When you swap from Mac to Home windows, you may miss a couple of nifty options like Highlight, Preview, and AirDrop. Happily, you should utilize these apps to carry common macOS options to your Home windows PC.
1 Search Like Highlight Utilizing PowerToys Run
Highlight in macOS may also help you discover information, open settings, and even make fast calculations. Home windows search falls wanting doing a few of this by default. Nevertheless, you may search with comparable performance utilizing PowerToys Run in Home windows.
To set it up, obtain and install Microsoft PowerToys from the Microsoft Retailer. Subsequent, launch the app and open the Dashboard tab. Right here, find and toggle the PowerToys Run choice to show it on.
Click on PowerToys Run to view extra settings that let you activate the shortcut and toggle extra capabilities, corresponding to the power to carry out calculations, navigate the folders, open a Home windows terminal, and many others.
Press Alt + Spacebar to launch Run. Now you may seek for apps, folders, and information. You will additionally get extra choices to launch apps as an administrator, a special person, or to open the file location.
Like Highlight, you should utilize Run to carry out a fast calculation, execute a system command, or seek for system settings.
You possibly can additional refine your searches with identifiers or key phrases. For instance, when you sort $audio it’s going to solely present audio settings. When you sort the image, you may cycle via open app home windows instantly from the search bar.
Obtain: PowerToys (Free)
2 Shortly Preview File Content material With PowerToys Peek
MacOS has an ideal quick-look function that enables customers to preview file content material—corresponding to PDFs, photographs, audio, or video information—with out opening them first in an related program. Home windows Explorer additionally has a preview pane, nevertheless it has restricted format help.
When you can flip to a well-liked third-party app like Quick Look for Home windows, a greater various is PowerToys’ Peek. It means that you can quickly preview files in File Explorer and helps most file codecs, together with photographs, movies, and textual content paperwork. You possibly can even copy textual content from the paperwork instantly from the preview window.
To make use of Peek, launch PowerToys, open the Peek tab within the left pane, then toggle the Allow Peek swap to show it on.
Now you may choose any merchandise in File Explorer and press Ctrl + Spacebar to open a fast preview. You may as well use the proper or left arrow keys to flick through different information in the identical folder.
Obtain: PowerToys (Free)
Airdrop allows you to switch information between Apple units immediately. Whereas Home windows, with its Telephone Hyperlink app, helps instantaneous file sharing, you want to arrange every system earlier than you can begin sharing.
Snapdrop simplifies this course of. It is a net app that means that you can share information between units on the identical community. What’s extra, you may even ship fast textual content messages to the units linked to the native community.
To share a file out of your laptop to a different system, ensure each units are on the identical Wi-Fi community. Then, go to Snapdrop.net in your PC and likewise in your pill or smartphone to make sure each are discoverable.
Subsequent, click on in your second system’s title, select the information that you just need to ship, and click on Open. In your second system, faucet Save to obtain the file.
You possibly can set up Snapdrop as an online app and pin it to the taskbar for simpler entry. To do that, click on the Set up Snapdrop (cell icon) within the top-left nook, select Set up, and anticipate the set up to finish. Now you may open Snapdrop from Home windows search as a standalone app.
Whereas Snapdrop works effectively for cross-device file sharing, it requires an web connection to work. Those that favor a local app can use LocalSend to send files between devices without an internet connection.
4 Ship Messages and Make Calls From a PC Utilizing Telephone Hyperlink
You possibly can text and call from your Mac with ease. Home windows provides comparable functionalities with its Telephone Hyperlink app, permitting you to handle notifications, ship and obtain textual content messages with AI-suggested replies, and even make calls.
To get began, you want to set up Phone Link on your Windows computer and smartphone first. It’s a fast course of, so merely comply with the linked information to finish the setup.
Telephone Hyperlink comes pre-installed in your Home windows laptop, however you’ll have to obtain it from the Play Retailer on Android and the App Retailer on iOS.
As soon as the setup is full, launch Telephone Hyperlink, and open the Calls tab. Then click on Get Began. A pop-up ought to seem in your smartphone. Choose Permit to allow calling permissions.
That’s it! Now you can also make calls and reply to textual content messages seamlessly out of your Home windows PC.
Obtain: Hyperlink to Home windows Android | iOS
You possibly can use the Snipping tool in Windows to screen record and seize screenshots. Nevertheless, it lacks the extra keyboard shortcuts supplied by macOS for its display seize device.
As an illustration, on Mac, you should utilize Shift + Command + 3 to seize the total display, Shift + Command + 4 to seize a portion of the display, or Shift + Command + 4 + Spacebar to seize a particular window or menu.
ShareX is an open-source, feature-rich screenshot device that means that you can get Mac-like screenshot performance on Home windows. I like that ShareX allows you to assign customized shortcuts to seize areas, whole screens, energetic home windows, and extra.
To create a customized shortcut, launch ShareX and click on Hotkey settings within the left pane. Choose Add and select the perform you need to assign (corresponding to capturing a area, full display, or energetic window). Set a keyboard shortcut by urgent the keys you need to use.
You may as well edit, take away, or duplicate present shortcuts to customise your workflow for various apps.
Obtain: ShareX (Free)
6 WinDynamicDesktop Offers You Mac Dynamic Wallpapers
macOS has some cool wallpapers that change relying on the time of the day. Whereas Home windows Highlight can robotically change the background picture and lock display every single day, it lacks the seamless transition all through the day that Mac provides.
WinDynamicWallappers is a third-party app that brings the Dynamic Desktop function to Home windows. It makes use of your location to find out the time and adjustments your desktop wallpaper accordingly.
You possibly can set a theme from an present assortment of dynamic wallpapers imported from varied macOS editions, together with Mojave, Catalina, Massive Sur, Monterey, Ventura, and Sonoma.
After selecting a theme, click on Obtain to save lots of the information to your native drive. Then click on Apply to set it as your desktop background. Moreover, you will get extra themes on-line or import a customized theme from a file.
Obtain: WinDynamicDesktop
macOS has some helpful options that make the computing expertise higher. Whereas we hope for extra quality-of-life options from macOS to get official Home windows OS integration, third-party apps and Microsoft’s PowerToys may also help carry a few of these options to your Home windows machine proper now.
