macOS guide

How to see all the windows of one app on a Mac

macOS already does this. The feature is called App Expose: it takes every open window of a single app and spreads them across the screen so you can pick one. The fastest way to reach it is Control and Down Arrow, and there are five other ways below.

What is App Expose on Mac

App Expose is part of Mission Control. When you trigger it, every window of the app you are using moves apart and shrinks until they all fit on screen. Click one and the rest slide back where they were.

The confusing part is the name, and the confusion comes from Apple. The trackpad settings call it App Expose. The keyboard shortcuts list calls it Application windows. Articles written before 2011 call it Expose, with an accent, because that was the name of the feature Mission Control replaced. All three refer to the same thing.

App Expose vs Mission Control

They look similar for a second and then do different jobs. Mission Control is the wide view. App Expose is the narrow one.

	App Expose	Mission Control	Stage Manager
What it shows	Windows of one app	Every window, desktop and full-screen app	The current app, with the rest parked at the side
Default shortcut	Control and Down Arrow	Control and Up Arrow	No shortcut; switched on in Control Center
Trackpad gesture	Swipe down with three or four fingers	Swipe up with three or four fingers	None
Good for	Twelve Finder windows and you want the third one	Finding an app you lost track of	Keeping one thing in front of you

In practice you reach for Mission Control when you do not know where a window went, and for App Expose when you know exactly which app it belongs to.

Every way to trigger App Expose

Five of them are documented by Apple. The sixth is a hidden Dock setting that has come and gone over the years. None needs extra software, and each asks something of you in return.

Control and Down Arrow

Switch to the app, then press Control and Down Arrow. Press it again to close the spread. This is the default shortcut and you can change it in System Settings, Keyboard, Keyboard Shortcuts, Mission Control.

Works on the active app only.
Swipe down on the trackpad

Swipe down with three or four fingers. You pick which one in System Settings, Trackpad, More Gestures, App Expose.

The same menu has an Off setting, so the gesture may be switched off or set to a different number of fingers than you expect.
Right-click the Dock icon

Right-click or Control-click the icon and choose Show All Windows.

Two steps, and the menu covers part of the screen while it is open.
Force click the Dock icon

Press firmly on the icon with a Force Touch trackpad.

Needs a Force Touch trackpad. A regular mouse cannot do it.
Hot corner

System Settings, Desktop & Dock, Hot Corners, then set a corner to Application Windows.

One corner, one app: still the active one.
Scroll up on the Dock icon

Run defaults write com.apple.dock scroll-to-open -bool TRUE in Terminal, then killall Dock.

Undocumented, and Apple has removed it before.

Once the layout is open, Tab moves it to the next app, so you can keep looking without closing and reopening anything. Minimized windows appear in their own row along the bottom, whichever way you minimize them. Windows living on your other desktops usually turn up as well, which is the opposite of what Mission Control does.

There is also Command and Backtick, which cycles through the windows of the active app one at a time. It is useful when you have two or three windows and useless when you have fifteen, because you never see them all at once. And Control and F3 is a different thing altogether: that one opens Mission Control.

Why it gets awkward for an app you are not using

Every method above has the same limit: App Expose works on the app that is active right now. If you are writing in one app and want to look at the windows of another, you first have to switch to it, then trigger the spread, then decide, and then possibly switch back. Three steps to answer the question "which of those windows did I want".

Right-clicking the Dock icon and choosing Show All Windows skips the switch, and it costs a menu that covers the screen. Force click skips the menu, and it needs a trackpad that can force click.

Quick Expose does it on hover

Point at an app icon in the Dock, wait a moment, and macOS lays out that app's windows without making it active first. Move along to the next icon and the layout follows you. Move away from the Dock towards the windows and it stays put, so you can go straight to the one you want and click it. It is a small free utility of ours, it uses the same system feature described above, and it adds a delay you can tune and an optional modifier key.

Quick Expose, free

If you want to see the windows, not just spread them

App Expose answers "which window", not "what is in it". The layout is live, but the windows are shrunk to fit, and reading anything in them is a guess.

DockView hovers the same Dock icon and shows live previews of that app's windows in a panel, so you can read them before you commit to anything. It can also trigger the system App Expose described above, either instead of the panel or on a held key, so both views are a keystroke apart. It adds a window switcher on Option and Tab and actions you can run on a window from the preview. That one is paid.

What it looks like

Point at an icon, hold for a moment, and macOS lays out that app's windows. Move to the one you want and click.

Questions people ask

What is App Expose on Mac?

App Expose is a built-in macOS feature that spreads out every open window of a single app so you can pick one. Mission Control does the same thing for all apps at once. Apple also calls it Application windows in the keyboard settings, and older articles call it Expose.

What is the difference between App Expose and Mission Control?

Mission Control shows every window from every app, plus your desktops and full-screen apps. App Expose shows the windows of one app only. If you have twelve Finder windows open, Mission Control buries them among everything else, and App Expose lines them up on their own.

Are Application windows and App Expose the same thing?

Yes. The keyboard shortcuts list in System Settings calls it Application windows, the trackpad settings call it App Expose, and both point at the same feature. Apple has never settled on one name for it in the interface.

What is the keyboard shortcut for App Expose?

Control and Down Arrow. It applies to whichever app is active at that moment, so you have to switch to the app first. You can change the shortcut in System Settings under Keyboard, Keyboard Shortcuts, Mission Control.

Why does the trackpad gesture for App Expose not work?

Check which gesture it is set to. System Settings, Trackpad, More Gestures, App Expose gives you three choices: Off, swipe down with three fingers, or swipe down with four. If it is set to four and you are swiping with three, nothing happens.

How do I turn off App Expose?

Open System Settings, Trackpad, More Gestures, and set App Expose to Off. That stops the swipe. The keyboard shortcut is separate: System Settings, Keyboard, Keyboard Shortcuts, Mission Control, where the line called Application windows has a tick box you can clear.

Does App Expose show minimized windows?

Yes, in a row of their own along the bottom of the layout, apart from the windows open on screen. It does not matter whether you minimize into the Dock or into the app icon.

Does App Expose show windows from other desktops?

Usually yes. App Expose gathers the windows of that app from your other desktops, not only the one you are on, and that is the opposite of Mission Control, which shows the desktop you are looking at. Full-screen windows and multi-display setups can change what you see.

Why does App Expose say there are no windows?

Because the app has none open, or its only window is full screen and lives on a desktop of its own. Leave full screen or open a window and the layout works again.

Is Control and F3 the same as Control and Down Arrow?

No. Control and F3 opens Mission Control, which shows every app. Control and Down Arrow opens App Expose for the app you are using. Both are defaults and can be reassigned in System Settings.

App Expose is not working at all, what do I check?

Three things, in this order. The gesture may be set to Off or to a different number of fingers. The shortcut may have been reassigned, so try Control and Down Arrow. And the app may simply have no open windows, or its only window may be full screen, in which case the system tells you there is nothing to show.

Can I see the windows of an app without switching to it first?

Not with the built-in shortcut, because it works on the active app. Right-clicking the icon in the Dock and choosing Show All Windows gets close. Quick Expose, which is free, does it on hover, and DockView does it on hover too, alongside its own window previews.