager system" for their respective OS. I'm not sure what can be elaborate more about this.

5. Notepad vs TextEdit
Ok, notepad is just a simple program for typing text into it. TextEdit for Mac on the other hand is a stripped down version of Microsoft Word. It offers some basic font customizing, but other than that, both are just simple text editing program which get their job done.
P/s: there's another "Notes" app in Mac which is the same like Notepad in Windows, allowing you to write without the ability to change the font or other format. But the only difference is that the "Notes" app is linked to your Apple ID, so it will sync to all your iDevices.

6. Backup and Restore vs Time Machine
Honestly, i have never used "backup & restore" in Windows before. Usually I just heard from others that it is not so easy to use and the function is a little limited. I'm not sure how true is that, but for Mac's Time Machine, it is a very brilliant and nicely built backup software. You just need to plug in an external HDD for example, and set it up as the time machine drive, and whenever you plug in the HDD, the backup process will start and gets everything done in the background. if you want to restore back some of the files or the whole system, just scroll through the time and date in order to find your desired version and it shall restore easily.

7. Command Prompt vs Terminal
Ok, I don't use both of them often. No comment.

This post has been edited by beelze_gpwk: Oct 3 2013, 09:08 PM

4. Keyboard shortcut

Here's the symbol from Mac's keyboard:


In order to cut this post short, I'll just link you to the pages instead of listing out the full shortcut keys here for comparison.

Here's a link to Windows Shortcut:
http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/100-keyboard-shortcuts-windows/

Here's a link to Mac Shortcut:
http://guides.macrumors.com/Keyboard_shortcuts
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1343?viewloc...US&locale=en_US

Here's a link for Excel shortcut in Mac:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-001/mac-exc...A102927337.aspx
http://www.wallstreetprep.com/blog/shortcu...c_shortcuts.pdf
http://www.wallst-training.com/resources/W...ortcuts_Mac.pdf
https://exceljet.net/keyboard-shortcuts

- Generally the shortcut is the same, just that "Ctrl" from Windows is now "Command" in Mac.
- People will freak out because they can't find the "print screen" key, "Command + shift + 3" to print screen in Mac.
- People will freak out when the file won't delete even after they press "delete", in Mac you need to press "Command + Delete".
- There's no "Ctrl + X" cut function in Mac, only "move" is available. Simply "command + C" to copy the file, then "Command + Option + V" to paste the file while deleting the original file.

Feel free to ask and suggest any useful shortcut which might have been missed in these links.

This post has been edited by beelze_gpwk: Sep 29 2013, 09:19 AM

5. Optimizing your touchpad

One of the things that draws me in using Mac, is how great the experience is when using the trackpad. Until now I have yet to test on a laptop trackpad that's better than those offered by Mac. Anyway, to start up, the trackpad on Mac is multi-touch, just like every other Windows Laptop trackpad out there, you can do scrolling, clicking, rotating images and etc. through the trackpad itself. What makes the Mac trackpad different will be the gesture control and how responsive and accurate it is to operate. The later part is a little subjective, but the gesture control is really something useful and handy.

Go to System Preferences -> Trackpad. You will get a whole lot of ways to optimize/customize your trackpad. There are some thrid party apps such as MagicPrefs which allow more controls and customization for power user, but generally the one provided on your Mac should be good enough to get you started.

My personal preference on trackpad is to enable the following:

Under Point and Click:
1. Tap to click - so that trackpad will recognize tapping as a click, without needing to really physically click on the trackpad... oh by the way, unlike Windows laptop where there will be two button (left & right click) on the trackpad, Mac trackpad basically allows you to click on anywhere of it to register as a click...

2. Secondary Click (Tap with two fingers) - Some of you may wonder how to do a right click on Mac... there are other ways, but i personally find that this is the best way... to tap with two fingers.

3. Look up (Tap with 3 fingers) - this allow immediate access to dictionary or quick preview of some of the details of the files. You may disable it if you don't use it often, and resolve back to the usual right click and check method.

4. 3 Fingers Drag - you can drag a file, folder or window by touching 3 fingers on the trackpad and moving it around. If you prefer to click on the trackpad physically and drag the files, you may disable this feature.

Under Scroll & Zoom:
1. Natural Scroll - This is where you decide whether the scroll will be "natural" or "not natural". "Natural" scroll is basically same with how you scroll your smartphone, when you want to view the bottom of the page, you scroll the page upwards to review the bottom. This is actually opposite of how we scroll in Windows though, so if you still used to Windows's way of scrolling, turn off this "Natural" scroll setting.

2. Zoom in or out - this is where you set whether the trackpad will register pinch to zoom gesture. Recommend to keep it on.

3. Smart zoom - double tap to quickly zoom in, just like how you use your smartphone or tablet. not particularly useful, so up to you to decide whether to turn this on or not.

4. Rotate - turn this setting on if you want to be able to rotate an image by rotating your finger on the trackpad.

Under More Gestures:
1. Swipe between pages - this is where it starts to become amazing on Mac. In safari, you can actually go forward or backward page by swiping 2 or 3 fingers (you can decide) to the left or right on the trackpad. The same apply to other apps which support scrolling pages or multiple photos such as Preview.

2. Swipe between full screen app - In Mac, you can run an app to full screen without any other windows blocking your way. let's say if you are running a few apps in full screen, and you want to switch to other apps from time to time... it will be tedious to exit full screen from this app and then go to the other app again... You can choose to swipe with 3 or 4 fingers in order to switch between full screen apps without needing you to exit full screen at anytime

3. Notification Centre - OS X has a feature call notification centre, it is a place where you get all the notification such as latest facebook post, email and etc., same like what you have on your smartphone. In order to access this, simply enable this setting, and swipe your 2 finger from the right of the trackpad towards the left.

4. Mission Control - By enabling this setting, you can swipe with 3 or 4 fingers upward to call the mission control (or simply tap F3 on keyboard). In mission control, basically you will get an overview of all the windows, apps and etc that you are running, and currently which space you are located in. Mac OS X actually allows you to create a few space/desktops in order to store different kind of things in it... it's like a multi-tasking feature on your smartphone. Read more about this feature here: http://www.macworld.com/article/2021488/ab...on-control.html

5. App Expose - This is something similar to mission control, in fact it compliments it in a way. with this setting enabled, Swipe down with 3 or 4 fingers and you will get to see all the windows currently opened under this app. For example you may have a few documents open at the same time, so if you want to switch between documents, you may use this feature instead as mission control only limits you from switching between apps and desktop spaces.

6. Launch Pad - Launch pad is like calling your windows program list. You can access it by clicking F4 on keyboard, or if you enable this setting, simply pinch your thumb and 3 fingers on the trackpad to call it. Launch pad is just like your apps drawer/home screen on your smart phone where all apps installed will list out on grid pattern and you can swipe between pages & create folder to organize all your apps.

7. Show desktop - this is merely just to show you what's on desktop when you are working with a lot of windows opening, similar to "show desktop" in Windows. Spread your thumb and 3 fingers in order to quickly view your desktop.

Get a better idea of what i'm talking about by visiting this link:
http://www.apple.com/osx/what-is/gestures....gestures-expose

This post has been edited by beelze_gpwk: Oct 12 2013, 05:15 PM

6. Optimizing your Mac

Just like Windows, if you don't frequently maintain or optimize your Mac, you will run into glitches or slow/poor performance as well. For Windows, there's all sorts of software for this purpose (such as Tune up utilities, which is quite popular), while for Mac, there are a few as well. Other than doing a system clean, there are some other software which optimize your ram usage, tidy up your cluttered desktop & navigation bar and etc. I'll recommend a few here:

1. Clean My Mac
Clean My Mac is a powerful software which can clean all those unneeded system files to free up some space for you. Other than that, it will also clear some temporary files, junk files, old files and etc to maintain your Mac at top notch. Another function that this app has is to uninstall a program safely and clear all the related files away once and for all. When switching from Windows to Mac, user will usually have issue wondering how to uninstall an app, and ended up just delete them directly from the App folder, which is not the correct way to do it. Clean My Mac will help you take care of that.

2. AppleJack
This is basically a script app which can clear your machine off unnecessary junk file cache and VRAM. It also works as a simple troubleshooting tool.

3. DaisyDisk
This app will basically track down all files stored on your machine, their location, size, and sort and delete all your files through this management app.

4. Alfred
This is a powerful search tool that allows you to search and launch just about anything on your Mac. It can also be upgraded with more feature such as browsing your entire file system, managing and sharing them all within a few clicks away.

5. Bartender
The Manu Bar always sits on top of your screen of your Mac. this is different to those in Windows, which follows on each windows you open. At times the Menu Bar will get crowded with all sorts of icon and information... this is the time when Bartender become useful, it allows you to customize and organize what to be shown and what not.

6. Better Touch Tool
This is an app which will unlock the potential of your multi-touch trackpad or magic mouse. you can customize all sorts of gesture and making your life much easier on a Mac. It's a nice and wonderful little app.

This post has been edited by beelze_gpwk: Nov 23 2013, 11:54 AM

7. Living harmoniously between Windows and Mac

A lot people are using both Windows and Mac OS at the same time in their life, for me, my company laptop is Windows, while my personal laptop is Macbook Pro. There are something you need to take note in order to live a problem-free life between Windows and Mac.

1. Format of your Pendrive/External HDD
The common problem when converting from Windows to Mac, is that user will find that their pendrive/external hard disk unable to be detected, or detected but unable to read & write in Mac, while it is fully usable in Windows. This is most likely because the pendrive/external HDD you have has been formatted as NTFS, which is a format that Mac does not support out of the box. In order to overcome this problem, there are a few ways you may consider:
a. format your pendrive or HDD as FAT. Mac OS can read FAT format, but you can't transfer file with file size larger than 4GB.
b. format your pendrive or HDD as exFAT. Both Mac OS and Windows can detect this format type, but Windows XP may have issue reading this format though.
c. install software such as Paragon NTFS on your Mac in order for it to be able to read and write on NTFS format.

2. Connecting Windows keyboard to Mac
If you check out a Mac PC/Laptop, you will notice that the keyboard for Mac and Windows PC is a little different. There aren't any Windows key & Alt key on Mac, while there aren't any Command & Option key on usual PC keyboard. But still, you can still connect ordinary USB/Bluetooth Windows keyboard to Mac. The Windows key will automatically function as "Command" key under Mac. You can change the mapping of keys under System Preference -> Keyboard.

3. Connecting Mouse to Mac
Again, most of the mouse that work on Windows will work on Mac as well. The only thing is that the scrolling is a little different in Windows and Mac. In Mac, the scroll wheel will go the opposite direction as oppose to what we used to in Windows. Anyway, you can change this all under System Preference -> Mouse.

4. Connecting Printer to Mac
Mac should be able to connect and communicate with most printer without any issue. Go to System Preference -> Print & Scan to set up your printer once connected through USB or Wifi/ethernet.

5. Connecting Speaker to Mac
All speaker should work as per normal under Mac. If the sound doesn't channel properly to your external speaker, go to System Preference -> Sound and adjust the setting.

This post has been edited by beelze_gpwk: Oct 5 2013, 06:31 PM

8. Mac Security

Mac is very secure overall. If you purchase apps from Mac App Store, be careful when browsing, clicking link and downloading things from the internet, basically you are quite safe from the virus/malware. Most of the security settings are within the System Preferences. You can set up different user account just like how you did it in Windows, and Mac has it's own Firewall as well (go to System Preferences -> Security & Privacy -> Firewall).

Mac include a basic anti-virus feature called XProtect/File Quarantine, something similar to Microsoft's Security Essentials. Safari have some options to disable Java, and also some other plug-ins which can used to block certain apps and ads.

There are two security features in Mac that are not available on Windows. First is the Full Hard Drive Encryption. Go to System Preferences -> Security & Privacy -> File Vault. The other feature is Gatekeeper (go to System Preferences -> Security & Privacy -> General, and look under Allow Applications Downloaded From) which can restrict what kind of software can be installed on your Mac.

And finally, the ultimate question is: to Antivirus or not on your Mac. Some people choose to switch to Mac because they believe Mac is more secure and doesn't require any Antivirus. Indeed for Mac to be infected with malware is minuscule. When there's thousands of malware detected for Windows, probably there's just one or two detected for Mac. As long as you are careful enough, you can get away spending on antivirus for Mac. Of course there are Antivirus software out there for Mac too, if you just want to be safe and sure, get them installed on your Mac.

This post has been edited by beelze_gpwk: Oct 5 2013, 06:46 PM

9. Reserve for future topic

10. Reserve for future topic

i just did the jump, well i bought a mba 13 for a personal project, but i feel quite lost, im used to using keyboard shortcuts in my other laptop . but... in mba . its,...

you are lost for shortcut in Mac OS, or a particular software you are running?
If Mac OS, feel free to read through the Keyboard shortcut section i just updated...
if Software's shortcut... maybe you need to explore a little by yourself... but generally they are more or less the same
If you got some specific question, feel free to post in as i believe there will be a LYN forumer who can give you some help

I'm most curious to know about the Excel shortcuts. As I live and breathe excel in my job, I find legacy excel (excel 2003) shortcuts a life saver.

Things in windows version of Excel like:
- alt-e-s-v,esc,est (paste special)
- Pressing F2 to get to the formula bar without having to use the mouse
- alt-i-r
- alt-i-c
- alt-h-m-c
- etc.

Would be very happy if someone could help me in this area! And would be very important to your guide

indeed... i really need some expert in this area to get this done too... as I'm running excel only when I'm in office, and office PC of course is running windows... my Mac only for home use and excel is not required... I've googled some, not sure whether it will be helpful to you... check out the updated post.

I have both Mac and Windows 7 machines as well as XP ones at home and office. End of the day, still prefer the PC despite all the malware. BTW, 15 years of PC usage and have yet to encounter a malware on any of my machines. I guess disabling non-essential system services on Windows really helps.

i personally don have issue with malware too, but i really hate it when my PC crashes frequently for no reason... the main reason I decided to switch. But still I'm running Windows in my office while Mac at home... a taste of both world

Me too, I use both Mac and PC.

Mac for general use and PC mostly for gaming.

I spend most of the time on Mac rather than PC.

A lot of people jump to mac not even reached intermediate level in windows yet. They dont even know what is printscr, ctrl c, ctrl p and other basic shortcuts in windows. All the time they use right click on the mouse.

Then when they jump to Mac and learn mac shortcuts, they thought mac was easy because can do all that shortcuts.

Generally, I don't find that using Windows consider as dark side.

Both OS has it's strength and weakness depend on the usage.
I would said windows system although has been always labelled as copy cat and virus for it's GUI prompt to get virus but in term of central control in corporate environment, game compatibility and support and low cost ( overall price including hardware) and ease of use, it really has it's strength.

I am happy to see there are forumers willing to take initiative to educate new user who aren't familiar with Mac.
However there are still vast majority of users who are still using Windows OS both at work or home, I believe they do find Windows OS appeal to them and does help them in getting their work done. The subtitle "the Dark Side to Daylight" seem to me you have labelled the system as evil, what happen to the people who still using it day to day?
BY promoting other OS system, I hope forummer could give a fair treatment to other OS and should refrain from using provoking title or phrase.
Just my 2 cents, I have no intention to start flame war.