switching to minimized windows

Minimizing is really a windows thing.... I know you can minimize to the dock in OS X but most people don't really use this, especially now with expose.

You can "hide" windows: Option click outside the window you want to hide. Then when you use command-tab it will "show" the window.

The other poster noted that you click on their Dock icon. I seldom, if ever, use the feature. Once you sort out this issue, since you're a newcomer to the Mac, see these:

Switching from Windows to Mac OS X,
Basic Tutorials on using a Mac,
Mac 101: Mac Essentials,
Anatomy of a Mac,
MacFixIt Tutorials,
MacTips, and
Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, Leopard Edition.

Additionally, *Texas Mac Man* recommends:

Quick Assist.
Welcome to the Switch To A Mac Guides,
Take Control E-books, and
A guide for switching to a Mac.

This is something Windows does much better than the Mac, since Windows lets you access minimized windows from Alt-Tab.

On the Mac, it's much harder. To get it back from the keyboard, you have to press the shortcut that sets focus to the Dock (I think this is Fn+F3, check your Keyboard system pref because I think I changed the default), then arrow key over to the icon of the minimized window, then hit Spacebar to open it. It's so much trouble doing it with the keyboard that you'll probably end up giving up, grabbing the mouse, and clicking the Dock to restore the window.

You might want to try the shareware utility Witch, because it adds an enhanced switcher shortcut that can access any window directly, including minimized windows. This would bring the flexibility of keyboard access up to the level of Windows.