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Transitioning to Windows: Difference between revisions
→Applications & tools: Add a link to a better terminal.
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** Google Calendar (or Thunderbird + Lightning) for calendars | ** Google Calendar (or Thunderbird + Lightning) for calendars | ||
** Web-based email, one option is to use Gmail for bugmail — this is also important since Gmail tends to be slower on Firefox and cause memory leaks, excessive GC, etc | ** Web-based email, one option is to use Gmail for bugmail — this is also important since Gmail tends to be slower on Firefox and cause memory leaks, excessive GC, etc | ||
** If you want client-side email, you should really use Thunderbird. :) File bugs and help improve it if you find stuff that's weird or buggy | *** If you want client-side email, you should really use Thunderbird. :) File bugs and help improve it if you find stuff that's weird or buggy. | ||
** Evernote for cross-platform scrapbooking | ** Evernote for cross-platform scrapbooking | ||
** Etherpad! | ** Etherpad! | ||
** IRCloud for IRC | ** [https://irccloud.com/ IRCloud] for IRC | ||
** Mindmeister for mind mapping | ** Mindmeister for mind mapping | ||
** Mockingbird or Balsamiq for mock-ups/wireframes | ** Mockingbird or Balsamiq for mock-ups/wireframes | ||
** Pandora/Rdio or even iTunes Match / Google Music for your music | *** bwinton@mozilla.com has 40-some-odd licenses for Balsamiq for use in designing open source Mozilla products. Feel free to contact him if you would like one. | ||
** A license for Photoshop on Windows if you're so afflicted :P | ** Pandora/Rdio or even iTunes Match / Google Music for your music (not available in all countries) | ||
* [http://cmder.net/ cmder] is a much better terminal than the built in cmd.exe. | |||
* Use Dropbox to sync your files between Mac and Windows — this can also solve basic file backup in a decent way | |||
* A license for Photoshop on Windows if you're so afflicted :P | |||
* Use [http://www.cygwin.com/ cygwin] if you miss your shell prompt; using mintty instead of the default cygwin terminal is highly recommended (install via cygwin's setup program) | |||
* [http://www.autohotkey.com/ AutoHotkey] provides excellent global keyboard shortcuts | |||
* There are several great text editors for Windows | |||
** [http://www.sublimetext.com/ SublimeText] — like TextMate, but for Windows '''and''' Mac. $60. | |||
** [http://atom.io/ Atom] - like SublimeText, but free and open source. 😄 | |||
** [http://notepad-plus-plus.org/ Notepad++] is free and open source. | |||
** [http://www.pspad.com/ PSPad] freeware | |||
* Get a good screenshot utility, you'll need it if you want to capture Aero Glass effects, the built-in screenshot mechanism doesn't. A good, free alternative is [http://shotty.devs-on.net/en/Overview.aspx Shotty]. | |||
=Fix the annoying things= | =Fix the annoying things= | ||
Once you're in Windows, there are a couple of things you can do to make the experience better immediately: | Once you're in Windows, there are a couple of things you can do to make the experience better immediately: | ||
* Use SharpKeys to remap the Apple keys to Ctrl, so Apple-C/V/X and T do the expected thing. | * Ensure that you have the Boot Camp drivers and tools installed, and that Windows Aero Glass is enabled (the transparent windows). If they're not, look for someone to help you install the drivers and fix it. | ||
* Make sure your Mac is set up to boot into Windows by default, so you don't end up booting Mac accidentally when you restart. | |||
* Use [http://www.randyrants.com/sharpkeys/ SharpKeys] to remap the Apple keys to Ctrl, so Apple-C/V/X and T do the expected thing. Reboot after writing them to the registry. Recommended: Map both "Apple" keys to "Left Ctrl", map "Caps Lock" to "Left Windows" (you may need it sometimes). | |||
* Install Firefox, Aurora, Beta and Nightly, with Sync in all profiles. | |||
* Install latest Internet Explorer, Chrome, Chrome Canary, Opera, Opera Next for comparisons. | |||
* If you want the "natural" scroll direction from Lion on Windows, open regedit.exe and search for "FlipFlopWheel". Double-click the property, and set it to "1". Be aware that you may have multiple devices, apply it to all of them to make sure. (Ed: I had about 15 of these entries). Then reboot for the changes to have effect. | |||
* If Windows just looks the wrong "color" to you, here's how you can get things to feel more natural [http://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/834252-howto-make-windows-7-use-a-good-mac-color-profile/ Use Your Mac Color Profile on Windows] | |||
* If Windows fonts look wrong to you, tune them. Click on the Start menu, type "cleartype" into the searchbox, and hit enter. That will launch the Windows ClearType tuner app. However, Windows chooses to render fonts very differently than Mac does, [http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2007/06/font-rendering-respecting-the-pixel-grid.html as explained here]. | |||