Apple pays a lot of attention to the user experience when using a Mac computer, they have been in the forefront of that industry since the beginning. Having to use PC peripherals with macOS can be quite frustrating, specially when you are used to the smooth experience that Mac peripherals provide.

These are some of the apps that help me keep the macOS experience as close to using Apple peripherals as possible.

Karabiner-Elements

brew install karabiner-elements

Karabiner-Elements
A powerful and stable keyboard customizer for macOS.
Karabiner-Elements

PC/Windows keyboards are plug-and-play in macOS, but certain keys are mapped contraintuitively (Alt/Option, Win/CMD), or not mapped at all (media keys, volume, brightness, etc). While modifier keys can be set up through the macOS keyboard preferences, this utility helps you get all keys mapped to match the functionality of an Apple keyboard.

This configuration allows me to put the computer to sleep with Win+Alt+Pause (Alt+Cmd+Power)

MonitorControl

brew install monitorcontrol

the0neyouseek/MonitorControl
🖥 Control your external monitor brightness & volume on your Mac - the0neyouseek/MonitorControl
the0neyouseekGitHub

Control the brightness, contrast and sound volume of your external displays from your keyboard (applies to both PC and Mac keyboards). Your display must support DDC commands (most modern flat screens do).

Mos

brew install mos

Caldis/Mos
一个用于在 MacOS 上平滑你的鼠标滚动效果或单独设置滚动方向的小工具, 让你的滚轮爽如触控板 | A lightweight tool used to smooth scrolling and set scroll direction independently for your mouse on MacOS - Caldis/Mos
CaldisGitHub

Smooth scrolling with any mouse wheel.

sensible-side-buttons

brew install sensiblesidebuttons

archagon/sensible-side-buttons
A macOS menu bar app that enables system-wide navigation functionality for the side buttons on third-party mice. - archagon/sensible-side-buttons
archagonGitHub

Navigate back and forth almost any window with a history (Safari, Finder, etc.) with your mouse side buttons.

Rectangle

brew install rectangle

rxhanson/Rectangle
Move and resize windows on macOS with keyboard shortcuts and snap areas - rxhanson/Rectangle
rxhansonGitHub

Windows has a great feature, callend Snap, that allows you to snap windows into specific places of your screen, and divide your workspace in thirds, fourths, sixths, etc. This makes it super simple to take full advantage of your display real state, and align your windows in a layout that fits your workflow. Rectangle is an open-source tool that allows you to do just that, and more, in macOS, both dragging windows around and through keyboard shortcuts.

A very similar proprietary tool alternative to this is Magnet.

Do you have any other apps you think are essential? Let me know in the comments!