Throughout the day, you likely perform certain repetitive actions on your Mac dozens of times: moving your mouse to the top-left corner to click the Apple menu, navigating to the bottom of the screen to click on a specific app in the Dock, or pressing a keyboard shortcut to lock your screen before stepping away from your desk.
macOS provides a feature called Hot Corners that allows you to trigger actions instantly by simply moving your mouse cursor into one of the four corners of your screen. For example, you can configure your Mac so that moving the cursor to the bottom-right corner instantly activates your screen saver and locks your computer, or moving it to the top-left corner opens Mission Control.
How to Set Up Hot Corners
- Click the Apple menu () in the top-left corner of your screen.
- Click System Settings (or “System Preferences” on older macOS versions).
- Click Desktop & Dock in the left sidebar.
- Scroll all the way to the bottom of the page.
- Click the Hot Corners… button.
A small pop-up window will appear displaying your screen with four dropdown menus, one for each corner.
How to Assign Actions to Each Corner
- Click the dropdown menu next to the corner you want to configure (e.g., “Bottom Right”).
- Select an action from the list. Available options include:
- Mission Control: Instantly zooms out to show all open windows.
- Application Windows: Shows all open windows of the currently active app.
- Desktop: Instantly hides all windows and reveals your clean desktop.
- Notification Centre: Opens the Notification Centre sidebar.
- Launchpad: Opens the Launchpad app grid.
- Quick Note: Instantly opens a small Quick Note window for jotting something down.
- Start Screen Saver: Activates your screen saver immediately.
- Disable Screen Saver: Prevents the screen saver from activating while the cursor is in this corner.
- Put Display to Sleep: Turns off the display immediately.
- Lock Screen: Locks your Mac instantly.
- Repeat for any other corners you wish to configure.
- Click Done.
How to Prevent Accidental Activation
One common frustration with Hot Corners is accidentally triggering an action when moving your mouse casually across the screen. To prevent this, you can add a modifier key requirement.
When assigning an action to a corner, hold down a modifier key (such as Command, Option, Shift, or Control) while clicking the dropdown menu. The modifier key will be added as a requirement.
For example, if you hold Command while selecting “Lock Screen” for the bottom-right corner, your screen will only lock when you move the mouse to the bottom-right corner while simultaneously holding the Command key. This eliminates any possibility of accidental activation during normal use.
Recommended Configuration
A highly productive Hot Corners setup for daily use could be:
- Top-Left: Mission Control (to see all windows instantly).
- Top-Right: Quick Note (to capture a thought without opening an app).
- Bottom-Left: Desktop (to quickly reveal a clean desktop or access files).
- Bottom-Right: Lock Screen (to secure your Mac before walking away).