There have been major advancements in setting up a new Mac computer.  This really blows my mind because I remember when 3 hours was the norm.  There are a few caveats — however my last 4 brand new Mac setups (all done within the past couple of weeks) were 1 to 1.5 hours each.  A few were literally a 1 hour session.

**This may not be the case for a client who works in a sensitive occupation like law enforcement or scientific research or is a serious academic with thousands upon thousands of documents.  Lots of songs will take extra time.

For Joe and Jane senior consumers — like a lot of my typical clients — this really can be true.  Documents are stored in iCloud as are pictures.  Safari is backed up to iCloud.  Chrome is backed up to the Google account.   If this is all true, setting up the new Mac can be a breeze.

Updates may be necessary on new Macs and updates can take a long time, but I can certainly start the process for a client and let them finish it out.  I can always follow up with an additional appointment if needed. 

The bottom line is — reliance on iCloud makes new Mac setups simple.  The same would be true for Windows with the use of One Drive.