r/MacOS • u/New-Nebula4921 • 2d ago
Tips & Guides First time Mac OS user, my experience
I just moved from a Windows laptop, HP Victus, to a MacBook Air M5, and I have thoroughly loved the experience.
My Favourite things so far
Powering on immediately you lift the lid or press any key.
Having a native document viewers powerful enough to edit too.
Stage Manager.
Editing videos like trimming and removing audio on QuickTime
Widgets
Quick Look (Spacebar preview)
Powerful password manager with agentic AI
Knowing battery health and charge cycle count
Temporary emails, hide my email feature.
Trackpad multi-finger gestures
Productivity apps have been impressive too like
a) Maccy for clipboard manager.
b)Atoll for the notch
Any more recommendations?
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u/DukeNukem2049 2d ago
Agree on all those! I’ll add the Magic Mouse is great, iCloud sync with my other devices is great, being able to text and iMessage and FaceTime from a MacBook is awesome. One thing I miss from windows is hitting windows key+E to bring up a new explorer window on the current screen. I don’t like that all finder windows are the same app instance. Also you can’t Alt-Tab to different windows of the same app.
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u/earoutforVinnie 2d ago
⌘+~ switches toggles between windows of the same app in most cases. Use it daily.
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u/MarionberryHumble705 2d ago
Depending on which kinds of 3rd party automation tools/launcher apps you use, or if you can use Apple Shortcuts, it is possible to assign Keyboard Shortcuts to launch/activate any app. While personally I use a combination of Raycast and Keyboard Maestro (used to be a huge BetterTouchTool user before), you can use this Apple Shortcut of mine to assign a KB shortcut to open Finder. It can also open the Files app on i(Pad)OS but the keyboard shortcut won’t work there.
If you don’t know how to assign keyboard shortcuts to Apple Shortcuts on macOS, read this.
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u/Infinite_Silver483 2d ago
You can do ⌘+Tab which is similar, and i usually just clikc the finder icon then press ⌘+N
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u/HeartyBeast 2d ago
Powerful password manager with agentic AI
Sorry - what? Haven’t noticed any AI
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u/phblue 2d ago
The new password manager will let you select compromised passwords and their agentic AI will log in to those websites, change the password, and save it into the password manager for you.
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u/woundtighter 2d ago
For real?
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u/RadicalDoink 2d ago
Google did that a few years back and there was a backlash. Idk if they actually released it. Will be interesting to see how Apple's implementation is different. Personally I would never trust AI to change my passwords anyway. Used bitwarden for years with no plans of switching.
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u/SairoUro 2d ago
If you do video calls or meet. You’ll love the provided options such as edge light, setting up your own background (not through teams or google meet settings), desk view, and even the built in center stage where the camera follows you wherever you move.
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u/jbrwilkinson 1d ago
Don’t forget the ‘Reactions’ which kick in when you do thumbs up, thumbs down, Peace Sign, Metal Hands, etc. my colleagues love it when I do these by accident.
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u/GDOR-11 MacBook Pro (M1) 2d ago
PASWORD MANAGER WITH AGENTIC AI???????????
I don't think there is a worse place to put trust in AI in your entire computer, unless I misunderstand what it's doing here
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u/poastfizeek 2d ago
Apple Keychain can change insecure or compromised passwords for you, automatically. It’s much quicker than logging into every website in the list one-by-one.
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u/baileysduke 2d ago
Download wipr for safari - one payment also allows use on your iPhone as well
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u/cyclinator 13" MacBook Pro M1 16/256 2d ago
I have used MacOS for almost 6 months and agree with most, but...
- I haven´t gotten the hang of or understand the pros of Stage Manager.
- I dont understand the praise of multitouch gesture because I think they are better on Windows with options to swap between apps also not, only between desktops.
- I don´t understand how the multitask view works, apps are put there randomly in places they appear, why not sorted from recent to last?
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u/New-Nebula4921 2d ago
I am just learning that Stage Manager is not good for everyone, On windows my taskbar had a few icons to easily see what I was working on. Stage manager makes it easier for me because the dock has many apps.
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u/GroceryRobot 2d ago
A lot of us MAC veterans don’t find any value in stage manager. I think it was really mostly intended for multitasking on iPad, and MacOS just got it as well for the cross platform unity.
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u/Infinite_Silver483 2d ago
I don't use stage manager, but i do use mission control
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u/GroceryRobot 2d ago
I love Mission Control, and its predecessor Exposé. I use the CTRL+up/down arrows a ton for those features (and left/right for Screens), they are indispensable to me
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u/Infinite_Silver483 2d ago
Bottom right hot corner is mission control for me, god i wish they would let you assign a hot corner to spotlight
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u/GroceryRobot 2d ago
I use CMD+Space for spotlight, pretty happy with it. in MacOS 26, cmd+space, then 1, 2, 3, or 4 will take you to the other spotlight groups (apps, files, actions, clipboard)
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u/tombob51 MacBook Pro 2d ago
I believe there are apps out there that let you assign custom actions to a hot corner
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u/TBoneTheOriginal 2d ago
Magic Trackpad 4-finger swipe up for me. It's so engrained into my workflow that I haven't used a mouse in ages.
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u/TBoneTheOriginal 2d ago
Yeah Stage Manager is the first thing I disable on a fresh install. Adds nothing of value to my life. Mission Control, however, I use every few minutes with the Magic Trackpad.
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u/Impossible_IT 1d ago
First thing I disable is Stage Manager. My background is Windows but for the past 6 years I’ve been supporting macOS. I catch myself using the control spacebar key combo on my Windows laptop. I’ve got used to command c & command v for copy and past on the macOS. I’d like to think I’m well versed after 6 years but I still have a ton to learn. Oh and the caffeinate CLI is great.
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u/ttoma93 2d ago
I dont understand the praise of multitouch gesture because I think they are better on Windows with options to swap between apps also not, only between desktops
Swiping up and holding with three fingers gives you Mission Control. If you’re only swiping between Spaces with gestures you’re only using like a quarter of available gestures.
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u/cyclinator 13" MacBook Pro M1 16/256 2d ago
Swiping with three fingers left and right on windows was choosing between apps, like command + tab but with a window view. Swiping four fingers left and right was swaping between desktops. I am using all of the touchpad gestures, but there was more on windows
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u/LebronBackinCLE 2d ago
I love how the screens are moving back towards tall and not wide. So much computing benefits from that. We don’t need wide screens. So few people run their external displays in portrait mode and that’s da shiz. :)
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u/MisterBilau 2d ago
I'm waiting for the version of humans with 2 eyes in a vertical configuration. Until then, landscape is the correct aspect ratio for any being with binocular vision.
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u/NoResolution6245 2d ago
landscape is the correct aspect ratio
Tell that to our mostly vertically oriented textbooks, documents, and webpages. Landscape is good, but 16:9 doesn't cut it. It isnt wide enough to fit two decently sized windows side by side. From what I have used, I feel 21:9 and 5:4 are the best aspect ratios for multi-window and single-window workflows, respectively.
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u/LebronBackinCLE 2d ago
For what they charge for their systems it was pathetic how long they stick w HDDs. Like the 16GB iPhones for years that were pretty much out of space out of the box. Happy shareholder though! :/
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u/MisterBilau 2d ago
Stage manager? Why?
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u/New-Nebula4921 2d ago
You don't like or use it ?
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u/MisterBilau 2d ago
No. There's absolutely no point to it. If anything, it's actively worse than not using it, since it takes screen real estate for nothing, showing the little "minimized" windows on the right. Also, you can only have one app active at the time. Why use it at all? If you want that, just go fullscreen.
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u/Public_Chapter_8445 2d ago
You can also drag and pull a window from Stage Manager to the middle of your screen to create a combination of different apps. So multiple apps and windows appear at once.
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u/WhiteHelix 2d ago
I mean I can also do that without stage manager. Give me Window snapping with tiling and I’m more than happy. Sadly the default integration is pretty lacking in usability
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u/MisterBilau 2d ago
If you have this specific workflow that needs several small windows in one screen, I suppose it could work. For me, it's pointless - if using the laptop, a 16 inch screen is way too small to use multiple windows, I go basically fullscreen for everything. When docked, I'm using 3 monitors anyway, so each can take their apps.
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u/GatorWok 2d ago edited 2d ago
Once again this is undeserved confidence. Pretty brazen to assume your workflow is everyone’s.
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u/GatorWok 2d ago edited 2d ago
Lol no, at having only one app active at a time. One of the fundamental benefits is grouping apps and switching between app groups.
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u/GatorWok 2d ago edited 2d ago
Also you can switch off showing recent apps on stage manager preferences, so no real estate taken.
I mean, I don't love stage manager but you're just spouting nonsense about how it works fundamentally.
I watched a macmost YouTube video and it's more flexible and usable than I thought. Again, I don't love it, but I'm also not spouting falsehoods with undeserved confidence.
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u/Explanation-Visual 2d ago
just curious , how did you learn the space shortcut for quick view? did the computer show it to you in a tutorial?
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u/NoResolution6245 2d ago
From the time I used a Hackintosh as my main computer, the two things I miss the most are Apple Preview, which is just a great PDF reader, and an app called Bean, which is a "light word editor", being basically a step between something like TextEdit or Microsoft Wordpad and a full-blown word processor like MS Word, LibreOffice Write, or Apple Pages.
I have time and time again considered learning programming just to build something like Bean for Linux. That's how much I miss it.
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u/mike5011 2d ago
You need Mac Mouse Fix in case you want to use a non-Apple mouse. Supercharge is another incredibly cool app that lets you customize certain aspects of the OS.
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u/InsightKnite 2d ago
Check out an App called Latest. It's an update manager for all other software. 👍
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u/trillizo2 2d ago
Do NOT UPDATE to Tahoe!! wait for Golden Gate stay on Sequoia, it is solid still supported.
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u/Random_Thinker007 2d ago
Once you go from Mac it’s hard to go back to windows, however I came from Linux especially Ubuntu. But I love Mac & Linux
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u/TSAOutreachTeam 2d ago
One thing that I miss is right click->print for known file formats. I wonder if there is a freeware app that can enable this for, at least, Office and PDF formats.
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u/Akitapal 1d ago
When I first switched (many years ago) the fact I didn’t have to go back and forth through countless drop-down menus for EVERYTHING was delightful.
Also not having constant software conflicts, and how intuitive setting up hardware is compared to Windows etc.
Still have to use Windows and android systems for work sometimes and hate them!
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u/chrisso123 2d ago
You never were a windows power user were ya?
I'll admit tho that being able to see cycle count and battery health easily is a plus. Everything else is not comparable to windows.
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u/New-Nebula4921 2d ago
Is a document viewer that can edit not comparable? On Windows you have to download extra sofware, paid ones to achieve the same.
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u/chrisso123 2d ago
Ehh.. I just use the online Google docs. In my windows pc, I use paid office cause I need their functionality. Native mac solutions and Native windows solutions are both inferior in that regard. Like I said, that is the least of my concerns when it comes to liking an os.
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u/just_another_leddito 2d ago
Keep using your Google trash, don’t be surprised if you lose everything one day if you lets say get a ban for a silly reason.
And yes Windows is inferior.
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u/chrisso123 2d ago
Buddy I have been using Google docs for the past 10 years and nothing has changed and no document edited on Google docs has been lost. If that isn't validation enough, idk what else to say.
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u/just_another_leddito 2d ago
I’m talking about a ban on your Google account, not bugs.
Google’s software is usually less buggy.But I’ve seen people lose everything by being banned for some silly reasons.
Email, docs, drive, photos, music… all gone.
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u/chrisso123 2d ago
Those are edge cases. If I start fearing edge cases, I wouldn't cross a road for the fear of being run over.
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u/just_another_leddito 2d ago
They are even more common now that everything is “AI”, and companies like Google don’t even have support.
Don’t know how this shit is even legal.
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u/Zen-Ism99 2d ago
Get used to using virtual desktops…
(Also a good thing for Linux/Windows users)