How to see all open windows on your Mac
You have a dozen things open — an editor, three browser windows, a terminal, a couple of chat apps, a PDF you opened an hour ago — and the one you need is buried behind the others. macOS has more than one way to see all open windows on your Mac at once, and each is built for a slightly different question: everything I have open, every window of this one app, or just get me to the right one. Here's the full set, what each surfaces, and how to trigger it without touching the mouse.
See every open window: Mission Control
Mission Control is the "show me everything" view. It spreads every open window across the screen as a grid, with your Spaces (virtual desktops) lined up along the top.
- Keyboard: ⌃↑ (Control–Up Arrow), or the Mission Control key — F3 on most Mac keyboards.
- Trackpad: swipe up with three or four fingers.
- Pick a window: click it, or press ⇥ and the arrow keys to move the highlight, then ↵.
By default Mission Control lays windows out roughly where they sit on screen. If you'd rather see them stacked into neat per-app piles, open System Settings → Desktop & Dock and turn on Group windows by application under the Mission Control heading. It makes a busy screen much easier to scan.
Want a clear desktop instead of a full spread? Show Desktop shoves every window aside so you can glance at what's behind them: press fnH (or spread thumb and three fingers apart on the trackpad), and the same gesture brings them all back.
See all windows of one app: App Exposé
Mission Control shows everything. Often you want just one app's windows — every Safari window, or every Preview document. That's App Exposé.
- Keyboard: ⌃↓ (Control–Down Arrow) with the app focused. It spreads that app's windows only — a visual version of cycling with ⌘`.
- Dock: click and hold (or Control-click) the app's Dock icon and choose Show All Windows.
- Trackpad: swipe down with three or four fingers (if App Exposé is enabled in Trackpad settings).
App Exposé is the fastest answer to "where did that other window go?" when a single app has sprawled into five or six of them — and it reaches windows the app has parked on other Spaces, which Mission Control on its own won't show you.
The quick glances: Dock and the app switcher
Two more built-ins give you a partial view without leaving what you're doing:
- Dock window list. Click and hold an app's Dock icon to get a text list of its open window titles. No thumbnails, but it's quick when you know the window by name.
- Cmd-Tab. ⌘⇥ shows every app you have open — not every window. It's an app switcher, so it surfaces one window per app and hides the rest. Handy for jumping between programs, no help for finding a specific window.
Every method at a glance
| You want to see… | Use | How to trigger |
|---|---|---|
| Every open window, all apps | Mission Control | ⌃↑ or F3 |
| Every window of the front app | App Exposé | ⌃↓ |
| One app's window titles (as text) | Dock | Click-hold the Dock icon |
| Every open app (one window each) | Cmd-Tab | ⌘⇥ |
| A clear desktop behind it all | Show Desktop | fnH |
These all still work the same way on macOS Tahoe (macOS 26), so nothing here depends on a particular point release.
Seeing them all vs. getting to the one you want
Here's the honest limit of every method above: they're overviews. They throw all your windows on screen so your eyes can find the target — and then you reach for the trackpad to click it. That's a great way to get your bearings when you've lost track. It's a slow way to do the thing you actually do all day, which is hop to a specific window and keep working.
Most window-switching is a most-recently-used pattern: the window you want next is usually the one you were just in. None of the built-in overviews are built around that. Mission Control and App Exposé are momentary, mouse-driven spreads; Cmd-Tab orders apps by recency but ignores individual windows.
That's the gap Let's Switch fills. Hold ⌥⇥ (Option-Tab) and it flips through your most-recently-used windows — newest first, across every app and monitor — with a live preview of each; let go on the one you want. Need just the current app's windows? ⌥` cycles those. Both are free for as long as you like. It lives in the menu bar with no Dock icon, no account, and pays for itself once rather than every month — and if you outgrow reaching, the Pro ⌥Space palette fuzzy-finds any open window by name and launches any app. Two honest caveats: like the built-ins, it works within your current Space, and it's newer than the veteran switchers.
Think of it as the difference between laying every window out to look at and jumping straight to one without looking. The overviews are for the first; a keyboard switcher is for the second. If your problem is less "which window" and more "far too many," our guide to taming too many open windows tackles the clutter itself, and if you want the whole keyboard-first switching model, see how to switch windows with the keyboard.
Frequently asked questions
What's the shortcut to see all open windows on a Mac? ⌃↑ (Control–Up Arrow) opens Mission Control and spreads every open window across the screen. For just the current app's windows, use ⌃↓ (App Exposé).
What's the difference between Mission Control and App Exposé? Mission Control shows all windows from all apps plus your Spaces. App Exposé narrows it to the windows of the one app you're currently in.
Why doesn't Cmd-Tab show all my windows? Cmd-Tab is an app switcher, not a window switcher — it lists each open app once and brings its most recent window forward. To move between windows of a single app, use ⌘`, or a window-first switcher like Let's Switch.
How do I see all windows without using the trackpad? Every overview has a keyboard trigger (see the table above). To pick a window with the keyboard too — not just view them — a keyboard window switcher jumps you straight to the one you want, no click required. Pair it with Let's Tile and you can find a window and resize it into place without ever touching the mouse.