Navigating between dozen of overlapping windows, locking your screen before walking away from your desk, or clearing all windows to drag a file from the desktop usually requires remembering multiple keyboard shortcuts or clicking small buttons. Built directly into macOS, Hot Corners lets you turn the four physical corners of your Mac screen into lightning-fast interactive triggers. By simply flicking your mouse pointer or trackpad into a corner, you can activate Mission Control, lock your Mac, or reveal the desktop in a fraction of a second.
Why Use Hot Corners on Mac?
Hot Corners accelerate repetitive daily actions:
- Instant Security Lock: Flick your cursor into a corner as you step away from your workstation to lock macOS immediately.
- Clear Desktop Instantly: Sweep dozens of cluttered windows away to grab documents or images sitting on your desktop without minimizing anything.
- Mission Control at a Glance: Inspect every open window across all virtual desktops with a quick corner glance.
- Modifier Key Protection: Prevent accidental activations by requiring you to hold the Command, Option, or Shift key while moving into the corner.
How to Configure Hot Corners in macOS System Settings
Setting up your corner actions takes less than a minute:
- Click the Apple menu () in the top-left corner and select System Settings.
- Scroll down the left navigation sidebar and click on Desktop & Dock.
- Scroll all the way down to the very bottom of the right-hand panel.
- Click the Hot Corners… button in the bottom-right corner.
- A visual popover dialogue will appear displaying four dropdown menus corresponding to the four corners of your display:
- Top Left
- Top Right
- Bottom Left
- Bottom Right
- Click any dropdown to assign an action from the list:
- Mission Control: Shows all active windows.
- Application Windows: Shows open windows for the currently active app.
- Desktop: Spreads all windows outward to reveal desktop files.
- Lock Screen: Immediately locks your Mac.
- Put Display to Sleep: Turns off monitor backlights instantly.
- Quick Note: Pops open a scratchpad note in the Notes app.
- Click Done to save your configuration.
Pro Tip: Prevent Accidental Activations with Modifier Keys
If you find that moving your mouse near the top-left Apple menu or bottom-right trash can triggers corner actions accidentally: while the dropdown menu is open, hold down the Command (Cmd) or Option key before selecting your action. The shortcut will now only activate when you hold that modifier key while moving into the corner.