MacHabitsMost frustration with windows on a Mac comes from one design decision: macOS thinks in apps, not windows. Command-Tab switches apps. Closing an app’s last window usually leaves the app running. Minimized windows don’t appear in the app switcher at all. If you came from Windows, it feels as if your windows keep disappearing.
Recent versions of macOS fixed more of this than most people realise. Here is how to set up the built-in tools properly, where they still fall short, and the free apps that cover the gaps.
Turn on the built-in tiling properly
Since macOS 15 Sequoia, the Mac can snap windows to halves and quarters without any extra software. Go to System Settings > Desktop & Dock and scroll to Windows:
- Drag windows to screen edges to tile: on. Drag a window to the left or right edge for a half, or to a corner for a quarter.
- Drag windows to menu bar to fill screen: on, if you like filling the screen without entering full screen.
- Hold Option key while dragging windows to tile: on. Holding Option shows the tile targets immediately, without the edge delay.
- Tiled windows have margins: off, unless you like gaps between windows. With it off, tiled windows sit edge to edge.
You can also hover over a window’s green button for a layout menu, or use Window > Move & Resize in most apps.
The shortcuts worth learning
These use the Fn key, which is the Globe key on recent Mac keyboards:
| Shortcut | What it does |
|---|---|
| Fn-Control-Left Arrow / Right Arrow | Tile to the left or right half |
| Fn-Control-Up Arrow / Down Arrow | Tile to the top or bottom half |
| Fn-Control-F | Fill the screen without going full screen |
| Fn-Control-C | Center the window |
| Fn-Control-R | Return the window to its previous size |
| Control-Command-F | Enter or leave full screen |
You can change any of these in System Settings > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts > App Shortcuts by adding the exact menu command name from Window > Move & Resize.
One catch explains most “the shortcuts don’t work” complaints: they are tied to the app’s standard Window menu. Apps that build their own menus, or have no Window menu, ignore them. The green button’s hover menu still works in those apps.
Switch windows, not just apps
- Command-` (the key above Tab) cycles through the windows of the current app. On some non-US keyboards it is a different key; check System Settings > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts > Keyboard > Move focus to next window.
- Command-Tab, then Down Arrow shows every window of the app you’ve selected, like a mini Mission Control. Pick one with the arrow keys and press Return.
- Getting a minimized window back: press Command-Tab to select the app, then press and hold Option before you let go of Command. The app comes forward with its minimized window restored.
Stop windows vanishing into the Dock
Minimizing is where most windows get lost. Two changes help:
- Hide instead of minimize. Command-H hides the whole app, and Command-Tab brings all its windows back at once. Command-M minimizes one window into the Dock, where it is easy to forget.
- If you do minimize, turn off Minimize windows into application icon in Desktop & Dock, so each minimized window gets its own visible thumbnail at the right end of the Dock.
While you are in Desktop & Dock, set Double-click a window’s title bar to Fill. It is the quickest way to make a window use the whole screen while staying on your normal desktop.
If apps forget their windows every time you quit them, check Close windows when quitting an application. With it off, apps that support it reopen exactly the windows you had.
Split View and Stage Manager: when to use them
Split View, which you get by holding the green button and choosing a side, puts two apps into their own full-screen space. Your other windows and the desktop disappear, and Command-Tab and Mission Control start behaving differently. It is fine for two apps on a small laptop screen; for everything else, tiling on the normal desktop is better.
Stage Manager, in Control Center, groups windows into sets and parks the inactive ones at the side. People who work in a handful of fixed pairs, such as a browser and notes, or mail and a calendar, sometimes love it. Most people turn it off within a day. It is worth a single honest try.
Where the built-in tools stop
The built-in tiling handles halves, quarters and fill well. It doesn’t offer thirds, cycling through sizes by pressing a shortcut repeatedly, saved layouts for several apps at once, or a window switcher with previews. If those sound like things you’d use daily, add one or two small apps.
The apps that fix the rest
- Rectangle (free, open source) adds keyboard snapping to halves, thirds, quarters and sixths, with sizes that cycle if you repeat the shortcut. The defaults use Control-Option with the arrow keys. On first launch it can detect macOS’s own tiling and offer to turn it off so the two don’t fight. Rectangle Pro, a paid version, adds saved layouts for multiple apps.
- AltTab (free, open source) brings Windows-style window switching with thumbnails, on Option-Tab by default, so Command-Tab keeps working as usual. It needs Screen Recording permission to draw window previews; without it, you get icons only.
- Raycast (free for the core features) includes window management commands. If you already use it as a launcher, you may not need Rectangle at all.
If you want windows to arrange themselves automatically, look at a tiling window manager such as AeroSpace. It is powerful and very different from how a Mac normally works, so expect a learning curve.
Each of these apps needs Accessibility permission to move windows. Grant it only to apps you downloaded from the developer’s own site, GitHub, Homebrew or the Mac App Store. After a major macOS update, if an app suddenly can’t move windows, remove it from Privacy & Security > Accessibility and add it again.
A setup that works for most people
- Turn on edge tiling and Option-drag tiling, and turn off margins.
- Set title bar double-click to Fill.
- Use Command-H instead of Command-M.
- Learn Command-` and Command-Tab then Down Arrow.
- If you snap windows by keyboard many times a day, install Rectangle. If you miss Windows’ Alt-Tab, add AltTab.
The short version
macOS manages apps first and windows second, which is why windows seem to vanish. The built-in tiling since Sequoia covers the basics once it is switched on properly, and a few settings stop windows disappearing into the Dock. For keyboard-driven snapping and real window switching, Rectangle and AltTab are free and fill the gaps without changing how the rest of your Mac works.