Window management, Spaces & displays

macOS's window model confuses newcomers: there is no "maximise" in the Windows sense, apps can have many windows across many desktops, and full-screen is its own thing. Once you understand the three layers — Spaces, tiling, and switching — it's very fast. This chapter sets up the built-ins, then picks a third-party manager if you want more.

Mental model#

• A Space (virtual desktop) is a full-screen canvas. Each display has its own set of Spaces (Displays have separate Spaces: on). Full-screen apps become their own Space.
• Windows float in a Space. macOS remembers window positions per app and restores them on relaunch (Golden Gate also restores them across display connect/disconnect much better than before).
• The green button (or double-clicking the title bar) zooms/fills the window to the content's natural size or the full screen; holding ⌥ while clicking it fills the screen without entering full-screen mode; hovering it shows the tiling menu (Fill, Center, Left/Right/Top/Bottom halves, quarters, Move to display, Enter Full Screen).
• Hiding (⌘H) an app removes its windows but keeps it in ⌘Tab; minimising (⌘M) sends the window to the Dock and out of ⌘Tab — which is why most Mac users never minimise.

Native window tiling (Sequoia+)#

macOS finally does Windows-style snapping:

• Drag a window to a screen edge → it tiles to that half (top edge = fill; corners = quarters). A ghost outline previews the result. Hold ⌥ while dragging to get the outline immediately.
• Keyboard: fn⌃←/→/↑/↓ = left half / right half / top half / bottom half; fn⌃F = fill; fn⌃C = centre; fn⌃⇧ + arrows = quarters; fn⌃R = revert. On external keyboards without fn, use 🌐 or remap in Keyboard Shortcuts → Windows, where you can also rebind these to ⌃⌥ + arrows (the Rectangle convention).
• Menu: Window → Move & Resize lists every arrangement, including Left & Right, Top & Bottom, Quarters which arrange two or four windows at once.
• Settings: Desktop & Dock → Windows: Tiled windows have margins: off (tight), Drag windows to screen edges to tile: on, Drag windows to menu bar to fill screen: on, Hold ⌥ key while dragging windows to tile: on.

For a lot of people — two windows side-by-side, one maximised, occasionally thirds — this is enough, and it needs no Accessibility permission. Its limits: no thirds/two-thirds by keyboard, no "move to next display" hotkey, no per-app rules, and the snapping zones are a bit coarse. That's where the third-party tools come in.

Spaces and Mission Control#

Set up once:

1. System Settings → Desktop & Dock → Mission Control: Automatically rearrange Spaces based on most recent use: OFF. This is the single most important setting — with it on, your Spaces shuffle constantly and ⌃3 stops meaning anything.
2. Keyboard → Keyboard Shortcuts… → Mission Control: enable Switch to Desktop 1…9 (⌃1…⌃9). They appear only after the Spaces exist — create them first.
3. Open Mission Control (⌃↑, three/four-finger swipe up, or F3), hover top-right → + to add Spaces. Create 4–6 and give them roles — e.g. 1 Communication (mail, Slack), 2 Browser/research, 3 Code (editor + terminal), 4 Second project / school, 5 Media/notes. Right-click a Space in Mission Control to rename? (Not possible — but Spaces auto-name from full-screen apps; wallpaper per Space is possible: set a wallpaper while on that Space.)
4. Assign apps to Spaces: right-click an app's Dock icon → Options → Assign To → This Desktop. Slack always opens on 1, your IDE on 3, etc. All Desktops is great for a music player or a floating notes window. When switching to an application, switch to a Space with open windows for the application: on — so ⌘Tab to Slack jumps to Space 1.
5. Move windows between Spaces by dragging them to the edge of the screen (hold briefly), dragging onto a Space thumbnail in Mission Control, or — fastest — start dragging the window, then press ⌃←/→ with the other hand.

Trackpad: three- or four-finger horizontal swipe switches Spaces, up opens Mission Control, down shows the current app's windows (App Exposé). Accessibility → Display → Reduce motion makes the switch instant instead of sliding.

Full-screen (⌃⌘F) is a Space of its own that hides the menu bar and Dock. Great for a single-window focus session on a laptop screen; awkward on a big monitor. Split View (hover the green button → Tile Window to Left of Screen) puts two full-screen apps side by side with a draggable divider.

Stage Manager#

Control Center → Stage Manager (or Desktop & Dock). It groups windows into "stages" shown as thumbnails on the left; clicking one swaps the whole set in. It's a different metaphor from Spaces — like having your open windows as a deck of cards. Some people love it for a single laptop screen; most developers find Spaces + tiling more predictable and leave it off. If you try it, turn off Show recent apps to reclaim the left strip and use Click wallpaper to reveal desktop: Only in Stage Manager.

Third-party window managers#

Three tiers, from "just snapping" to "i3 on macOS". All need Accessibility permission (Privacy & Security → Accessibility); the tilers also want Screen Recording to read window titles in some cases.

Tier 1 — snapping and hotkeys (most people)#

Recommendation: Rectangle if you don't use Raycast; Raycast's built-in commands if you do. Bind: left/right halves, left/right two-thirds, maximise, centre, next display, and "reasonable size". That covers 95% of real use.

Tier 2 — automatic tiling without disabling security#

AeroSpace (free, OSS) is the most recommended tiler in 2026. It's an i3-like tree tiler: every new window is auto-placed in a split; you move focus with ⌥H/J/K/L, move windows with ⌥⇧H/J/K/L, switch layout (tiles ↔ accordion) with ⌥/, and jump to workspaces with ⌥1…9. Crucially it does not use macOS Spaces (it emulates workspaces by hiding windows off-screen), so it needs no SIP changes, works on locked-down work machines, and switches workspaces with zero animation. Config is a single ~/.aerospace.toml — dotfiles-friendly. Pair it with JankyBorders (active-window highlight) and Sketchybar if you want a Linux-rice look.

Minimal ~/.aerospace.toml to get started:

start-at-login = true
after-startup-command = ['exec-and-forget borders active_color=0xff58a6ff width=5.0']
default-root-container-layout = 'tiles'
accordion-padding = 30
[gaps]
inner.horizontal = 8
inner.vertical = 8
outer.left = 8
outer.bottom = 8
outer.top = 8
outer.right = 8

[mode.main.binding]
alt-h = 'focus left'
alt-j = 'focus down'
alt-k = 'focus up'
alt-l = 'focus right'
alt-shift-h = 'move left'
alt-shift-j = 'move down'
alt-shift-k = 'move up'
alt-shift-l = 'move right'
alt-slash = 'layout tiles horizontal vertical'
alt-comma = 'layout accordion horizontal vertical'
alt-f = 'fullscreen'
alt-shift-f = 'layout floating tiling'
alt-minus = 'resize smart -50'
alt-equal = 'resize smart +50'
alt-1 = 'workspace 1'
alt-2 = 'workspace 2'
alt-3 = 'workspace 3'
alt-4 = 'workspace 4'
alt-shift-1 = 'move-node-to-workspace 1'
alt-shift-2 = 'move-node-to-workspace 2'
alt-shift-3 = 'move-node-to-workspace 3'
alt-shift-4 = 'move-node-to-workspace 4'
alt-tab = 'workspace-back-and-forth'
alt-shift-semicolon = 'mode service'

[mode.service.binding]
esc = ['reload-config', 'mode main']
r = ['flatten-workspace-tree', 'mode main']
f = ['layout floating tiling', 'mode main']

# Float apps that hate tiling
[[on-window-detected]]
if.app-id = 'com.apple.systempreferences'
run = 'layout floating'
[[on-window-detected]]
if.app-id = 'com.apple.finder'
run = 'layout floating'

Amethyst (free, OSS) is the simpler xmonad-style option: fewer concepts, works with real Spaces, good if AeroSpace feels like too much.

Tier 3 — yabai (maximum control, some SIP cost)#

yabai (free, OSS) + skhd (hotkey daemon) is the deepest tiler: BSP layouts, real Spaces integration, window opacity, borders, scripting via a Unix socket. Its full power (creating/destroying/moving Spaces, focusing across displays with animation off, window shadows/opacity) requires partially disabling System Integrity Protection and loading a scripting addition into Dock.app:

1. Boot to Recovery (hold power → Options → Terminal): csrutil enable --without fs --without debug --without nvram (Apple silicon).
2. Reboot, then sudo nvram boot-args=-arm64e_preview_abi, reboot again.
3. Add the sudoers line yabai's wiki gives so it can load the scripting addition without a password.

This weakens your machine's security posture (kernel/debug protections) and Apple sometimes breaks the addition on major macOS releases — check yabai's issue tracker before installing Golden Gate. Many yabai users run it without the scripting addition (SIP untouched) and accept losing Space manipulation; that is a reasonable middle path. On a work-managed Mac, don't touch SIP; use AeroSpace.

Choosing#

Multiple displays#

• Arrangement: Displays → Arrange… (or drag the thumbnails). Put the display with the white bar as your main display — the Dock and new windows land there. With a laptop in clamshell, the external becomes main automatically.
• Displays have separate Spaces (Mission Control): on. Each display gets its own Spaces and menu bar. Off gives one giant Space spanning displays (useful for a single ultra-wide + laptop stretched layout, rarely otherwise).
• Move a window to another display: drag; or hover the green button → Move to <display>; or Rectangle's ⌃⌥⌘←/→; or AeroSpace's move-node-to-monitor.
• Scaling: for a 4K 27" pick the "looks like 2560×1440" (2×-ish) or 3008×1692 option; text stays sharp because macOS renders at 2× and downsamples. 5K 27" = perfect 2× at 2560×1440. A 1440p 27" monitor runs at 1× and text looks thin — that's the display, not a setting.
• Refresh rate: choose the max in Displays. Golden Gate exposes more high-res and high-refresh modes over Thunderbolt/HDMI and remembers window positions per display configuration much more reliably.
• Clamshell: closed lid + external display + power + external keyboard/mouse works out of the box. Keep the lid open an inch if the laptop gets hot under sustained load (the keyboard deck dissipates heat).
• DisplayLink / USB-only docks: avoid if you can. Thunderbolt/USB4 docks drive displays natively via DisplayPort Alt Mode; DisplayLink needs a driver (screen-recording permission, occasional flicker, no HDCP). If a cheap dock's second monitor doesn't appear, it's DisplayLink.
• Two displays on base M-chips (M5 Air/Pro): supported natively since M3 (Air needs the lid closed for two externals on M3; M4/M5 Air drives two with lid open). The Neo drives one.
• Sidecar turns an iPad into a display (wired or wireless, touch supported better in GG). Universal Control shares one keyboard/mouse across a Mac and iPad sitting next to each other — enable in Displays → Advanced.
• iPhone Mirroring (Sequoia+) puts your iPhone on the Mac desktop, resizable in GG; iPhone notifications arrive on the Mac. Useful for testing your own iOS app while coding.

Focus-follows-mouse and other Linux habits#

macOS has no system-wide focus-follows-mouse; AeroSpace/yabai offer it for their windows, and Ghostty/iTerm2 have it for their splits. Sloppy-focus fans generally adjust. Middle-click-to-paste doesn't exist outside X11 terminals (XQuartz). Workspaces-per-monitor behaviour is what Displays have separate Spaces gives you. Keyboard-driven everything: see the shortcuts in Chapter 5.

Recommended setups#

Student on a 13"/15" laptop, no monitor: native tiling for halves; 4 Spaces with roles; ⌃1–4 bound; full-screen for the editor during deep work; Raycast or Rectangle for "maximise" and "centre". Reduce motion on.

Engineer with a 27" 5K + laptop: main display = the 27"; separate Spaces on; editor two-thirds left / terminal one-third right (Rectangle ⌃⌥E/T) on Space 1 of the big screen; browser on Space 2; comms on the laptop screen. Assign Slack/Mail to the laptop display's Space.

Tiling enthusiast: AeroSpace + JankyBorders, 6 workspaces, apps assigned by on-window-detected rules, System Settings/Finder/dialog-heavy apps floated, Ghostty as the terminal with its own splits, alt-tab back-and-forth. Native Spaces unused; Mission Control gestures disabled to avoid confusion.