Just moved from Windows to your first Mac? While macOS is a stable and fluid operating system, your muscle memory built over years of using Windows might slow you down a little. Think work differently in macOS, and the larger Apple ecosystem. But no worries! With a few settings tweaks, you can make macOS UI and experience feel more like Windows. For example, you can take screenshots with the same shortcut that you have used for years or change the behavior of the mouse to ease your transition.
Let’s go through the essential settings you can adjust to make your macOS experience more familiar.
Table of Contents
1. Enable Right-Click on Your Mac
In Windows, right-clicking is second nature. However, macOS doesn’t enable right-click by default, which can be annoying. To bring back this handy feature, head to System Settings > Trackpad (or Mouse, if you use one) > Secondary Click. From here, you can enable right-click and even decide whether to right-click with two fingers or the bottom-right corner of the trackpad.
2. Change Mouse Scroll Direction
If you’ve tried scrolling on a Mac with a mouse, you might have noticed the direction feels inverted compared to Windows. It’s called “natural scrolling” on macOS, but if you’re used to Windows, it’ll feel unnatural. You can easily change this by going to System Settings >Mouse > Scroll & Zoom and unchecking “Natural Scrolling.” Now it should scroll like you’re used to on Windows.
However, this setting also changes the scroll direction of trackpad. If you have to just change the scroll direction of mouse without affecting trackpad scroll direction, then you can use apps like MOS.
3. Double Click to Maximize Windows
Windows users often double-click a window’s title bar to maximize it. On macOS, double-clicking the title bar will minimize the window by default. To change this behavior, head over to System Settings > Desktop & Dock, and in the “Double-click a window’s title bar” dropdown, select Fill. This way, double-clicking will now maximize the window, just like on Windows.
4. Change Window Snapping Keyboard Shortcuts
Windows’ snapping feature lets you quickly arrange windows side by side using keyboard shortcuts. With macOS Sequoia, we finally got the window-snapping feature, however, the keyboard shortcuts are different and complicated.
While Apple does not provide a direct way to change the keyboard shortcuts on Mac, there’s a small workaround. You just need to open System Settings > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts > App Shortcuts and add the window snapping shortcuts manually to Command + arrow keys just on Windows, which is Ctrl + arrow keys. We have written a detailed article on this workaround that lets you change keyboard shortcuts on Mac.
5. Show File Path in Finder
On Windows, the file path is always visible at the top of the Explorer window, but in macOS Finder, it’s hidden. You can reveal the full file path by enabling the Path Bar. Open Finder, then go to View > Show Path Bar. This will display the full file path at the bottom of the Finder window, making navigation feel more familiar. Also, you can click on them to navigate to any of the previous file paths.
6. Always Show Scrollbars Like Windows
By default, macOS hides scrollbars until you start scrolling. Whereas in Windows, the scrollbar is always visible, so you can grab it and scroll down whenever you want. This is not possible on Mac by default as you have to first scroll down for the scrollbar to be visible and then have to grab the scrollbar to scroll.
If you prefer the Windows-style always-visible scrollbars, head to System Settings > Appearance, and under the “Show scroll bars” section, select Always. Now, you’ll see the scrollbar at all times, just like on Windows.
7. Adjust Screenshot Shortcuts
In Windows, we use Ctrl + Shift + S to take a screenshot using the Snipping tool. On macOS, the default shortcut is Command + Shift + 4 (for a partial screenshot) or Command + Shift + 3 (for the entire screen). If you want to simplify this process, you can change the shortcuts by going to System Settings > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Screenshots. Customize it to Command + Shift + S.
What We Cannot Do?
By tweaking these simple settings, you can ease into macOS without having to relearn everything from scratch. However, there are few gestures or shortcuts that you cannot change like switching between apps with a three-finger left or right swipe. But a few other features like using Alt-tab or enabling middle click can be done using third-party apps. We have written a complete article on Mac Apps that makes your Mac more like Windows, you can check that out.