How to show the desktop on a Mac

Show Desktop is part of Mission Control. It moves your open windows aside so you can get at the files and widgets on your desktop, and it doesn't close, minimize or hide anything. That makes it quick to undo, and it also means it's the wrong tool if you want windows put away for a while; for that, see minimize everything instead.

With the keyboard

Apple's list of Mac keyboard shortcuts gives three ways to show the desktop. Press the same keys again to bring the windows back.

Fn-F11 works because F11 is the default Show Desktop shortcut in Keyboard Shortcuts › Mission Control, while the top-row keys normally control things like volume. If you turned on Use F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys (System Settings › Keyboard › Keyboard Shortcuts… › Function Keys, as Apple's guide to function keys explains), the top-row keys act as F1, F2 and so on without Fn, so F11 on its own shows the desktop.

To change the keys, open System Settings › Keyboard, click Keyboard Shortcuts…, choose Mission Control on the left, then double-click the keys next to Show Desktop and press new ones. System Settings › Desktop & Dock › Shortcuts… has the same setting and, depending on your mouse, a pop-up menu to put it on a mouse button.

With a trackpad

Spread your thumb and three fingers apart on the trackpad to show the desktop, and pinch them back together to bring the windows back (Apple's Mission Control guide). If nothing happens, turn on Show Desktop in System Settings › Trackpad › More Gestures. The pinch only brings windows back while the desktop is showing; at other times, Apple's list of gestures says the same pinch shows your installed apps.

The Magic Mouse has no Show Desktop gesture in that list. Use one of the keys above, a mouse button, or a hot corner.

With a hot corner

A hot corner shows the desktop when you push the pointer into a corner of the screen, so it suits a mouse that has no gesture for it.

1. Open Hot Corners

   Open System Settings › Desktop & Dock, scroll down, and click Hot Corners….

2. Choose Desktop

   Click the pop-up menu for a corner and choose Desktop. To stop it firing by accident, hold ⌃, ⌥, ⇧ or ⌘ while you choose: the corner then works only while you hold that key.

3. Click Done

   Move the pointer into that corner to show the desktop, and into it again to bring the windows back.

The same menus offer Mission Control and Application Windows, among others; hot corners on Mac covers them all.

Click the wallpaper

Since macOS 14 Sonoma, clicking an empty part of your wallpaper can move every window aside to show your desktop items and widgets. A setting in System Settings › Desktop & Dock, under Desktop & Stage Manager, decides when: always, or only while Stage Manager is on. Click the wallpaper again to bring the windows back.

The setting's name depends on your version of macOS:

The names in the table are from Apple's guides for each version. On macOS 26.2, the choices under Show Desktop read Always and Only in Stage Manager, so go by the wording your Mac shows.

Minimize everything instead

Show Desktop moves windows aside for a moment. To put windows away until you call them back, minimize or hide them. These are the keys in Apple's list:

macOS has no single key that minimizes every window of every app. The nearest is to hide the others with ⌥⌘H, then minimize the front app's windows with ⌥⌘M. Minimized windows wait in the Dock; hidden apps come back as soon as you switch to them. Minimize vs hide on Mac explains which to use when.

Get your windows back

Minimized windows can also come back from the keyboard; restore a minimized window shows how. If a window still doesn't turn up, it may be on another desktop or off the screen: find a lost window goes through the places to look, and Mission Control shows every desktop at once.