Top 30 Mistakes Made By New Mac Users When Switching From Windows

Closing an application window, thinking it has quit.

Downloading an app and running it from the disk image.

Creating endless untitled folders.

Using Safari’s Google search to get to a website.

Confusing the concept of wallpaper with screensaver.

Double-clicking a window thinking it will maximise it, but instead sending it to the dock.

Not understanding the usefulness of column view and leaving everything in icon view.

Not using any keyboard shortcuts.

Thinking that now they’ve gotten rid of Windows they won’t have problems
of any kind on their Mac.

Renaming desktop icons to random characters because they don’t understand the difference between the enter and the return key on Mac. (Enter puts an icon into rename mode).

People trying to find the menus on a window, not realizing they’re always
at the top of the screen.

Trying to re size windows from the edge rather than the drag area on the corner.

Trying to use the CTRL key rather than CMD key for shortcuts.

Thinking it’ll be easy to get a stuck CD out.

Installing a program every time they want to run it because they think
the installer is the program.

Where’s “the internet”? (Looking for the Windows Internet Explorer “e” icon).

Repeatedly hitting the Apple key expecting the Apple menu to pop up (confused with Windows Key and Start Menu concept).

Thinking the green “+” button maximizes a window to full screen (not realizing that Apple’s maximize philosophy is to only make a window as big as it needs to be to comfortably fit the width of content currently being displayed).

Looking in vain for an uninstaller app, because they don’t realize that uninstalling an application on Mac is as easy as dragging the program icon into the trash.

Minimizing windows all the time rather than using “hide,” leaving the document section of the doc littered with forgotten minimized windows (that are quietly occupying system resources).

Double-clicking dock icons.

Inadvertent click-drags and removing programs from the dock in the process.

Saving everything to the desktop or somewhere on the hard drive rather than their home folder.

Trying to load documents or programs multiple times because they don’t recognize the progress indicators (sound of hard drive grinding, CD spinning, Mac spinning beach ball, browser status bar).

Not understanding that the dock is used to both launch and return to a program.

Inability to work with multiple documents on-screen at the same time, because they have only ever learned to use Windows’ maximize mode which always makes everything full-screen.

Confusing “delete” with “backspace” (because Apple has two keys named “delete” on the keyboard, one of which does forward delete and the other backward delete).

Expecting “home” and “end” keys to go the beginning and end of a line, rather than beginning and end of a document.

Not realizing that when you copy a folder over an existing one, OS X -replaces- the destination folder rather than merging the contents, which is what Windows does.

Looking for the “complicated” way of doing everything. For example, trying to go into system preferences and right-clicking on the networking icon in order to find available wireless networks, rather than just clicking on the Airport icon in the menu bar and selecting the relevant wireless network.