Finder vs. Windows Explorer: Differences Every Mac Switcher Needs to Know

Moving to a Mac from Windows for the first time? You’re going to come across some big changes. Browsing files is a core part of any operating system, so here’s what you need to know when moving to Finder from Windows Explorer.

Finder Hides File Paths and the Address Bar

In Windows Explorer, the file path is pretty easy to find. It’s at the top in an address bar, easy to access at any given time. Want to navigate directly to a folder and you know the address? Just click and type. It’s pretty simple, and Windows Explorer makes direct path navigation easy and painless.

Finder, on the other hand, hides that away. There’s no way to see a direct address bar like you can in Windows. For Finder, it’s broken up into two sections.

The first section is called the “Path Bar.” This can be enabled by going to View > Show Path Bar, or by using the keyboard shortcut Option+Command+P. The Path Bar is located at the bottom of your finder window, and it gives you a visual view of the file path for where you are or what you’re clicking on.

While you can click backward in the path, which is slightly more user-friendly than the way Windows Explorer handles it, this doesn’t give you the address of the file, just a visual path.

The second section is called “Go to Folder…” and is located under the Go > Go to Folder… menu. It can also be accessed by using the keyboard shortcut Shift+Command+G. Within the “Go to Folder” popup, you’ll be able to type the full path address of any file or folder on your Mac.

This could take some time to get used to, as the macOS file system is very different from Windows. However, if you want to access the address bar, this is the only way to do it. Just keep in mind that, unlike Windows Explorer, you can’t type an IP in here to access a local server on your network. The “Go to Folder” popup is for just that, going to a folder and nothing else.

Both Finder and Explorer Work Great With Tabs

If you’re used to how tabs work in Windows 11, then you’ll be right at home with Finder. Personally, I prefer the tab experience with Finder to Windows Explorer, but they’re similar enough (now) that I don’t really mind either one.

Both are functionally identical. You can open a new tab within Finder by either using the keyboard shortcut Command+T or clicking the “+” plus icon to the far right of the Finder window. With an open tab, you can move back and forth between the two (or more) like you’d expect by clicking, or using the keyboard shortcut Control+Tab to go forward a tab, or Control+Shift+Tab to go backward a tab.

You’re also able to drag a Finder tab out and create an entirely new window from it exactly where the current tab is open. This can make moving files between folders or drives extremely simple.

Finder Includes Plenty of Personalization

While Windows Explorer likes to guess what you might want in the sidebar, pinning folders that you frequently access automatically, Finder lets you do this manually. The sidebar is 100% customized by you, and only you. It can be personalized in the same way that Windows Explorer can, by dragging a folder into the Favorites section of the sidebar on the left-hand side of Finder.

If there’s a custom icon set for that folder, like Downloads, Movies, or Pictures, then that’ll show up in the Favorites section, so you can quickly identify a folder even by an icon. This is how I personally locate my Downloads folder in the sidebar.

On top of your Favorites section, there are a number of other categories that can be shown in the sidebar. To see these, click on Finder > Settings in the top left of your screen, or use the keyboard shortcut Command+, (comma) to access the settings pane. Then, navigate to the Sidebar tab. There, you’ll see a long list of items that can be added, or removed, from the sidebar.

This can be customized to your liking. I typically enable all iCloud toggles and all locations toggles, while I turn off Recents, Documents, and Music as I never access those folders personally. I also turn off Recent Tags because I’m not a tag user. But, a lot of people are, and it’s probably a good idea to start using tags at some point.

Finder Offers a Cleaner, Slightly Fiddly Network Drive Experience

I love the networked drive experience within Windows Explorer because I can simply type the FQDN .local domain of my server into the address bar and boom, it’s there. I don’t have to remember the IP, I just type the address, and I’m there. Of course, I could also type the IP address into the address bar, or go through the normal Network tab on the left-hand side.

Finder, however, hides things away a bit more. As I already mentioned, you can’t simply type an IP or a .local domain into the “Go to Folder” popup. However, there is a “Connect to Server” popup, which can be accessed by clicking Go > Connect to Server… or using the keyboard shortcut Command+K.

This brings up a popup where you can type in the IP address or the .local address of your server. So, Finder still has the same functionality as Windows Explorer, just hidden behind a few more clicks.

The other way to access a server is by clicking on the “Network button under Locations on the left-hand side of the screen. Once you have a server mounted, this is where I find that Finder handles networked drives better than Windows Explorer.

Finder treats a mounted network volume the same as a removable drive. It stays in the sidebar so long as you’re on the same network, and is accessed just like a removable drive. In fact, it’s indistinguishable from a removable drive when mounted. This makes accessing the server much easier once it’s mounted.

In Windows Explorer, you can pin a folder that goes to a network drive, but it’s not quite as simple to quickly access it from the sidebar if you haven’t used that server in a while.

When you’re done with the networked drive, just click the handy eject button and it’ll unmount you from the server.

File Transfer Speeds Aren’t Available in Finder

Apple is known for taking things everyone likes and hiding them away. Sometimes permanently. I don’t know about you, but I’m somewhat of a geek and like to see the nitty-gritty details of file transfers on my computer. Whether I’m moving data between physical drives or over a network, I want to see things like the file transfer speed, how much is remaining, and what file it’s currently moving.

While Windows Explorer shows you all these details paired with a nice graph to visualize the file transfer, Finder gives you none of that. In fact, all Finder gives you during a file transfer is an arbitrary progress bar, the amount of data left to transfer, and an estimated time remaining. That’s it. There’s no workaround to get more data, either. Not within Finder, at least.

Finder Looks Prettier but Has Fewer View Options

When it comes to how your files are displayed, personally, I prefer Finder’s Column view. This is a view that Windows Explorer doesn’t have, and I love the functionality of it. But, Finder only has four view options to Explorer’s five (really eight if you count all the icon sizes as individual options).

Finder and Explorer both have icon and list view options, though Finder’s icon view is a fixed icon size, while there are four icon size options in Explorer. Finder also has the column view, which is my personal favorite as I already mentioned. And then there’s the gallery view, which turns your files into an album art showcase.

What Finder really lack is icon sizes. I really wish there was a way to make the icons bigger and smaller when viewing them, just like you can in Windows Explorer. However, on a Mac, I very rarely use icon view as I’m almost always in the column view. This is because the column view, when you click on a file, shows the thumbnail for the file on the right-hand side of the Finder window. And, a unique feature of Finder that I wish Explorer had is Quick Look.

Simply hit the Space bar key on your keyboard with a file highlighted, and it’ll open up a preview of the file. For videos, it’ll typically play the video. Photos will open up larger. And PDF documents will open in a way that you can scroll through them. Quick Look is an amazing feature that Microsoft needs to copy. This feature, combined with column view, is why I don’t mind that Finder doesn’t have various icon size options.

Useful Shortcuts to Know and Use in Finder

There are plenty of keyboard shortcuts within macOS, and Finder has quite a few itself. Here are a few of my favorites (and some new ones I’ll be using).

• Command+D: Duplicate the selected files.
• Command+E: Eject the selected disk or volume.
• Command+F: Start a Spotlight search in the Finder window.
• Option+Command+L: Open the Downloads folder.
• Shift+Command+R: Open the AirDrop window.
• Command+Delete: Move the selected item to the Trash.
• Shift+Command+Delete: Empty the Trash.

Now that you’ve got the basics of Finder down, check out these 10 Finder tricks that you’re probably not using (yet).