Switched from Windows to Mac?
Your Mac can do everything your Windows system does—and more.
What’s it called on my Mac?
Find your stuff in the Finder The Finder See Use the Finder. | Customize your Mac Similar to Control Panel on a Windows PC, System Settings |
Take a screenshot Loved the Snipping Tool on your Windows PC? Check out the Screenshot utility on Mac. Press Command + Shift | Keep your favorite apps in the Dock On a Windows PC, you clicked Start to see your most used or recent apps. On a Mac, keep your favorite apps in the Dock at the bottom of the screen. Drag the apps you use most to the Dock—and drag out the apps you don’t. See Use the Dock. |
Use app windows on a Mac
You can have multiple windows of an app open at a time. Use the red, yellow, and green buttons in the top-left corner of the app window to close
To learn more, see Manage windows on your Mac.
Right-click on Mac
On your Mac, right-click is called secondary click or Control-click. Click with two fingers on your trackpad, or press Control on your keyboard, then click an item. If you have a mouse, you can also right-click by clicking on the right side of your mouse.
If you don’t like the two-finger click or prefer to click on the left side of your mouse, you can also customize how to perform a secondary click in Trackpad or Mouse Settings. Go to System Settings, click Trackpad or Mouse in the sidebar (you may need to scroll down), then choose an option from the “Secondary click” pop-up menu.
Keys and shortcuts on Mac
Many of the keyboard shortcuts you knew and loved on a Windows PC work on Mac—you just need to swap in a different key or two.
Command Exchange the Control key on Windows for the Command key for most keyboard shortcuts on Mac. Give it a try—use Command-C to copy and Command-V to paste. | Option You can often replace the Alt key on Windows with the Option key on Mac. Use the Option key to create special characters—for example, to type é, press Option-E, then press the E key again. |
Delete On a Mac, you can use the Delete key for backspace and Fn-Delete for a forward delete. | Return The Return key on Mac functions just like the Enter key on your Windows PC. |
Now that you know the keys, try out a few keyboard shortcuts. Press Command-Space bar to open Spotlight and search your Mac and the web, or to perform Quick Actions like a math problem or currency conversion. Try out Command-Shift -3 to quickly take a screenshot of your whole screen, which saves to your desktop. Or if you’re ever in a bind and looking for the Mac equivalent of Control-Alt-Delete, use Option
-Command-Esc to force quit an app.
For more about your keyboard, see Intro to Mac keyboard shortcuts.
Keep using the apps you know and love
Your Mac comes with a whole suite of built-in apps to help you connect with others (like Messages, FaceTime, and Phone), be productive (like Pages, Keynote, and Numbers), and stay entertained (like Apple Music and Apple TV). But you can still use many of the apps you already had on your Windows PC (like Microsoft Office). Check out the App Store to download your old favorites—or even to find something new.
Migrate your content from your Windows PC
When you set up your Mac, you can migrate content, like your user settings, documents, photos, music, accounts, passwords, and more from a Windows PC. If you’ve already set up your Mac, you can still migrate content, and you can specify what you want to transfer.
For more information on how to migrate your content, see the Apple Support article Transfer from PC to Mac with Migration Assistant.
Want to learn more?
To get to know your desktop, including the Dock and menu bar, see Get to know the Mac desktop, What’s in the menu bar?, and Use the Dock.
After you get up to speed, learn how to use files and folders with Create and work with documents, or discover how you can search for anything on your Mac with Find what you need with Spotlight on Mac.
Switching from a Windows PC, but you already have an iPhone? Find out how you can use your iPhone with your new Mac. See Use Continuity to work across Apple devices.