The Clustered Overview
macOS utilizes Mission Control to provide a bird’s-eye view of all your open windows. By default, when you activate Mission Control (usually by swiping up with three or four fingers on the trackpad, or pressing the F3 key), macOS automatically groups all windows belonging to the same application together. For example, if you have five different Safari windows open, they will be stacked in a cascading pile. While this keeps the overview tidy, it forces you to hover over the specific application stack to find the exact window you need, adding an unnecessary extra step when you are trying to rapidly switch between a browser and a terminal.
Ungrouping Mission Control
To improve your visual multitasking speed and stop macOS from automatically grouping windows by application in Mission Control, you must change the specific desktop overview behavior.
Click the Apple logo in the extreme top-left corner of your screen and select System Settings from the dropdown menu. In the left-hand navigation sidebar, scroll down and click on Desktop & Dock. On the right-hand side, scroll down until you find the section explicitly labelled “Mission Control.” Look for the toggle switch named Group windows by application. Click this toggle switch so it turns grey (Off). The change takes effect immediately. Now, when you activate Mission Control, every single open window on your Mac will be displayed separately side-by-side, regardless of which application they belong to, allowing you to click directly on the exact window you want.