barryvan

Category: Windows

  • Key MacOS software

    I recently started at Wonde, and for the first time I’m now using a MacBook as my daily driver. The experience is fairly mundane — it’s just a computer! But there are a few tweaks and adjustments that I’ve made to make it more comfortable for myself. This post is more a reference for my future self than a set of explicit recommendations.

    I’ll doubtless add more apps to this list as I go forward!

    AltTab.app

    Gives you a Windows-like alt–tab experience — that is, the ability to tab through windows, not just applications.

    CopyClip.app

    Clipboard history. I’m surprised that this isn’t baked into the OS!

    Karabiner.app

    Probably the most significant workhorse app that I’ve installed. Allows you to remap individual keys, or pull down (or build) more complex adjustments. I use it to make changes like cmd–backspace deleting a word (rather than a line), home and end actually working, and various other Windows-like shortcuts. It’s particularly useful when you’re using an external (Windows) keyboard.

    I find myself reaching for the config on this app almost daily at present — normally when I use a muscle-memory keyboard shortcut that doesn’t quite do the right thing (like cmd–left or cmd–right moving in lines, not words — something I found while writing this post!).

    Pock.app

    Allows you to move the dock into the touchbar. (Yep, I’m using the only MacBook Pro still with a touchbar!). This lets you free up more desktop space.

    Rectangle.app

    Gives you about 60% of the functionality of Aero snap in Windows. Unfortunately it doesn’t let you resize windows that are side-by-side simultaneously, and it doesn’t include the Win11 22H2 placement functionality, but it’s still an absolute necessity. I really would love for Apple to copy Windows directly here!

    Vanilla.app

    With all these hundreds of “fixer” apps, you end up with a menubar full of cruft. Vanilla lets you hide icons in the menubar (like the system tray in Windows!). The free version needs to be manually set to open on login, and doesn’t automatically re-hide, but it’s still really key.

    Out of the box positive things

    There are some great little features out-of-the-box on the Mac. In no particular order:

    • It’s great that you can add background blur to the camera at a system level (although I’d love a higher resolution camera!).
    • I appreciate being able to choose microphone voice-focussing modes at a system level.
    • When moving the mouse across displays, even unmatched non-retina ones, the cursor never “disappears” from one and reappears on another. This is a (super minor) niggle that’s been around forever on Windows.
    • It’s fast! The M2 processor really does fly. I’ve not noticed any slowdowns or significant issues, and the machine I’m using only has 8GB of RAM. (Yes, really!)
    • The speakers are great. Really great. Surprisingly great, especially for Meet and Zoom calls.

  • Apple Keyboard & Windows

    At work, I recently moved to one of the slim aluminium Apple keyboards, and I love it. Linux and the keyboard play nicely together without any hassles whatsoever. So, emboldened by this success, I bought another one for use at home — with my Windows machine. The results were, well, less than dazzling.

    Whilst the keyboard’s basic functions pose no problem to Windows — it is, after all, just a USB keyboard — there were some problems, especially with the Function keys. Basically, the [fn] key doesn’t seem to generate a recognisable keycode for Windows, which meant that I didn’t have access to all the spiffy multimedia controls and so on.

    After much googling and installation of keyboard drivers originally distributed with Apple’s Boot Camp, I eventually stumbled across a great little utility by Petr Laštovička, which allows a fairly clean and simple remapping of keys to functions. [For the Googlers who’ve arrived here looking for a solution to the Mac Keyboard + Windows problem, it beats out Sharpkeys for me because it can handle key combos.]

    So, ultimately, I have ended with a very good-looking, nice-feeling keyboard that works 99% of the way I want it to. My biggest gripe is that changing the volume now requires me to press [Command]+[Fn]+[F10/F11/F12], rather than just [Fn]+[F10/F11/F12], as I can in Linux. I’m quite happy with this keyboard — although it’s not 100%, it’s definitely much better than most similarly-priced keyboards (at $69AUD).

  • Changing Windows’ default font

    You may have noticed that Windows has a rather haphazard way of applying the fonts specified in Visual Styles. That is to say, whilst a particular visual style may attempt to enforce a particular font, Windows will often ignore this in applications and dialogs.

    The problem is a registry key, which enforces font substitutions in Windows. Now, most applications specify their font as MS Shell Dlg or MS Shell Dlg 2. By default, these two fonts are replaced by Microsoft Sans Serif and Tahoma, respectively. To achieve a more uniform feel across your system, all that you need to do is edit these substitutions.

    To do this, run ‘regedit’ from your Start menu. Then navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\FontSubstitutes. You should see a list of key/value pairs on the right. Simply double-click on the entries for MS Shell Dlg and replace their contents with the font of your choice — make sure, however, that you spell it exactly right.

    That’s it! The change will be in effect once you restart. Bear in mind that this is a change made to the entire Windows installation, not just your user settings.