The macOS offers some inbuilt features that make the OS popular. The OS has been designed to make sure the creators get the maximum benefit and get their job done rather quickly. I used to admire the app launcher, but now I am ok with the taskbar and start menu combination. If you are looking for a way to get some Mac features on Windows 11/10 and make Windows 11/10 look like macOS, then you are in the right place.
Make Windows 11/10 look like macOS
While Windows 11/10 has evolved a lot, but there are features I would love to have on Windows. In this post, I have shared a few tools which bring in those functionalities to Windows 11/10. These will make Windows 11/10 look like Mac.
1] Lightshot
macOS has an inbuilt screen recorder and screenshot feature. It’s extensive and makes macOS very user-friendly for creators. While Windows 10 has Snip and also a lot of third party tools for taking a screenshot, Lightshot wins by a great margin. Once you install it, use print screen to trigger it.
Then just like on macOS, Command-Shift-4, it reveals the selector. You can then select an area. It will instantly offer editing tools, annotate, highlight, option to share, save or print the screenshot.
2] Seer: Quick Look Tool
On macOS, when you select a file and hit the spacebar, it shows a preview of the file including the content. You don’t need to double-click to open or right-click to view properties. The best part is you can also customize Seer. To further customize, you can open settings and configure:
- Keyboard shortcuts
- Install Plugins to enhance its functionality like rename, ExifTool, and so on
- Font support
- Change Language
Apart from this software, you can also try the QuickLook app from Microsoft Store. It offers the following actions:
- Spacebar: Preview/Close Preview
- Esc: Close Preview
- Enter: Run & Close Preview
- Ctrl+Mouse Wheel: Zoom Images/Documents
- Mouse Wheel: Adjust Volume
Using these you can zoom into documents, switch between files by hitting the arrow key, and also choose which program to use to open different file types.
3] Quick Time Screen Recording
You can use the Xbox App to record a small video quickly. Also called as GAME DVR, it can record almost anything on Windows though it is primarily for recording Xbox Game clips. But since most of the third-party software is paid, this comes in handy to record without installing anything.
4] Universal Search using Cortana (WIN Q) or use WOX
macOS universal search tool is one of the best-inbuilt features. All you need to do is hit the spacebar, and it reveals a search box. You can use it to find almost anything. Windows offers a similar experience with Cortana search. All you need to do is invoke it by with Win + Q keyboard shortcut and start searching.
One small drawback of this is that it also displays search results from Bing. There is an equally good alternative–Wox. Once installed you can configure it to launch when you hit the space bar. It will pop up a search box where you can type to find what you want to see on Windows.
The best part of Wox is that its open source supports plugins, you can customize hotkeys, disable it on full screen, execute command line tools, search within the Control Panel, and it replaces your run prompt.
5] WinLaunch
If you want to have macOS like launcher on Windows 10, you need to try WinLaunch. You can add programs, files, URLs to it. To launch all you need to do is hit SHIFT + TAB, and it will reveal the blurred background with the list of apps you added to the launcher.
As you can see here, we aren’t trying to convert your Windows completely into Mac. Instead, we are trying to bring only some useful features.
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