Apple this year launched MacOS 26 Tahoe, with some of the most compelling visual UI designs from the company to date, more cross-device compatibility, and Apple Intelligence features that greatly improve productivity. However, not all of the features were entirely new; in fact, a handful of them had already been available in Windows (some for many years).
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One thing Apple does well is deliver a clean, sleek UI, and the latest “Liquid Glass” design theme looks undeniably good. But Windows beat Apple to these four features, even though they're new to Mac.
1. Window tiling
One thing MacOS could learn from Windows is its window management. Apple introduced native enhancements to window snapping relatively recently, with MacOS Sequoia last year getting a comprehensive set of window arrangement options, and the iPad just now getting it in iPadOS 26.
If you like to have Slack, for example, in a separate window tile next to your browser, you can do this in MacOS by clicking and dragging the window to a different part of the screen to snap it into position. There are a handful of other ways to do this, including simply assigning the position from the Window dropdown menu in the app itself.
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However, Windows' approach is arguably better. Simply dragging a window to the top of the screen activates the grid preview, allowing you to choose from a variety of positions, which has been the case for many years now.
2. The Game app
Apple introduced Game Mode with the release of MacOS Sonoma in September of 2023, and at WWDC this year, we got a new Games app for MacOS, iOS, and iPadOS 26. It's sort of like a recharged Game Center, acting as a unified gaming hub and launcher across devices.
The Games app features a dedicated tab for Apple Arcade, as well as a Library tab that displays all games downloaded from the App Store. The “Play Together” tab shows what your friends are playing with combined scores, and it supports additional social features like messaging and invites.
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However, Windows 11 remains the reigning champion when it comes to gaming. Not only are the vast majority of games optimized for Windows, but so are most of the apps that gamers use on a daily basis, like Discord and Steam. Apple's new Game app will be competing directly with these platforms, which will be tough to do as they've accumulated years of dedicated users.
3. Live Translation
Apple announced some new real-time translation features for MacOS 26, including in the Messages app and live captions in FaceTime. These translations are powered by on-device models for added security, which is a great feature, but very similar functionality came out last year to Windows' Copilot+ PCs.
The Windows version allows for real-time translation into over 40 languages across all applications and video platforms, including Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Chrome, or Netflix, and works on a device, so you can be completely offline.
4. Customized folder icons
MacOS 26 comes with all kinds of visual customization options, including the ability to change the appearance of folder and file icons in Finder. If you're tired of the blue folder icon that's ever-present across your Mac, you can now customize it to be pink, green, or add emojis to it (I'm bracing for the possibilities, here).
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But this is nothing new to Windows. In fact, many of the customizable icon sprites you can set for folder or file icons in Windows date back several decades, to Windows 3.1. Even though this isn't something a majority of users engage with on a daily basis, it's still an integral part of Windows' functionality.
