When you change your computer and take the big step of switching to a different operating system, you have to get used to being in tune with new names, new settings, different menu locations and so on. The most common and appreciated passage is that from a normal and cheap Windows PC to a more expensive, but highly performing, Mac computer, most likely portable.
It is not that everything that has been learned in using Windows is really to be thrown away but if you switch to a Mac you can forget about many of those changes to optimize the PC and for its maintenance.
A Mac is produced entirely by Apple, both in the operating system and in the hardware (Windows instead can be installed on any model of computer) so it is already optimized and all its programs are well tested and, often, unique (even if the alternatives always exist).
This short and concise basic guide should be enough to move from Windows to Mac painlessly, getting used to it quickly .
This will not be a list of features in comparison, which would require a much wider and perhaps even superfluous treatment.
In short, let's see how to search for applications (in an Apple system, programs are called applications or Apps), files and folders on the new Mac, find and install applications, manage windows and system preferences .
The difference between a Mac and Windows is immediately evident when the computer is turned on, when the desktop is presented.
In Windows there is the taskbar at the bottom and the Start button on the left.
On the Mac, on the other hand, there is no Start button, there is a Dock with the icons of the main applications and a system menu bar at the top which is always visible whatever program is opened.
The Mac Dock is very similar to an application bar, where you can launch your favorite programs with one click whose icons have been placed in the horizontal space of the bar.
The Dock is like a dashboard from which to start any basic activity.
There are therefore the Finder, the Launcher, Safari (the default browser for surfing the internet), three predefined folders: Applications, Documents and Downloads and, of course, the trash that works the same way as Windows.
As in Windows 7, you can add frequently used applications to the Dock manually and customize it.
As trivial as it is, you need to know what the icons are on the Dock to work immediately on a Mac and use it at its best.
Finder is the search function, a Mac system utility for exploring files on the hard disk, very similar to the Windows Explorer.
The Finder icon is very famous in the Apple environment and is the one with the double face colored blue.
The Launchpad application, on the other hand, makes launching programs, or rather, applications installed on a Mac, quick and easy.
Whenever an application is launched, its icon will appear on the Dock.
To scroll the applications you can use the mouse wheel.
Launchpad is like a Windows desktop with all the icons sorted and browsable on different pages.
In case you don't see the Launchpad icon in the Dock, the one designed like a missile, navigate to the applications folder, find it and launch it.
Once opened, click on the icon and choose to keep it in the Dock permanently fixing it (this applies to any app).
To remove an application from the Dock, just drag it to the desktop with the mouse.
The Safari icon is a navigation compass that allows you to launch Apple's default web browser.
On the Mac you can certainly also install Firefox or another browser if Safari does not like it.
At the top of a Mac desktop there is always a horizontal bar known as the system menu bar .
The buttons on this menu change depending on the open program and display those options that are normally seen on the title bar in Windows
On the right side of the top bar there are those notification icons where you can view the status of the network or other applications in the background, a bit like the Windows system tray located in the lower right corner, where there is the clock.
Unlike Windows, where the menu options for each program is in its window, a Mac's app menus are always listed on this bar when an application's window is active.
As a general rule, whenever you want to view the settings of any application, just select it so that it becomes active.
The preferences that appear in the system menu bar usually belong to the active application, and not to the OSx system.
Start Windows vs Mac Spotlight
In Windows 7, the start menu also has the search function that allows you to find folders, files, applications and system utilities by typing their name.
To do the same thing on a Mac, click on the magnifying glass icon at the top right of the system menu bar and type in the name of a file or app.
The Spotlight feature will search as you type universally, then listing all matching names of applications, files and folders.
Control Panel and System Preferences
You cannot use Windows without knowing the Control Panel so it is important to immediately identify its equivalent in a Mac called System Preferences .
To access System Preferences, click on the Apple icon in the system menu bar at the top and select System Preferences.
From here you can set the time, volume, screen options, networks, user accounts, security options, printers and all the rest of the advanced settings .
Scroll, open and close files and applications
On a Mac you can use any normal mouse only that the scrolling is reversed compared to Windows.
When you move the mouse wheel up, you scroll down a page and vice versa.
You will also notice that the close buttons and those for minimizing and maximizing windows are all located in the upper left and not the upper right as in Windows.
Closing a window does not mean exiting the application; to exit you must instead right-click on the icon in the Dock and then exit or go to the main menu of the program from the top bar.
The equivalent of the Windows task manager on a Mac can be found in the Applications> Utilities folder and is called Activity Monitor .
You can use the Activity Monitor to force applications to close but, in general, very little is used.
If you want to quickly exit an app that has stopped responding, just press Command + Option + Esc, select the application you want to close from the window that opens and click on the forced exit button.
Window management on a Mac is different than on Windows .
In new Mac systems (more similar to Linux) in fact you can use Mission Control, launching it from the icon in the Dock, which allows you to create additional desktop spaces.
You can then switch from one window to another quickly and move the various windows to different spaces in order to enlarge the desktop virtually.
The opening of a file is done with a double click while if you select a file and press Enter, it will be ready to be renamed.
Some keys on the keyboard are different and, if you want to make an association of use: the Windows key is the Command key while Alt is the Option key.
Unlike Windows 7 it is not possible on a Mac to display that "My Computer" that lists disks and connected devices.
Instead, you must always use the Finder on the system menu bar.
From the Finder Preferences it is possible to choose, in the general tab, the elements to be displayed on the desktop, including hard disks, USB sticks and CD and DVD players .
By opening the icon of a hard disk you can see 4 main folders: Applications, System, Libraries and users.
The Applications folder shows all the applications installed on the Mac, the Library folder lists the folders created by the Apps, System is the folder with the application configuration files (where the Safari extensions folder is located).
Applications
When you switch to a Mac, you switch to an operating system that always relies on applications for all functions that are not basic.
Installing applications on Mac isn't difficult, it's just different.
In Windows, the programs are EXE files, in Mac instead the installation files of the programs are DMG files (which are comparable to ISO files).
In a Mac there is no installation wizard as on Windows because the majority of the Apps are installed from the Mac App Store and certified with Apple ID.
A Mac is much more like an iPad or iPhone than a Windows PC.
To install applications just look for them on the Mac App Store and I really recommend starting with my list of the top 100 free applications for a Mac .
To download a paid app, you need to register with Apple ID and provide your credit card number.
Downloading and installing for an app is a single procedure therefore, after if when the download is marked as completed, the application is also already installed and will be present in the app folder or in the Launchpad.
The Mac App Store isn't the only place to download applications, and there are several other sites where you can find free programs for the Mac .
When you download applications from other sites, they are placed in the download folder and will have to be moved to the application folder manually.
In some rarer cases, if the program is compressed in a zipped file, it will have to be decompressed with the default archiving utility.
This short guide does not pretend to replace a manual for the Mac but I think it offered the basics to start working immediately and get used to the new Apple computer if you are from Windows.
Although in principle all computers work the same way, the Mac is different from Windows, and it is obvious that getting used to and finding out where things are may not be easy in the beginning.
On this page in Italian of the Apple site, all the main functions of a Mac are described.
READ ALSO: 21 most useful Mac keyboard shortcuts to know
