Minimize or hide? What ⌘M and ⌘H do on a Mac

Both commands clear your screen without closing anything: the app keeps running and every window keeps its contents. The difference is what they act on, one window or a whole app, and that decides how you get things back.

The short answer

Minimize

Press ⌘M or click the yellow button at the top left of a window, and the window shrinks into the Dock. The app's other windows stay where they are. ⌥⌘M minimizes all of the front app's windows in one go.

Where the window lands depends on Minimize windows into application icon in System Settings › Desktop & Dock. Off, each minimized window gets its own spot in the Dock, at the end with the Trash; on, it goes into the app's icon and the Dock stays shorter. The same settings can make a double-click on a title bar minimize the window, which explains windows that seem to vanish when you double-click.

Hide

Press ⌘H, or choose Hide from the menu named after the app (Safari › Hide Safari), and all of that app's windows disappear at once. Nothing goes into the Dock: the app's icon stays there as it was, and the next app comes to the front.

The Dock has a shortcut of its own: ⌥-click the current app's icon to switch to the app you used before and hide the current one.

Hide everything else

To clear the screen down to one app, press ⌥⌘H in it, or choose Hide Others from its app menu. In the Dock, ⌥⌘-click an app's icon to switch to that app and hide all the others in one move. To bring every hidden app back at once, choose Show All from the app menu of the app you're in.

Getting them back

• A hidden app: switch to it with ⌘Tab, or click its icon in the Dock. The windows you hid come back together, where they were.
• A minimized window: click it in the Dock, or choose it at the bottom of the app's Window menu, where minimized windows are marked with a diamond (◆). Press ⌃↓ for App Exposé, which shows the app's minimized windows along the bottom of the screen.

⌘Tab won't do it for a minimized window: it brings the app forward and leaves the window in the Dock. How to restore a minimized window with the keyboard covers every route, including the Dock and the Window menu without a mouse.

How ⌘Tab, Mission Control and the Dock treat each

Mission Control shows the windows open on your desktop, arranged in one layer, so it's the wrong place to look for either. Both kinds of window are still open, though: the app keeps running, and nothing is saved or closed.

Which one when

• Minimize one window you want back on its own later, while the app's other windows stay on screen: one Safari window out of the way while you read in another.
• Hide an app you're done with for now. It's one key away and comes back whole, with ⌘Tab, which makes it the better habit for apps you dip in and out of.
• Hide others when you want to focus on one app without closing anything.
• Neither when you're done with a window for good. Close it with ⌘W, or close every window of the app with ⌥⌘W, as closing all of an app's windows explains; ⌘Q quits the app, and quit vs close covers when that's worth it.

With Flick

Flick, a window switcher, lists minimized windows and hidden apps' windows alongside the rest, marked with a small Minimized or App Hidden icon. Hold ⌥, tap Tab to the window you want, and let go: Flick restores it from the Dock, or shows its app again, and brings it to the front. So in Flick the difference stops mattering for getting a window back.

It works the other way too. While you hold ⌥ in the list, ⌥⇧M minimizes the selected window and ⌥⇧H hides its app; with the ⌘Tab trigger, it's ⌘M and ⌘H. The actions menu, opened with ⌥⇧K (⇧⌘K with the ⌘Tab trigger) or a right-click, adds Hide Others. Minimized windows are listed unless you turn off Show minimized windows in Settings › General; hidden apps' windows stay listed. The free version lists your 5 most recent windows. Every key is in how to close, minimize, hide or quit from Flick.

See how Flick handles minimized and hidden windows