Your fingers already know this.
Almost every Windows shortcut works on a MacBook. You just press ⌘ Command where you used to press Ctrl. Here's the whole translation, plus how to do the everyday things.
Three keys, and you're 90% there.
Mac and Windows keyboards have the same modifier keys; they just wear different names. Learn these three swaps and most shortcuts fall into place.
Command (⌘)
Command does what Ctrl did. Copy, paste, save, find: just slide your thumb one key over.
Option (⌥)
Option is your Alt: same place, same job, and it's also how you type accented characters.
Command (⌘)
The Windows key's jobs (search, run, lock) move to Command and to Spotlight (⌘ Space).
The shortcut cheat sheet
Every Windows shortcut you use, side by side with its Mac equivalent. You can filter them by category, or just search for what you want to do.
Essentials
Text & cursor
Windows & apps
Screenshots
Files & Finder
System & search
Browser
How to do the everyday things
The actions that don't map to a single key, like right-clicking, recording your screen, or finding where a download went.
Right-click without a right button
Click with two fingers on the trackpad; that's on by default. Prefer a corner? Turn on a bottom-right click in System Settings ▸ Trackpad ▸ Secondary click. Holding Control and clicking always works too.
Take a screenshot of part of the screen
Press it, drag the crosshair over the area, and release, and it saves to your Desktop. Add Control (⌃⌘⇧4) to copy it to the clipboard instead.
Screenshot or record your screen
⌘⇧5 opens one small toolbar that does both. For a still image, pick capture the whole screen, a window, or a selection. For video, choose Record Entire Screen or Record Selected Portion, then click Record. Recordings stop from the icon in the menu bar.
Find and open an app
Tap ⌘Space, start typing the app's name, and press Return. Spotlight is your Start menu, Run box, and file search rolled into one.
Force quit a frozen app
Opens the Force Quit window: pick the stuck app and click Force Quit. For live CPU and memory stats (the “Task Manager”), open Activity Monitor via Spotlight.
Juggle all your open windows
⌃↑ spreads every window out so you can click the one you want; ⌃↓ shows just the current app's windows; ⌘Tab flips between apps. On the trackpad, swipe up with three or four fingers.
Type an emoji or accented letter
fn E (or Control-Command-Space) opens the emoji picker. For accents, hold down a letter for a popup, or press fn twice for the full Character Viewer.
Peek inside a file instantly
Click a file once in Finder and tap the Space bar to preview it full-size, no app needed. Tap Space again to close. There's no Windows equivalent; this one's a gift.
Move a file instead of copying it
Copy the file with ⌘C, go to the destination, then press Option-Command-V to move it there. That's the Mac's version of cut-and-paste for files.
Snap windows side by side
Drag a window against the left or right edge to fill half the screen, or into a corner for a quarter. The Window ▸ Move & Resize menu has more layouts. (Proper tiling arrived in macOS 15.)
The Delete key only deletes backward
On a Mac, the key labelled Delete behaves like the Windows Backspace. To erase the character ahead of the cursor, press fn+Delete (or Control+D).
Lock the screen or log out
⌃⌘Q locks your Mac right away. To sign out completely, press ⇧⌘Q.
Change a setting
Click the Apple logo at the very top-left, then System Settings, the Mac's version of the Control Panel. Search the sidebar to jump straight to what you need.
Where did my download go?
Downloads land in the Downloads folder, on the right side of the Dock and in every Finder window's sidebar. Screenshots save to the Desktop by default; change that under Options in the ⌘⇧5 toolbar.