Usage guide: macOS eand Windows Experience Comparison

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This library pack provides IT teams with side-by-side visibility into macOS and Windows performance, usage, and support experiences. Use it to:

  • Compare key experience metrics between platforms using real device data

  • Benchmark macOS and Windows against performance and application usage metrics

  • Align provisioning strategies to user roles, personas, and business needs

  • Validate macOS experience quality at scale using platform-aware insights

In addition, this library pack offers preconfigured remote actions to take action and drive awareness.

Library pack uses

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Jump to Use cases on this page to see relevant scenario applications.

Use the library pack content for the following purposes.

Benchmarking device experience across platforms

The Summary dashboard enables you to view macOS and Windows metrics side by side. Use this dashboard to:

  • Monitor hardware performance, connectivity performance, applications stability, DEX scores, and application usage by platform.

  • Spot platform-specific issues, gaps, or advantages using aggregated insights.

  • Group devices by persona or location to inform strategic decisions.

This is the core dashboard of the pack and a starting point for all persona-based comparisons.

Supporting persona-based provisioning

Use the library pack to identify which model or operating system provides the best experience for specific user groups.

The Mac vs. Windows comparison dashboard helps you compare real-world metrics across:

  • Executive users

  • Developers

  • Finance or back-office staff

  • Field or sales personnel

You can validate whether current provisioning strategies meet expectations or need adjusting based on insights from the dashboard.

Identifying areas for improvement

The experience comparison makes it easy to detect where either macOS or Windows devices fall short in:

  • Supportability metrics (e.g., open tickets, device stability)

  • Application availability or compatibility

  • Battery health

Use these insights to target improvements—whether that’s better software deployment on macOS or improved hardware standards on Windows.

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Some of these data-gathering remote actions populate the live dashboard and should already be scheduled. You can query the results by investigating KPIs from the Live dashboard or from your own investigations.

Use cases

In addition to the relevant use cases covered below, you may uncover other troubleshooting scenarios specific to your environment.

Comparing user experience across personas

Evaluate how different personas perform on macOS versus Windows to ensure optimal device compatibility.

From the Mac vs. Windows Summary comparison dashboard:

  1. Use the Persona filter to isolate a specific group, such as Developers.

  2. Compare device stability, hardware performance, connectivity metrics, application crash and freeze metrics and DEX scores between platforms.

  3. Look at application usage to check if preferred tools are performing equally well.

  4. Use this data to recommend a more suitable default device for the persona or identify areaswhere improvement is needed.

Validating macOS experience at scale

macOS device experience can vary significantly across teams. Use the pack to ensure a high-quality experience.

  1. In the Mac vs. Windows comparison dashboard, apply filters to display only specific device models or operating system versions.

  2. Evaluate important metrics like Stability, Hardware, Connectivity, Application Performance, DEX score.

  3. Compare these against Windows baselines to validate macOS is performing well.

  4. Highlight consistent performance to support broader macOS adoption.

Supporting platform standardization decisions

When considering whether to shift toward a more unified platform, use this pack to make data-driven decisions.

  1. In the Mac vs. Windows comparison dashboard, apply location or department filters.

  2. Identify which platform provides more consistent performance, lower ticket volumes, or better compliance in a given area.

  3. Use the insights to decide if standardizing on one platform (e.g., Windows-only in Finance) is viable.

Hardware performance tab: Compare performance metrics in context. This helps identify which device may be the best fit for different personas.

When a new member joins the "Sales" department, they can choose between available Mac and Windows devices. Based on recent performance data, Windows devices have encountered more memory issues than macOS devices over the past month.

Connectivity performance: It allows you to compare connectivity performance across both Wi-Fi and Ethernet. Imagine this is a critical aspect for a specific role — for example, someone who travels frequently, visits clients, and relies heavily on stable connectivity.

The dashboard identifies significant differences between device types, helping you determine the most suitable model.

Application health and usage: It allows you to quickly identify application health in terms of crashes and freezes across macOS and Windows platforms, as well as across different device models or whichever filters you apply.

The example shows that the chosen Windows models have higher occurrences of crashes and freezes compared to the macOS models selected.

Battery performance: It allows you to compare battery health across both macOS and Windows platforms.

By applying the Product departments filter and comparing a Mac model to a Windows model, we observe that Mac devices generally exhibit superior battery health. This comparison also enables us to identify the number of devices with specific anomalies.


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