Q: How can I quickly trigger actions like Mission Control or Screen Saver by moving my mouse?
A: macOS has a hidden feature called Hot Corners, which allows you to perform specific actions by simply moving your cursor to one of the four screen corners. This makes tasks like locking your screen, accessing Mission Control, or starting a screensaver much faster.
How to Enable Hot Corners on macOS
- Open System Settings (macOS Ventura and later) or System Preferences (older macOS versions).
- Go to Desktop & Dock (Ventura) or Mission Control (older versions).
- Scroll down and click Hot Corners at the bottom.
- A new window will appear showing the four corners of your screen.
- Click a dropdown menu for any corner and select an action, such as:
- Start Screen Saver – Quickly lock your screen.
- Mission Control – View all open windows.
- Show Desktop – Instantly clear all windows to access your desktop.
- Put Display to Sleep – Turn off your screen without logging out.
- Click Done to save your settings.
Now, whenever you move your cursor to the assigned corner, the selected action will trigger automatically!
Additional Hot Corners Tips
- Prevent Accidental Activation: Hold down the Option (⌥) key while selecting a Hot Corner action. This way, the action will only trigger when you hold Option and move your cursor to the corner.
- Combine with Mission Control: Set a Hot Corner for Mission Control and another for Desktop to navigate faster between apps and files.
- Use it for Focus Mode: Set a corner to Do Not Disturb to quickly mute notifications while working.