Master Mission Control on Mac

Work more efficiently with multiple desktops in macOS Sierra.

Mission Control has been a feature of the OS X operating system (now macOS) since 2011, when it appeared as part of the release of OS X 10.7 Lion, but its roots go back to Exposé, which made its debut back in 2003 with OS X 10.3 Panther. As the name implies, Mission Control is envisaged as the control centre from which you run your Mac. In reality, you could use your Mac for years without ever activating it, but it’s very handy when you need to find that one crucial app you’ve lost behind a dozen open folders, or you simply need to get a handle on which apps you currently have running.

Apple refined Mission Control with the release of OS X El Capitan in 2015 and we’re pleased to say that nothing has changed: the desktop background in Mission Control is not blurred like it was in previous versions, and thumbnails of virtual desktops don’t appear until your cursor moves over them.

Here, we’re going to show you how to use the features of Mission Control in macOS Sierra, how to manage your apps and different desktop spaces, and how you can customise Mission Control in the Settings app. So let’s take control of your Mac and get started!