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Old Habits

For people coming from Windows

You switched to the Mac. Your fingers didn’t.

Old Habits brings the tools you used on Windows to the Mac — File Explorer, Paint, Notepad, windows that snap to the edges, window switching with thumbnails — with the same shortcuts. Native, light, and out of your way.

Coming soon for macOS 26 See all features

macOS 26 or later · Mac with Apple silicon

on the Mac, with Old Habits
  • ⌘TabSwitches between windows, with thumbnailsOn Windows: Alt + Tab — ⌘ sits where Alt used to be.
  • ⌃⌥←Snaps the window to the left halfOn Windows: Win + ←.
  • ⌃⌥VOpens the history of what you copiedOn Windows: Win + V.
  • ⌃C ⌃VCopies and pastes files in Old Habits ExplorerJust like Windows: Control is still Ctrl.
  • F2Renames the selected fileSame. And Delete moves it to the Trash.

What’s in the box

Seven tools you already know how to use.

Three full apps and four changes to how you handle windows. Each one has its own switch: turn on only what you miss.

Apps

Old Habits Explorer with the folder tree, the address bar and the Ribbon, showing the Project Aurora folder in Details view.

Old Habits Explorer

on Windows: File Explorer

Sidebar tree with This Computer, address bar, tabs, the Ribbon or the Windows 11 command bar. Real cut and paste for files, F2 to rename, Properties with ⌥↩.

Learn more →
Old Habits Paint with the Ribbon, the color palette and a drawing of a house, a tree and the sun.

Old Habits Paint

on Windows: Paint

The Ribbon, the palette, the brushes and the shapes right where you expect them. Opens and saves PNG, JPEG and BMP; also reads TIFF, GIF and HEIC.

Learn more →
Old Habits Notes with three text files open in tabs and the status bar showing line, column, encoding and line ending.

Old Habits Notes

on Windows: Notepad

Tabs, a session that comes back the way you left it, Find and Replace with F3. Reads and writes ANSI, UTF-16 and CRLF line endings — files from Windows open right.

Learn more →

Windows and keyboard

Snap layouts panel open at the top of the screen, with six ways to split the windows.

Snap

on Windows: Snap and layouts

Drag a window to the edge and it takes half the screen; to a corner, a quarter. Ready-made layouts, a zone editor and suggestions to fill the rest.

⌃⌥+←→↑↓

Learn more →
Switcher open with ⌘Tab, showing a thumbnail for each open window.

Switcher

on Windows: Alt + Tab

Switches windows, not apps, with a thumbnail of each. Two windows of the same app are two entries, just like on Windows.

⌘Tab

Learn more →
Thumbnail of the Old Habits Explorer window above its Dock icon.

Dock thumbnails

on Windows: taskbar previews

Hover over a Dock icon to see that app’s open windows. One click brings the right window to the front.

Learn more →
Clipboard history with a text, a web address, an image and another text.

Clipboard

on Windows: Win + V

Everything you copied, in one panel. Pin items, paste as plain text, pick by number. Passwords copied from password managers stay out.

⌃⌥V

Learn more →

Why Old Habits

You don’t have to unlearn anything.

  • Shortcuts where they always were

    In Old Habits Explorer, Paint and Notes, Control does what Ctrl did: ⌃C, ⌃V, ⌃Z, ⌃Y. Prefer the Mac way? One option switches everything to ⌘.

  • Turn on only what you want

    Each tool has its own switch. Out of the box only Snap is on; the rest waits until you ask.

  • Adds, doesn’t replace

    Finder, the Dock and system shortcuts stay where they are. Old Habits lives in the menu bar and adds what was missing.

  • Shortcuts your way

    Every tool shortcut can be re-recorded, with a warning when it clashes with another one or with a shortcut reserved by macOS.

How the suite works →

Trust

Built to stay on all day.

  • Signed and notarized by Apple

    macOS checks where the app comes from before opening it. No security exceptions needed to run it.

  • Nothing leaves your Mac

    No account, no telemetry and no internet connection. Clipboard history lives in memory only.

  • Native, in Swift

    Built with macOS’s own frameworks, no embedded browser. Light enough to run all day.

Permissions and privacy in detail →

Questions

Frequently asked questions.

Does Old Habits Explorer replace Finder?

No. It’s a separate app with its own icon. Finder keeps working as always, and you use whichever you like.

Does it change anything in macOS?

Just one thing: while Snap is on, macOS’s own window tiling is turned off so the two don’t fight. Turn Snap off or quit the suite and it comes back — and there’s a button to revert it right away.

What permissions does it ask for?

Accessibility, to move windows and respond to shortcuts. Screen Recording is optional and only used for thumbnails; without it you see the icon and title. Old Habits Explorer asks for Full Disk Access only to show the Trash.

Does it run on Intel Macs?

No. Old Habits requires a Mac with Apple silicon and macOS 26 or later.

Which languages?

English and Portuguese. It follows the system language by default, and you can pick one in the preferences.

How much is it, and when?

Price and date come with the launch, right here on this page. No date is being promised before that.

Coming soon.

Old Habits already runs signed and notarized; distribution just isn’t open yet. When it is, the download shows up here.

Coming soon for macOS 26 See all features