Questions New Mac Users Have When Switching From Windows

When a new Windows user switches to Mac, they can be frustrated by the differences. Here are some of the most common questions and problems that new Mac users face and the solutions. There are some great tips here to get your transition moving forward quickly. Welcome to the world of Mac!

Comments: 10 Responses to “Questions New Mac Users Have When Switching From Windows”

    Robert
    4 years ago

    How to install an application? The first day I had a Mac I was completely stumped. A disk image? What is that? Why drag the icon to the Applications Folder? PKG Installers, ZIP files, or DMGs. I was pretty frustrated the first day.

    4 years ago

    Robert: Depends on the application, just like with Windows. If using the Mac App Store (use whenever possible for security) it is all just automatic through the App Store app. If from elsewhere, be sure to trust the developer and only download from their official site. Then follow their instructions. It sounds like you tried that and the instructions where to open the disk image and drag to the Application folder. You see this a lot, though less and less. But it is all up to the developer/publisher.

    Scott
    4 years ago

    Hi Gary - in Windows when i want to delete an application, i can use an ‘uninstaller’ like Ccleaner which will remove the app from all parts of the computer. With Macs i know one way to remove third party apps is finding them in the finder under ‘Applications’ folder and dragging them to the trash but does this process completely remove the app from my mac? I dont think Macs have a registry like Windows based computers, correct?

    4 years ago

    Scott: It depends on the app. There is no registry and it is often the case where you can just trash the app. See https://macmost.com/a-beginners-guide-to-uninstalling-apps-on-your-mac.html

    Carol
    4 years ago

    This is a very well done video. And timely as my sister just bought her first Mac, and I'm going to help her set it up next week. It's been about 15 years since I switched, but I still learned a couple things from watching. Thank you for all your good work.

    Andreas
    4 years ago

    Hi Gary, one of the few windows features I'm really missing on my mac is the calender display. When you hit the date/time in the windows taskbar it brings up a calender view of the current month so that you can quickly look up the dates. Have'nt found the equivalent on a mac , the calendar app does'nt really to that in such a handy way ...

    4 years ago

    Andreas: The closest thing built-in to macOS is the Notifications Center. Click on that, or use the gesture, and you get it on the right side. The widgets in Today view include a Calendar widget with your upcoming events. You can customize to move that to the top. Besides that, if you search for "menubar calendar" in the Mac App Store a few things come up that you can get.

    Andreas
    4 years ago

    yep there is an app called "itsycal" which is quite similar to the windows calender. The notification center does not give you the instant "month view", unfortunately.

    Simon Cooper
    4 years ago

    Hi Gary, I'm new to Mac but was keen to use Voice Control (on Catalina). I'm finding it really frustrating as it is not picking up words with any accuracy (using the computer directly or a plantronics headphone set) and there are regular delays. I use Dragon Pro at work but understood you can't download it with Voice Control, also that Nuance are behind Voice Control anyway.
    So - how do you trouble shoot Voice Control? Or can I download Dragon Pro after all?
    Simon

    4 years ago

    Simon: I thought Dragon had been abandoned on Mac, but you can check then out to see if that has changed. I think it does take practice to use either one. They are not going to be perfect any time soon. But the more you use it, the more you'll know where to slow down and enunciate, etc.

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