The Legacy Widget Screen
For many years, older versions of macOS (OS X) featured a screen called “Dashboard”—a dedicated overlay containing lightweight HTML/CSS widgets like a calculator, a weather readout, and sticky notes. As Apple introduced “Mission Control” to manage multiple virtual desktops (Spaces), they integrated Dashboard as the absolute left-most Space. By default, swiping left with three fingers on your trackpad, or pressing a dedicated keyboard shortcut, would slide the entire desktop over to reveal the Dashboard environment.
While beloved by some classic Mac users, Dashboard has been functionally obsolete for years, largely replaced by the Notification Center widgets on the right side of the screen. Having Dashboard act as a dedicated “Space” can actually be frustrating; if you accidentally swipe too far to the left while navigating your virtual desktops, you get trapped on the widget screen and have to swipe back. If you want to streamline Mission Control and ensure your virtual desktops only contain actual application windows, you should disable Dashboard’s presence as a Space.
How to Remove Dashboard from Mission Control
You can change how Dashboard behaves (or disable it entirely) via the Mission Control preferences.
Note: Apple completely removed Dashboard in macOS Catalina (10.15) and later. These instructions apply to macOS Mojave (10.14) and earlier.
- Click the Apple Logo in the top-left corner of the screen and select System Preferences…
- In the Preferences window, locate and click on the Mission Control icon.
- Look for the dropdown menu labelled Dashboard:.
- Click the dropdown menu and change the setting from “As Space” to either As Overlay (which brings the widgets up over your current desktop without moving the screen) or Off (which disables Dashboard entirely).
- Close the System Preferences window.
If you set it to “Off,” the Dashboard will be completely deactivated, and it will no longer occupy the left-most slot in your Mission Control layout.