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How To Hide All Windows/Apps By A Mouse Click (like on a PC)?

On all PCs I've used all windows can be conveniently hidden instantly to reveal the desktop just by a single mouse click outside of the current window (or clicking an open space on the Windows desktop). How can this be setup on a mac? It's so annoying having to remember the **** keyboard shortcut to minimize all or hide all and requires too much finger acrobatics when I am able to remember, which is often after trying the incorrect combination first. Clicking outside a window on a mac does nothing and I'm just left with a window that insists on obstructing whatever it is that I need on the desktop.


Someone please give me the answer to my prayers and tell me there is an app or way to achieve this on a mac! Merci Beaucoup.


MacBook Pro 13″

Posted on Jan 4, 2023 2:08 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jan 4, 2023 4:27 AM

Clicking on an empty area of the Desktop does NOT hide all applications. I doubt that there is any application that would implement that, as it clearly departs from decades of mac experience.

The standard behavior of clicking on empty area of the desktop is to switch to the Finder, as I am sure you realize.


You cannot really hide all applications. You can hide the frontmost application (Command-H is pretty easy... H for "hide"), and you can hide all other applications (Command-Option-H).


And you can not hide, but push aside all applications, thus revealing the desktop underneath. You can do that with a gesture on the trackpad - spreading your thumb and four fingers (again, pretty suggestive, I'd say).


You can try to fight this and figure out a way to make it work more like Windows, but I recommend against it. In Windows, each window is its own entity, whereas the Mac is application-, rather than window-centric. Each work differently.


4 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jan 4, 2023 4:27 AM in response to Majesty_Matthew

Clicking on an empty area of the Desktop does NOT hide all applications. I doubt that there is any application that would implement that, as it clearly departs from decades of mac experience.

The standard behavior of clicking on empty area of the desktop is to switch to the Finder, as I am sure you realize.


You cannot really hide all applications. You can hide the frontmost application (Command-H is pretty easy... H for "hide"), and you can hide all other applications (Command-Option-H).


And you can not hide, but push aside all applications, thus revealing the desktop underneath. You can do that with a gesture on the trackpad - spreading your thumb and four fingers (again, pretty suggestive, I'd say).


You can try to fight this and figure out a way to make it work more like Windows, but I recommend against it. In Windows, each window is its own entity, whereas the Mac is application-, rather than window-centric. Each work differently.


Jan 4, 2023 5:16 AM in response to Leandro_Brazil

Leandro_Brazil wrote:

This is interesting... I use an external Logitech keyboard which the F5 does exactly that... But my regular MBP14 keyboard the same key is used for a different feature (voice over features), but if you press fn+F11 it will perform a Show Desktop feature.


These are the defaults, but they can be changed in System Settings->Keyboard, if you want to.

I can understand how switching from one keyboard to another and find things in different places can be inconvenient. On the other hand, there is usually a visual cue on the built-in Apple keyboards.

Note that whether or not you need to press Fn to do this is also under your control, in

System Settings->Keyboard->Function Keys:


How To Hide All Windows/Apps By A Mouse Click (like on a PC)?

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