7 Tools for Easing the Switch from a PC to a Mac
February 7th, 2008 (4:00pm) Samuel Dean 30 Comments
Have you recently made the switch from a Windows PC to a Mac? If so, even though Mac OS X has a great interface, you probably are used to a few applications and interface conventions that you’d like to have on your new platform. In this post, I’ll round up some good, free applications for the Mac that will immediately be familiar to Windows users.
File Renamer. When you move from a PC to a Mac, it’s very convenient to be able to rename files, including batch renaming jobs, so that you’re following conventions for the Mac. Renamer4Mac (see above) is a free utility for Mac OS X that makes it easy to give new names to large groups of files in patterned ways. You can see previews of how groups of files will be renamed before you make the switches.
Multi-Protocol Instant Messaging. Many Windows users are fond of applications such as Trillian and Miranda that allow you to do instant messaging with other people regardless of what IM client they use. On the Mac, Adium is a good, free way to do this, and you’ll appreciate its similarity to the Windows equivalents.
Flexible Screen Captures. Doing screen captures works differently on the Mac from the Ctrl-PrtScrn method that most Windows users are familiar with. I find it easiest to use a good utility for these on the Mac. Try Capture, which can handle all your screen capture steps or copy to the clipboard, just like doing clipboard-based copies in Windows.
Familiar Old Firefox. Most people who use the Mac use the Safari browser, for the same reason people climb Everest—“because it’s there.” If you were a Firefox user on Windows, there are some good reasons to use it on the Mac. It will definitely handle your bookmarks better than Safari.
Accessing Remote Computers. If you got used to turning on a remote PC and accessing files from far away as a PC user, try WakeOnLan for the Mac. It works the same way as most of the similar Windows utilities.
Stumble the Same. If you were a Wi-Fi user and you used hotspots with a Windows PC, you may well have used NetStumbler to sniff for available networks. On the Mac, MacStumbler works very similarly.
Mystified By System Resource Tools? The tools for checking system resources and the status of files within directories are totally different on the Mac from their Windows counterparts. WhatSize is a free Mac utility that easily gives you the size in bytes of folders and subfolders, and can filter for particular file sizes and types in ways similar to how Windows Explorer does so.
Do you know of any good tools for people converting from a PC to a Mac?
30 Comments Post your own comment
ben says: February 7th, 2008 6:17pm
The odd thing is that I’m still using my Windows machines… but just not nearly as much!
Another must-have is VLC, which smokes on the factory install of QT in more ways than I can count. For those who (like me) have come to the conclusion that iTunes isn’t fit to drink a pitcher of Winamp’s warm piss, keep in mind that it does audio just as well as it does video. While it lacks polish, I would be lost without it.
Additionally, FileZilla and Thunderbird are both quite nice for the Mac, for those who don’t want to (respectively) pay for Transmit and/or horse around with Mail.app’s tendency to be kludgy at the worst possible moment.
And don’t knock Safari on the Mac until you try it. For everyday browsing, I prefer it entirely over Firefox… though I still use Firefox (enthusiastically) as my development platform.
Coda has been turning up in standardista circles as a must-have IDE. The only reason I haven’t bought it sight-unseen is because I’ve been broke since the first of the year, enough so that I don’t care that it costs a fraction of what Dreamweaver does.
Matt says: February 7th, 2008 10:10pm
I just built my mac OSX86 and love it. I still have vista on another hard drive for some apps but seldom use it. I am using my Dell 5150 running Mac 10.5.1
so far I found:
Screen grabber is already built into the mac. Open the apps folder then system utilities. there is grabber.you can always add it to the dock.
remote access: Remote desktop for mac by MS is easy as it is on xp.
activity monitor is great for those that need it and it too can be found in the utilites folder
vlc is great and so is the mac version of divx
skype is awesome for pc to pc audio chat
John B says: February 7th, 2008 10:42pm
I haven’t really figured out why everyone wants a separate program for screenshots on the mac. Cmd+Shift+3 (for the whole screen) and Cmd+shift+4, (for parts of it), work great for me.
Of course, that could be the pc-user still in me saying “Install as little as possible so there’s less to gum up the system.”
Ramenos says: February 8th, 2008 2:13am
Hi,
I have a mac. With my PC, I used “Fast Stone Capture” to do screenshots. Is Capture so good to do easily personnalized screenshots ?
Tommy says: February 8th, 2008 6:02am
Was a Mac user since 1987 and recently did the reverse switch and moved to a PC. During that time I had always had a PC at work, so it was pretty smooth.
But the one thing that made it so darn easy was a Western Digital firewire drive.
Outside of iTunes, moving data from Outlook to Thunderbird, and finding a few program to made my PC more like a Mac the process was close to painless. \
Plus, if a lot of your file are MS Office related (.doc/.ppt/.rtf.) at this date and time it is almost like the two computers are cross platform.
iLibrarian » Resources for New Mac Users says: February 8th, 2008 7:44am
[...] 7 Tools for Easing the Switch from a PC to a Mac [...]
Michael Caton says: February 8th, 2008 11:43am
It’s a small thing but the big UI convenience discovery I made when I bought my Mac was F9 and F10 as short cuts for finding the window I wanted, vs. alt-tab on Windows.
Harry says: February 8th, 2008 12:21pm
Thanks for this post. Just want to point out that you can do batch rename within OS X without the need of additional software using Automator. See example here:
http://automator.us/examples-01.html
ernest says: February 8th, 2008 1:27pm
Another thing that threw me during the switch was the way home and end keys work. This program will fix that in most apps.
http://www.starryhope.com/tech/apple/2006/keyfixer/
They also have a version that will fix the home and end keys for firefox.
http://www.starryhope.com/tech/2007/keyfixer-firefox-version/
The last big help was a program that allows me to create new files with the right mouse button.
http://www.growlichat.com/NuFile.php
Peter Kazanjy says: February 8th, 2008 2:04pm
I’m obviously a little biased, but I would highly recommend VMware Fusion as a great tool for switchers. It lets you bring all your old apps with you. You can even pick up your old physical machine in its entiretly, and make virtual copy using VMware Converter.
Of course, you can eventually switch to new applications rather than relying on your old Windows apps (if you want to switch over..maybe you don’t want to have to buy apps over again), but having your old apps and old machine as a VM is a great safety blanket as you get used to the new environment.
Take me for example: I pretty much live all day long in an XP virtual machine that i converted from my old VMware-issue dell laptop, running on my MacBook Pro with Fusion.
Eventually I may move over to Office natively on the Mac (or, gasp, maybe even iWork!), but right now, Entourage, Office, etc I run on my XP VM, with VMware Fusion.
HTH.
Dave M. says: February 8th, 2008 2:12pm
WhatSize is not exactly free. Sure, you can use “some” of it’s features for free, but to use all of WhatSize, you have to pay money.
There is a tool that comes with all “new” Macintosh computers called OmniDiskSweeper. I believe that it was even being put on all Intel based systems. It came on both my MacBook and Mac Pro. For folks who don’t have it on installed on their systems, it a little more than WhatSize.
Another great disk size utility is Disk Inventory X. It’s a free program and even offer’s it source code for aspiring Mac programmers like myself. :)
dave says: February 8th, 2008 3:29pm
Most people who use the Mac use the Safari browser, for the same reason people climb Everest—“because it’s there.
Nonsense. Some do of course. Many mac users use it because it’s much faster than firefox in general.
If you’re going to do a decent article, you might want to tell the whole truth.
pc2mac.org » Blog Archive » 7 Tools for Switchers says: February 8th, 2008 6:45pm
[...] is blog post about 7 tools for easing the switch from PC to Mac. Here is my take on these [...]
Netpappy says: February 8th, 2008 8:38pm
I am a new switcher from PC to MacBook. I am looking for a personal finance package to replace my Microsoft Money. Do you have any recommendations?
drewje says: February 8th, 2008 8:54pm
If you’re going to do a decent article, you might want to tell the whole truth.
Geez, Dave. Don’t be a tool. “Because it’s there” is how IE got to be so dominant, and Safari on OSX gets the same benefit. Most users don’t compare, they use what’s there.
Judi Sohn says: February 9th, 2008 8:39am
Actually, I agree with Peter regarding using virtualization to help ease into the switch. I switched from Mac to PC and back again. When I first came back to the Mac, I spent 70-80% of my time in XP (through Parallels at the time, but now I use Fusion). Now, one year later I have just 2 applications, plus IE, that I have to run in Windows and I’d say I spend 5% of my day there.
Slowly, I started doing more and more on the Mac side while not losing any productivity in the switch.
Jake McKee says: February 9th, 2008 12:54pm
FYI – you don’t need an additional screenshot software unless you’re looking capture more than what’s on screen.
In fact, the Mac’s built-in screenshot functionality is FAR more robust than the PC prnt-scrn. Here’s more:
http://tinyurl.com/47yf6
Write Life Guide » Blog Archive » 7 Useful Tools for New Mac Converts says: February 10th, 2008 3:38am
[...] Nope, I haven’t made the big switch. But in case you have and you’re still finding your way around the Mac OS X interface, Web Worker Daily recommends 7 tools for easing the switch from a PC to a Mac. [...]
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Jillian says: February 10th, 2008 3:28pm
@Netpappy
I used to use MSMoney too and it’s one of the things I miss most. I haven’t found a decent replacement that doesn’t cost the earth so for now I’m using iBank but I can’t say I like it that much.
If anyone else has a suggestion, I’m keen to hear it too!
Jillian says: February 10th, 2008 3:30pm
Oh yeah, and I too *choose* to use Safari. Firefox on the Mac is ugly as hell and leaks like a sieve.
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Wordman says: February 11th, 2008 11:08am
A while ago, I was getting asked a lot for software advice from switchers, so I built a page with my (more obscure) recommendations: http://divnull.com/lward/software.html
Spankbot says: February 11th, 2008 4:11pm
Now if only I could find a free program to fix the bloody slow OS X mouse speed and get rid the wacky acceleration curve. SteerMouse works great but costs too much money.
Vista User says: February 11th, 2008 10:56pm
Snipping Tool, built into Vista, is a great screen capture utility, I’m surprised no one mentioned before.
Seven tools for switchers | iPhone Mini says: February 12th, 2008 4:28pm
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Alastair J says: February 13th, 2008 12:59am
I have personally found that iStumbler has been a great app instead of macstumbler as you mentioned.
Likewise, although I tend to use Firefox because I was so used to it in my PC days, I do like the way that with Safari you can sync bookmarks with an ipod touch.
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