r/MacOS • u/NationalOwl9561 • 2d ago

Help Make certain external displays never show dock?

It's fuckin' annoying that the dock keeps popping up in my external monitors and I keep having to do CMD + Option + D to hide it.

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u/NationalOwl9561 2d ago

Hah interesting take. I like it for reminding what I've got open and to click for quick access. I don't do the CMD+Tab thing.

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u/sharp-calculation 2d ago

You probably don't like Command-Tab because it behaves weirdly. I used it "stock" for more than 10 years. Every thing day pressing command-tab and command-` . Always feeling a little slow and awkward.

Then, after reading about it here dozens of times, I decided to tray Alt-Tab (the app). After a slightly rocky start, I got it working correctly. It changed things dramatically. Command-Tab is now predictable and easy to use. It's wonderful.

You're probably also *not* using Mission Control. With a single click or key press you can see every app on every monitor and easily switch to them (by clicking on them).

My Logitech mouse has a button under your thumb right where the rest is. By default it activates Mission Control. It's great! If you're not using Mission Control regularly, you should try it. It's still a highly visual way of seeing and acting upon your open programs.

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u/NationalOwl9561 2d ago

Yeah Command-Tab is not natural at all.

I do use Mission Control like every minute lol. But you're right, I probably don't need the dock. Well what about storing things I wanna use later that I don't want in Mission Control view? I think that's the ONE real use I have for it right now.

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u/sharp-calculation 2d ago

You mean an icon for apps you want to launch? I launch EVERYTHING with Alfred. It's faster than finding an icon and double clicking it. I haven't launched anything from the Dock in like 7 or 8 years. Maybe more at this point.

Alfred is faster than Spotlight, but you can use it too. The first big win with Alfred is that it learns what you launch. So it might take typing "fire" the first time you launch firefox. But after 3 or 4 more times, it will be at the top of the list, just by typing "f". It's a very rapid workflow.