macOS UX for Windows
Table of Contents
I recently switched from an old 2012 MacBook to a ThinkPad e14 and felt the whiplash of Windows UX: bloatware, unintuitive shortcuts, etc.
So without further ado, here are some FOSS apps, utilities and settings to make Windows UX more like macOS.
Note: some of these are GitHub links, so if you want to install them click on “Releases” and then look for the installer under “Assets”
Applications
These apps are good enough to bring some key aspects of the macOS user experience to Windows.
| Alternative to | App Title (Link) | Description | Native alternative |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🔍 Spotlight | Power Toys | Power Toys does not only contain a Spotlight alternative, but also many other helpful modules like: FancyZones to create custom window layouts, Keyboard Manager to Remap shortcuts and keys. | Use Windows + S to open “Search”. |
| 👁️🗨️ Space bar Preview | Quick Look | Bring macOS “Quick Look” feature to Windows. | Use Alt + P to show the Preview Pane. |
| 📦 Double-click to decompress | 7zip & 7-ade | 7-ade provides double-click expansion of archives into the directory containing the archive. | Right click > Extract All… |
| ↪ macOS Alt + Tab | MacAppSwitcher | This program brings MacOS-like application switching to Windows. | Use Windows + T to toggle between apps. |
| 🗂️ Folder color | Folcolor | Windows explorer folder coloring utility. | Manually change the folder’s icon. Suggestion: Download icons from Google Icons and convert them to .ico using GIMP. |
| 📄 Preview | Okular | Read PDF documents, comics and EPub books, visualize Markdown documents, and much more. | Microsoft Edge |
| 📖 Apple Books | Calibre | E-book library management application made by users, for users. | None |
| 📟 macOS Terminal | WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) | Use Linux applications, utilities, and Bash command-line tools directly on Windows. | Windows Terminal |
| 👌 Three Finger Drag | Three Finger Drag On Windows | Enables macOS-style three-finger dragging functionality on Windows Precision touchpads. | None |
| 🎞️ QuickTime Player | VLC | Cross-platform multimedia player supporting multiple video and audio formats. | Windows Media Player |
| 🕵🏻♂️ Zoom accessibility | ZoomIt | ZoomIt is a screen zoom, annotation, and recording tool for technical presentations and demos. | “Magnifier” - Use Windows + Plus to turn on, Ctrl + Alt + Mouse Wheel to zoom in/out, Windows + Esc to turn it off. |
Audio Apps
These are mainly audio drivers that could help with the latency and performance for audio apps.
| Alternative to | App Title (Link) | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Audio driver | FlexASIO & FlexASIO GUI | A flexible universal ASIO driver that uses the PortAudio sound I/O library. |
| Audio driver | KoordASIO | FlexASIO derivative that focuses on WASAPI and user convenience. |
| Audio driver | ASIO4ALL | Note: I would only recommend this option to use its aggregate audio device option. Other than that, it’s not that great or intuitive. |
| BlackHole | VB Cable Virtual Audio Device | Send audio from one application to another. |
| IAC Driver (Virtual MIDI Bus) | Loop MIDI | Create virtual loopback MIDI-ports to interconnect applications. |
| Virtual MIDI Network | rtpMIDI | Allows MIDI applications to communicate via network with other computers. |
Windows Settings
Mainly, how to remove annoying features and settings from Windows.
| Setting | Article URL | Commentary |
|---|---|---|
| Optimize Windows settings for Audio | https://zoomcorp.com/documents/2116/OptimizeWindows10_E.pdf | WARNING: Be careful NOT to disable Microsoft services, this can lock you out of the computer. |
| Turn Off System Sounds | https://www.thewindowsclub.com/turn-off-notification-system-sounds-windows-10 | |
| End Task in Taskbar Context Menu | https://www.thewindowsclub.com/how-to-show-end-task-item-in-the-taskbar-context-menu | Great alternative to Cmd + Q or Force Quit. |
| Enable AutoEndTasks | https://www.thewindowsclub.com/how-to-enable-or-disable-autoendtasks-in-windows | Automatically closes an unresponsive program. |
| Disable News and Interests | https://www.thewindowsclub.com/enable-or-disable-news-and-interests-on-taskbar | |
| Disable Search Highlights | https://www.thewindowsclub.com/how-to-disable-search-highlights-in-windows |
Other useful Apps
| App Title (Link) | Description |
|---|---|
| O&O Shutup 10++ | Disable telemetry tool for Windows 10 & 11. |
| Bleachbit | Clean Your System and Free Disk Space. |
| Keyviz | Free and open-source software for visualizing keystrokes. |
| OpenBoard | Interactive whiteboard for schools and universities |
| OBS | Software for video recording and live-streaming. |
I discovered many of these apps through my favorite website for searching FOSS Software: https://alternativeto.net/. If you have any recommendations, let me know.
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