macOS includes a highly sensitive shortcut system known as “Hot Corners.” By default, if you flick your mouse cursor into one of the four absolute corners of your screen, the operating system instantly triggers a specific action. Pushing the cursor into the bottom-right corner might instantly create a Quick Note, while hitting the top-left corner might throw your computer into a locked screen saver state.
While this is theoretically convenient, it is practically a disaster for anyone using a multi-monitor setup or playing full-screen video games. If you are quickly moving your mouse to close an application or dragging a file from one monitor to another, the cursor will frequently brush the corner of the screen. Suddenly, all your windows fly off the screen, or your Mac locks itself, violently interrupting your workflow. If you want to use the edges of your screen without constantly triggering unwanted actions, you must completely disable the Hot Corners feature.
Disabling Hot Corners via Desktop & Dock Settings
Apple allows you to map every single corner of your screen to an empty action, effectively neutralizing the feature entirely.
- Click the Apple Logo in the top-left corner of your Mac’s screen and select System Settings….
- Scroll down the left-hand navigation sidebar and click on Desktop & Dock.
- Scroll all the way down to the absolute bottom of the main panel.
- Look for a button labelled Hot Corners… and click it.
- A small popup window will appear, showing a visual representation of your screen with four dropdown menus (one for each corner).
- Click on the top-left dropdown menu, scroll to the very bottom of the list, and select the dash symbol (–). This indicates “No Action.”
- Repeat this exact process for the top-right, bottom-left, and bottom-right dropdown menus until all four corners display the dash symbol (–).
- Click the Done button to save your changes.
The change takes effect instantly. You can aggressively throw your mouse cursor into any corner of the screen, and the operating system will do absolutely nothing. Your multi-monitor dragging and gaming experiences will never again be interrupted by accidental screen lockouts or flying application windows.