How to Use macOS Hot Corners

When it comes to multitasking, Apple has long been at the forefront of trying to make it easy for its users to jump between apps or desktops. Hot Corners, one of the most useful but often overlooked features on the Mac, allows you to use the four corners of your screen and perform a designated action. You don’t even need to be on the latest macOS version, as Hot Corners has been around for years. Let’s take a look at how to use this unappreciated feature and how you can start using the Mac Hot Corners more productively.

Also read: How to Be More Productive with Hot Corners in Windows

What Is Hot Corners?

When it comes to shortcuts and multitasking, Apple has long attempted to prove itself as the computer of choice. Between features like Mission Control, Spaces and Hot Corners, there really is an attempt to make it easy to quickly bounce between tasks. Hot Corners is really one of the best-kept secrets of macOS. With a quick movement on your trackpad or mouse to one of the corners of your desktop, you can instantly jump back to your desktop or look at all of your application windows. It’s a simple thing, but you never really know how much you will appreciate it until you start using it. Follow the instructions below and give Hot Corners a try. You will be glad you did.

Setting Up Hot Corners

1. Start by opening “System Preferences.” You can do that either by clicking on the System Preferences application (gray icon) in your dock or by going to the Apple in the upper-left corner, bringing up the drop-down and clicking on System Preferences.

2. Once you are in the System Preferences menu, look for something called “Mission Control.” It’s generally in one of the upper rows right beneath your name and iCloud information.

3. Click on Mission Control, then click “Hot Corners” in the bottom-left corner of the screen.

4. This is where the magic begins, as you can now click on any of the four available “Active Screen Corners” and assign an action to it. There are a total of nine available actions, including:

• Mission Control
• Application Windows
• Desktop
• Notification Center
• Launchpad
• Start Screen Saver
• Disable Screen Saver
• Put Display to Sleep
• Lock Screen

5. Assign any of these nine options to each of the four potential corners. Once you have chosen your configuration, you only need to move your mouse or trackpad cursor to any of the four corners to perform an action.

If you want to remove an action from a Hot Corner and or reassign a corner, following the above steps will bring you back to the same menu where you can make any changes. Alternatively, you can disable Hot Corners by following the same steps and then leaving each of the four action drop-down menus as just “-” and clicking “OK.” Simple!

Wrapping Up

Now that you know how to use the Mac Hot Corners, you can also set your application windows to be “always on top” to further improve your productivity. You can also learn to quickly view a file path on your Mac.