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How to use multiple desktops on Mac

26 October 2026

macOS has supported multiple desktops, officially called Spaces, since 2007. They cost nothing, they are built in, and they turn a single MacBook screen into a row of tidy, single-purpose workspaces. Here is the complete working guide: creating desktops, switching fast, moving windows, the settings worth changing, and the snags everyone hits.

Create a desktop

1. Open Mission Control: swipe up with three fingers on the trackpad, or press F3 (the key with three rectangles), or press Control+Up arrow.
2. Move the pointer to the top of the screen. The Spaces bar shows your desktops as thumbnails.
3. Click the + button at the top right. A new desktop appears at the end of the row.

You can have up to 16 desktops per display. Start with three or four.

Switch between desktops

• Trackpad: swipe left or right with three fingers (four if you changed the default).
• Keyboard: Control+Right arrow and Control+Left arrow walk along the row.
• Direct jump: Control+1, Control+2 and so on jump straight to a desktop, once enabled in System Settings, Keyboard, Keyboard Shortcuts, Mission Control (tick "Switch to Desktop 1" and the rest).
• Mission Control: swipe up, click the desktop you want.

The arrow keys are the habit worth building: one hand, no looking, under a second.

Move a window to another desktop

Three ways, quickest first:

1. Drag at the edge: grab the window's title bar and hold it against the left or right screen edge; macOS slides you to the neighbouring desktop and the window comes with you.
2. Via Mission Control: swipe up, then drag the window onto the target desktop's thumbnail in the Spaces bar.
3. Full screen: click the green button to send the app to its own new Space.

Pin an app to a desktop

Right-click an app's Dock icon, choose Options, and pick:

• This Desktop: the app always opens here. Perfect for Mail on a Comms desktop.
• All Desktops: the window follows you everywhere. Right for a music player or notes.
• None: the default; windows open wherever you are.

Pinning is what makes a layout self-maintaining: apps file themselves.

Two settings to change on day one

Open System Settings, then Desktop & Dock, and scroll to Mission Control:

1. Turn OFF "Automatically rearrange Spaces based on most recent use." With it on, macOS reorders your desktops by recency, so Desktop 3 keeps becoming Desktop 2 and muscle memory never forms. This single toggle is the difference between a system and a shuffle.
2. Leave ON "Displays have separate Spaces" if you use a second monitor; each display then carries its own row of desktops.

Give your desktops names

Here is the wall every Mac user hits: the desktops you just made are called Desktop 1, Desktop 2, Desktop 3, and macOS offers no way to rename them. With four or more desktops, remembering which number means what becomes a daily tax, and Mission Control's identical thumbnails do not help.

DeskStag removes the wall. It puts your own names and colours directly on the desktop thumbnails in Mission Control ("Client A", "Writing", "Comms", each coloured), flashes the desktop's name on screen when you switch so you always know where you landed, and shows the current name in the menu bar. It runs on a stock Mac, macOS 13 and later, with System Integrity Protection untouched; the only permission it asks for is Accessibility. Free for 14 days, then a one-time £19.99.

A layout that works

1. Comms (Mail and Messages pinned here): visited on your schedule.
2. Focus: today's main work, nothing else.
3. Reference: browser research and documents.
4. Personal: kept off the work surfaces.

One job per desktop, same order every day, new windows filed the moment they open.

Bonus: open Mission Control without the keyboard

System Settings, Desktop & Dock, Hot Corners lets you bind a screen corner to Mission Control: flick the pointer into that corner and the overview opens. Some people find a corner flick faster than F3 when a hand is already on the mouse. The same panel can bind a corner to show the plain desktop, which is handy for drag-and-drop between windows and Finder.

Common snags, fixed

• "My windows vanished." They are on another desktop. Open Mission Control and look along the Spaces bar.
• "The desktops keep changing order." That is the auto-rearrange setting above; turn it off.
• "An app always opens on the wrong desktop." Set its Dock assignment to This Desktop while standing on the right one.
• "Control+arrows do nothing." Check System Settings, Keyboard, Keyboard Shortcuts, Mission Control: "Move left a space" and "Move right a space" may have been disabled or remapped.

FAQ

How do I close a desktop?
Open Mission Control, hover over the desktop's thumbnail, click the ✕ that appears. Its windows move to a neighbouring desktop; nothing closes.

Can I rename desktops on a Mac?
Not with macOS alone. Desktops stay numbered; DeskStag adds real names and colours inside Mission Control itself.

Do multiple desktops drain battery or memory?
No. A desktop is an arrangement of your existing windows, not a process.

Can I reorder desktops?
Yes: in Mission Control, drag a desktop thumbnail along the Spaces bar (with auto-rearrange turned off, the order then stays put).