Ok, so you can actually do this but the keyboard sequence is a bit bonkers.

* Hold down Command and press Tab until the application icon representing the minimised window is highlighted.

* Release Tab but DONT let go of Command.

* Now press Option too so you are holding down Command + Option

* Now release Command so you are just holding down Option

* Finally release Option

Amazingly this will then maximise the window whose application icon you selected in the first place.

Sounds crazy but it works. Try it!

You can also tab to the application, hit the up arrow and use the arrow keys to select the minimized window then hit enter.

In fact, my command-tab workflow is: command-tab to open the Switcher and then arrows to switch application/window

Exactly. Cmd-Tab to open the switcher, arrow-left/right to select the desired app, arrow-up/down to show all windows, then arrows or mouse to select the desired window.

I did not know you could do this, and have been following command-tab with control-down for years now. Thanks!

Also, when it comes to maximizing, the green button changes modes when you hover over it with Option held and switches to tiling the window left/right or maximizing it. In general, holding Option on Mac toggles alternate behaviors for menus and buttons. (Special callout to Option+dragging a window edge)

Thank you. That was super helpful!

I do this, it's the only thing I know how to do on a mac and it's in my muscle memory as there's no way I could describe it.

It put me off so much that I really can't be bothered to work out why it works, what the underlying switching philosophy is, or if there are any other commands to use.

You've literally improved my life with this comment. Thank you.

Holy crap. Same here, I never knew this keyboard shortcut existed.

This works, but it's (1) completely undiscoverable (how did you find out about this?), and (2) does not work for switching to a minimized window if the app has another unminimized window.

I don't know about natural discoverability, but Apple still has user manuals for its products: https://support.apple.com/manuals

I learned a few things from idly perusing them when I had nothing better to do.

Thanks for this! I had no idea. That said, it doesn't seem to work if you have 2+ instances of an app window, with one minimized and the other not.

That's new to me. I had gotten used to knowing that the first minimised window for something like Messages or Activity Monitor is what I wanted, and used Cmd-0 to get that up.

I will try this once, be amazed, and promptly forget it.

I don't actually minimise windows on the mac at all. I just sling them on a contextual virtual desktop and then triple-swipe up when I need a different one.

Not once have I had to sit there mashing alt-tab and guessing then.

The solution is simple. Don't minimize windows. Everything fullscreen on virtual desktops. Three fingers up and choose the window you want if it's one you don't use normally. Three finger swipe between frequently used windows.

I do this. It's absolutely insane that it's the easiest way to do window management in MacOS. We have regressed to the point of not having windows anymore.

I do too.

A while back I had the Raspberry Pi 400 computer on my desk and a newish M1 Mac. It was interesting how much better the window management was on the Pi. Frankly, for things like file management, that little computer was Snappy as hell.

And it does dual monitors like a champ!

And don't get me wrong here, I've used a lot of systems, and I'm fine with my Mac. I know how to use it, I get things done and the M1 chip is really sweet.

I generally go with the flow figure out what the flow is and I just don't worry about it past that. I just had to comment on this particular topic because I thought it was kind of humorous.

I use a variation of this approach. Make all windows exactly the same size (I'm using Hammerspoon). Hide applications (Cmd-H) instead of minimizing windows. Cmd-Tab to whatever app you want. Cmd-` to whatever window you want.

Sometimes the silly shadow around the top window gets too big, but then you can Option-Cmd-H to hide all other apps.

Amazing that in the era of N+1K external monitors suggestion is still to use fullscreen windows.

This is where snapping comes in. You can make a fullscreen window that is made up of two applications. Really it just comes down to never fusing with your windows once you have them set up to your liking. Once everything is either fullscreen or in its corner of a virtual desktop you should never be changing how your windows work. Nothing should ever be hidden behind anything else, if it is it's time to make a new virtual desktop for it.

Open the "Mission Control" settings in System Preferences to see what key sequence you have assigned to "Application Windows". While you are there you might also click "Hot Corners..." and check if "Application Windows" is assigned to a hot corner.

Invoke "Application Windows" and it will show you all the visible windows of the current application tiled so you can see them all, and it will show you all the minimized windows of the current application across the bottom of the screen. (Some applications, such as TextEdit and BBEdit also show recent documents there).

While in the "Application Windows" ctrl-tab cycles between all open apps while remaining in "Applications Windows" view.

I minimize windows on purpose if I want to completely ignore their existence but not close the window. For example, Terminal windows that are running background processes that I don't need to attend to, VMWare windows for headless VMs that I only SSH into, and the like. It's nice because they don't show up when I open the app, and basically cannot unminimize without explicit action.

Most of the time, though, I don't bother minimizing windows on macOS, whereas I minimize windows often on Windows. Although they're similar actions, they wind up serving different functions, and trying to treat minimized windows on macOS like minimized windows on Windows is just a recipe for frustration.

Has Mac changed its default settings?

The Dock shows you any minimized windows on the right.

If for some reason this is no longer default (I don't remember the last time I setup a new Mac and didn't carry over settings) Right Click the dock >> dock preferences >> Uncheck "Minimize windows into application icon"

Well, that did work. But now I just have a massive pile of minimized window icons... and still no keyboard shortcut to switch to them.

On Mac you generally just don’t minimize windows unless you explicitly want that behaviour (sort of hidden and available manually through the dock). It’s just a different workflow.

This seems like a weird comment, what did people do before macs got virtual desktops (which was relatively recent compared to unix)? As a side note I remember discussion with apple users arguing that virtual desktops are not how one "should work" and are useless, now it's "you should use virtual desktops, obviously".

Well, personally, I keep a lot of windows open on my screen because I work well that way. It's similar to the "cluttered desk" method—it may look messy, but I've got everything available to me and even if you don't know where anything is, I do.

But I recognize that's more of a personal style than general usage.

I've been a Mac user since before the system even had proper multitasking, and the general answer to your question is that we would keep open the applications and windows that were useful to us, sometimes hiding an application that we're not actively using and don't need to have cluttering up the screen. Once Mac OS X came along, we would also minimize individual windows we weren't using—and if you minimize a window, then hide the application that it belongs to, that also hides its minimized windows in the Dock.

Also note that for every application up until a few years ago, and for some applications even now (and dependent on a System Preference setting), you can keep an application open on the Mac without any windows open.

> Well, personally, I keep a lot of windows open on my screen because I work well that way. It's similar to the "cluttered desk" method—it may look messy, but I've got everything available to me and even if you don't know where anything is, I do.

> But I recognize that's more of a personal style than general usage.

> hiding an application that we're not actively using and don't need to have cluttering up the screen.

So having only used macs very sporadically what is the difference of hiding an application and minimizing a window?

> Also note that for every application up until a few years ago, and for some applications even now (and dependent on a System Preference setting), you can keep an application open on the Mac without any windows open.

So am I understanding correctly that hiding an application is essentially the same as minimizing all windows of that application (into some hidden space), I assumed from the previous posts they would just be moved to some virtual desktop? I guess that would be very nice for some applications but very annoying for others, e.g. do terminals count as the same application?

Hiding an application, very simply and straightforwardly, just takes the application out of the foreground and makes all its windows disappear. They are still considered to "exist", in the same desktops/spaces, and no state is lost—when you switch back to the application, all its windows reappear exactly as they were when you hid it (assuming no background processing changed them, of course). They are just not visible for as long as you keep the application hidden.

The difference between this and minimizing is that a) it affects all windows of the application, not just a selected one, and b) a minimized window either goes into the side of the Dock, or into the application icon on the Dock (depending on your set preferences); hidden windows, as I said, are completely invisible.

There is also a "Show All" option under the application menu (the one just to the right of the Apple menu, with the name of the foreground application) that will un-hide all currently hidden applications.

Virtual desktops are a relatively recent addition to the Mac; this hiding behavior has been around and worked consistently since the mid-'90s, well before Mac OS X.

(As a final random tidbit, one of my most common methods of hiding an application—particularly if it's the one I'm using at the time—is to simply option-click on either the desktop or another application's window, as that is a longstanding shortcut for doing so.)

As someone who used Mac back then: mostly just complain about it and accept that OSX did not have any good way of stashing away windows. I am still not impressed but is less painful now that we have virtual desktops.

The few times I've used a Mac, trying to use this workflow just leads to a lot of visual clutter. Everything sits on top of everything else, and every window is sitting somewhere on the screen, a constant reminder that nags at the back of your mind.

I guess like the other person mentioned I just don't find myself minimizing that often on Mac.

That being said there is an option. The first is if you are in an application you can do control-down or (if you enable it under gestures >> more gestures for your trackpad) you do 3 fingers down you will see the minimized windows for your current application at the bottom. I did also just look it up and apparently if you do cmd-tab and press up on an application it does the same thing.

Not exactly what you are looking for, but you can at least do it on a per application level for anything minimized.

I never minimize windows at all on the Mac, perhaps because of this behavior. I hide apps with (Command-H) instead, and use multiple desktops for managing different workflows instead.

Yeah I hide stuff all the time and I find myself using Single Window mode a lot too, especially on a smaller screen.

While the app switcher is highlighting the app with minimized windows, press cmd+1 to switch to those windows.

The keyboard shortcut to switch to them in ctrl-down (or whatever you have set to "Application windows") and then arrow keys.

I also prefer Windows default behavior to macOS in this respect.

I find macOS alt-tab'ing works better for me with the addition of https://contexts.co/

Same here. I would be so slow on my work Mac if I didn't have Contexts.

One way of addressing this is to use the intended method, which is to Hide the application instead of minimizing it. Cmd H hides the application away, and it pops back to the front with a Cmd Tab.

Why havent they removed the mostly useless minimize feature?

This will help: https://alt-tab-macos.netlify.app/

The most annoying behavior for me is Alt-Tabbing an application whose windows are spread across multiple desktops. Alt-tab will not go back to the actual previous window, it will go back to the window of the previous application closest to the current desktop. Sigh. Luckily I don't have to put up with MacOS for very much.

Switching across multiple desktops (ie spaces) is really annoying. In particular, you switch (Cmd-Tab) to the app you want, realise the window is on another desktop, then Ctrl-arrow-left/right to the desired desktop, but there the windows are ordered as they were when you left, and you have to Cmd-Tab to the desired app again.

Alternative: Cmd-Tab to desired app, arrow up (while holding Cmd) to see all windows of that app, then pick the desired one (with arrows or mouse).

Instead of minimizing windows, put them on a separate virtual desktop. Or close them.

I never minimize windows on purpose. I think the only reason the concept exists is because it predates virtual desktop switching.

Also, instead of Alt-Tab, flick four fingers up or down and select the window of interest.

Yes, under macOS minimizing windows is conceptually more like putting them away in the cabinet for later retrieval whereas under Windows it’s closer to setting them aside momentarily. The level of friction is accordingly different.

Keyboard shortcuts are IMO superior to gestures and are objectively faster.

The whole virtual desktop can get quite clunky fast when you have multiple windows opened or ephemeral programs that you temporarily need.

In the case of alt+tab window switching I suspect it’s only faster if you are going to the last used window. If you’re hunting for an app through multiple alt tabs, you’re almost certainly going to take more time than using the mouse gestures to switch.

Unless I have dozens of app no because the beauty of alt-tab is the fire-hold-release which is always quicker than getting the mouse and clicking.

Not the way I lay out my windows. Most of the time every window is partially visible, and so I switch by clicking on the one of interest. Or I overlay them and scroll the partially obscured one without focusing on it. The only time I actually switch with mission control is when I'm searching for a particular desktop and window, or am reorganizing windows. In those cases mission control is far superior.

All gestures on macos regarding virtual desktops and windows have corresponding keyboard shortcuts.

Still, it's not alt tab with the press-hold-release which is always quicker than doing gesture->arrow to select something->enter.

Completely disagree. Doing three finger swipe x times is just as fast if not faster than keyboard shortcuts that require you hunt down the window you're looking for.

It's objectively slower when you need to leave the keyboard with one hand to reach your touchpad. I'm thinking about a desktop environment here where 1. you might not even have a touchpad and 2. you have your both hands on the keyboard.

I mean maybe if you're using vim all the time, but most of my apps require mouse interface, so my hand is usually near the trackpad. Even when I'm using external monitors I still use the laptop keyboard and trackpad.

Good for you if it works, but it doesn't for me and I find it cumbersome.

I don’t think the literal fraction of a second difference matters.

It matters after a long day and it adds up. On top of the time lost, it's also a matter of ease of use.

The one thing I'll say I like about the weird minimize behaviour is that I do a lot of screen sharing and it's pretty nice that once I minimize a window that it's pretty hard for it to suddenly pop back into view. On Windows I have to pretty much just religiously quit applications before I share screen but on OSX it's usually sufficient just to minimize them.

1. CMD-tab to application with minimized window.

2. Ctrl-down for "Mission Control > Application windows"

3. Down arrow to select minimized

4. Enter

This even works when all windows of application are minimized.

It's a tradeoff: takes more keypresses to access the minimized window, but prevents the minimized window from getting in the way most of the time. Which is what you want if you've minimized it.

FWIW, I never minimise windows, just hide them (Cmd-H). Works fine (and you can Cmd-Tab to them).

Same. I use hide (Cmd-H) most of the time because I want to hide the whole application, not a single window of the application. I also use Hide Others (Cmd-Option-H) to focus on a single app. And I use Cmd-` to switch between windows of the app I'm in.

There is a rare case that I minimize a window, but it's generally because I don't want to work with that window any time soon, but I don't want to close it either, and I have multiple windows open in the app. Since I'm not frequently switching to the window in this situation, its fine if the easiest way to get back to it is to use my mouse.