Hot Corners are quick and easy ways to reach key system functions without resorting to a keyboard shortcut. Here's how to set them up and what they can do.
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Video Summary
In This Tutorial
Learn how to set up and use Hot Corners on your Mac to quickly trigger actions like showing the desktop, starting the screen saver, or locking your screen. See how to customize each corner and even require modifier keys for safer activation.
What Are Hot Corners (00:00)
- Hot Corners let you trigger actions by moving the pointer to a screen corner
- Useful for shortcuts without using the keyboard
Setting Up Hot Corners (00:07)
- Go to System Settings > Desktop & Dock
- Scroll to the bottom and click Hot Corners
- Each of the four menus represents a screen corner where you can assign an action
Available Hot Corner Actions (00:32)
- Show Mission Control to access spaces and full‑screen apps
- Show Application Windows (App Exposé)
- View the Desktop
- Open Notification Center
- Show Apps list
- Start or disable Screen Saver
- Put Mac to Sleep or Lock Screen
- Quick Note in the bottom right corner by default
- Disable a Hot Corner entirely
Using Hot Corners Effectively (01:08)
- Move the pointer to the corner to activate the assigned function
- Most actions toggle on and off with repeated activation
- Lock Screen is useful in shared or public environments
Adding Modifier Keys (03:13)
- Assign Command, Option, Control, Shift, or combinations to require a key hold
- Helps prevent accidental activation
Hot Corners With Multiple Displays (03:48)
- Hot Corners work only at the extreme outer corners across all displays
- Can be harder to trigger if multiple screens are used
Summary
Hot Corners offer quick mouse‑based shortcuts for actions like viewing the desktop, starting the screen saver, and locking your Mac. Customize each corner with or without modifier keys and decide which functions fit your workflow best.
Video Transcript
Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com. Here's how to use Hot Corners on your Mac.
So Hot Corners are a shortcut on your Mac that you use with your mouse or trackpad instead of the keyboard.
The way to turn on Hot Corners is to go to System Settings and then look for Desktop & Dock on the left. Then scroll all the way to the bottom of the Desktop & Dock settings and click on Hot Corners. You're then given this special dialogue here that has four different little menus. Each one corresponds to the four corners of your screen. If you select the menu you can choose the function that is performed when you move the pointer into that corner.
So, for instance, if you want your list of apps to appear when you move your pointer to that corner, select Apps, like that. You can test this out then by moving the pointer to the top left corner and you can see how this is equivalent to clicking on Apps in the Dock or using a keyboard shortcut to get to apps. Or for instance you can setup the corner to reveal the Desktop. Then you move your pointer there and all the windows move to the side and you can see the contents of the Desktop and access any files and folders you may have there.
It is important to note that Hot Corners act like a toggle. So you can use them once to activate a function and then use them again and it will toggle this off. So the functions you have available are Activate Mission Control so you can access your spaces and full screen apps easily. Application Windows, also known as App Expose, so you can see all the windows of the current app and switch between apps using this. View the Desktop, Bring Up Notification Center on the right, go to your Apps List. Start the Screensaver, so instead of waiting for it to reach the time when the screensaver would start automatically it just starts when you jam the pointer into that corner. You could also Disable Screensaver. That works a little differently than the rest. You put the pointer in that corner and Screensaver won't start as long as the pointer is there. You can also just go right into Sleep Mode by using a Hot Corner or instantly Lock The Screen rather than waiting for the screensaver to start or the amount of inactive time to be reached.
This is particularly useful when your Mac is in a kind of a public place, like in an office with cubicles or it's a MacBook, and you want to be able to lock the screen quickly without really paying attention to specific menus or keyboard commands. You can just jam the pointer into that corner and see your screen locked.
You could also choose this last option here which Disables that hot corner. I've got other videos that go into detail about how to use these features, like Mission Control, App Expose and Notification Center. Typically, the bottom right corner is set to Quick Note, which will activate the Notes App's Quick Note function allowing you to type into a note without even launching the Notes App.
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Now if you like the idea of Hot Corners but find it's too easy to activate them, then you have the option of using a modifier key to make it harder to trigger them. So, for instance, for the top left corner I can have it set to Apps but if I hold down, say, the Command Key you can see the Command symbol appear there. Now this Hot Corner will only activate if I'm also holding down the Command Key. You can use Option, Control, and Shift, or any combination of all four of those and those keys would need to be held down for the Hot Corner to work.
One thing to note about Hot Corners is they are a little bit more difficult to use if you have multiple displays. They will only work in the most extreme corner of all of the different screens you have. Whether you use Hot Corners is up to you. Some people love them and will assign things to all four corners. Other people just set them all to nothing and just don't use this feature. Hope you found this useful. Thanks for watching.
Thank you