Man, this reminds me of the 3D interactive desktops that we thought were revolutionary as kids. Some even had physics later on!
These days, if I see my desktop, Windows just forced a restart, or something else has gone wrong.
I think I have not used the desktop for like a decade. There’s always something full screen in the foreground and it would take forever to minimize and maximise every window to what it was before. Most apps I search or have pinned to start tiles. Anyone else?
I tried active corners but I had to disable them because I was constantly triggering it by accident. Programs always put tools or scroll bars near the corners of the screen, and since I used dual monitors, the corners between the screens caused issues.
For keyboard: Mine is set to F11, but Idk if that’s standard or something I configured. You can check your binding here: System Preferences => Keyboard => Shortcuts => Mission Control => Show Desktop
But I find that the more intuitive and satisfying experience is using the trackpad, where the default gesture is to spread all of your fingers apart to show the desktop, and then you can pinch them back together to restore your previous window.
Thanks for the help, I’m new to macOS, using it for work now. F11 is a volume key on macbook which I use frequently but fn+F11 does minimize to desktop, so that’s good to know although not ergonomic.
I usually end up using the track pad gestures too, and they work well in laptop mode but since my MacBook is usually docked on my desk and I’m using a BT keyboard/mouse it’s annoying having to take my hands off the keyboard and look up every time.
I’m frustrated that I can’t even alt-tab since it won’t select any program that is minimized or has more than 1 window open so I have to use mission control every time and hunt for the right window. I’ll give Stage Manager a try in the new update.
The bottom right corner (assuming your taskbar is at the bottom) has a small button that minimizes everything, at least on Win10. I just swipe my mouse to the bottom right and click if I need the desktop. Clicking it again brings it all up again.
This is the way. It also forces you to organise files properly instead of periodically shoving several unused shortcuts and downloads into “organize later” folders.
I also have desktop icons disabled so it just shows a clean minimal wallpaper.
I absolutely love showing the normies my full no desktop icons, “never combine/show labels”, small taskbar icons, Powertoys Fancyzones, virtual desktops, alt-space to launch literally anything experience. Blows their minds.
The future is now, my friends. Learn how your tools work.
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