DockView 2 Documentation

Applies to DockView 2.2.4 · Updated September 2026

DockView 2 is a small utility for macOS that brings window previews to your Dock: point at an app’s icon and you see thumbnails of all its windows, live. Alongside that it adds a window switcher, numbered Dock shortcuts, quick window layouts and a folder-style app panel in the Dock — each one optional and off until you turn it on.

First launch

The first time you open DockView 2 it asks for two permissions: Accessibility — so it can see the icons in your Dock and control windows — and Screen Recording — so it can show the thumbnails themselves. Without them previews can’t work: macOS simply won’t let an app look inside other apps’ windows.

DockView 2 lives in the menu bar and has no icon in the Dock.

If the permissions get lost or you need to grant them again, go to Settings → Permissions. It shows what has been granted and what hasn’t, Open Settings takes you straight to the right page in System Settings, and Show Onboarding Again walks you through the first-launch steps once more.

Window previews in the Dock

Point at an app’s icon in the Dock and a panel appears above it with thumbnails of all its windows. You can see what’s open where and jump straight to the window you want instead of cycling through them one by one. While the panel is open the thumbnails stay live — they keep refreshing rather than showing a frozen snapshot.

What you can do with a thumbnail:

Click — switch to that window.
Point at it — three buttons appear on top: close the window, minimize it, zoom it. Clicking zoom again returns the window to its previous size. You can also hide the buttons entirely if they get in the way of the thumbnail.
Two-finger swipe down — minimize the window; swipe up — restore a minimized window, or zoom a normal one.
Keep hovering a little longer — see the window full size (needs to be turned on, see below).

Buttons in the panel header, next to the app’s name:

New Window — opens a new window of that app. DockView takes the command from the app’s own File menu, so it works even where a new window isn’t ⌘N. Apps without such a command simply don’t get the button.
Show All Windows — hands the app over to macOS App Exposé: the system lays out every window of that app, just like the trackpad gesture.

The panel stays put as long as the pointer is on it or on the icon. Right-clicking the icon hides the panel and opens the usual Dock menu.

App Exposé instead of the panel. If you prefer the system layout, set Preview → When hovering a Dock icon to App Exposé. Then choose when it appears in Show App Exposé: Always, or only while you hold ⌘, ⌥, ⇧ or ⌃ — point at an icon for the DockView panel, add the key for App Exposé. You can press the key after pointing, too; the view switches right away. Move along the Dock and the layout follows the icon; move away, click a window or switch apps to put it back. Minimized windows and Stage Manager groups keep showing the DockView panel.

Making it yours

What	Where	Details
How fast it appears	`Preview → Hover Delay`	0.1 to 1 second; 0.4 by default
Appearance	`Appearance → Theme`	`System` follows macOS, plus `Light`, `Dark`, and `Classic` — dark with a bright white outline
How it appears	`Appearance → Animation → Panel animation`	seven styles — `Spring`, `Smooth`, `Slide`, `Pop`, `Fade`, `Classic` (the HyperDock way) and `Off`; the `Speed` slider beside it runs from 0.5× to 2×
Minimized windows in the list	`Preview → Behavior → Include minimized windows in previews`	on
Skip apps with a single window	`Preview → Behavior → Skip preview when app has a single window`	with Calendar, Maps or Contacts the preview just shows the same window that’s already in front of you
Thumbnail size	`Appearance → Thumbnail Size`	one slider, 80–300 points: you set the height and the width follows each window’s proportions
Windows from other desktops	`Preview → Other Desktops → Mark windows on other desktops`	on; windows of the current desktop come first, the rest follow with a `Desktop 2`, `Desktop 3` or `Full Screen` badge, numbered the way Mission Control numbers them
Distance from the Dock	`Appearance → Panel Position → Gap`	0–40 points, 12 by default; increase it if the panel overlaps the Dock
Full-size preview	`Preview → Full-Size Preview`	off; turning it on adds a delay slider — how long to keep hovering, from 0.2 to 2 seconds
Button style on thumbnails	`Appearance → Window Control Buttons → Style`	`Classic` — light circles; `Traffic-light` — colored, like macOS window buttons; `Hidden` — no buttons at all, just the thumbnail

Preview → Reset to Defaults restores every setting in the app, not just the ones on that tab.

Previews for minimized windows (beta)

Minimized windows sit apart in the Dock — to the right of the separator, next to the Trash — and you won’t find them among the app icons. Turn on Preview → Minimized Windows → Preview minimized windows in Dock (Beta) and pointing at one of them shows its preview too.

Still in beta, off by default.

Clicking a Dock icon

Normally, clicking the icon of an app that’s already in front does nothing. DockView 2 lets you put that click to use: Dock → Click on Dock Icon → When the app is already active.

Do nothing — the macOS behavior. This is the default.
Hide the app — hide the app, same as ⌘H. An extra checkbox appears: ⌥ Option+click hides other apps — holding ⌥ while clicking hides everything else and leaves just that app on screen.
Switch to next window — cycle through the app’s windows. Each click moves you to the next one; hold ⇧ while clicking to include minimized windows. Step away for more than three seconds and the cycle starts over.

This only applies to the app you’re currently working in. Clicking any other app’s icon still simply switches to it.

Numbers on Dock icons

A quick way to switch between apps without the mouse.

Hold the modifier and numbered badges appear on your Dock icons. Press a number to switch to that app. The first nine icons get 1 through 9 and the tenth gets 0; numbering stops there, since that’s how many digits the top row has. Folders, the Trash and the separator aren’t numbered.

Turn it on in Dock → Dock Shortcuts → Show numbers on Dock icons; off by default. The default modifier is ⌃⌥ Control+Option. macOS has claimed ⌃ Control on its own for switching desktops, so that option only works if you have a single desktop.

What you can change (in the same section):

Modifier — ⌃ Control, ⌥ Option, ⌘ Command or ⌃⌥ Control+Option.
Number only running apps — skip apps that aren’t running, so the numbers cover only the apps you can actually switch to.
Number right to left — count from the far end of the Dock.
Show numbers — While holding the modifier, the way it has always worked, or Always, which leaves the badges on the icons. Switching apps still needs the modifier either way.
Badge color — your system accent color or one of nine fixed ones, graphite and black among them.
Badge size — three sizes. The badge scales with the icon, so it doesn’t shrink to a dot when Dock magnification kicks in.
Badge position — any of the four corners of the icon.

Window switcher

Like ⌘⇥, but for windows rather than apps: every open window appears on screen at once, so you can see where you’re going.

Turn it on in Windows → Window Switcher → Enable window switcher — off by default, because the feature takes over a keyboard shortcut and that’s your call to make.

The default shortcut is ⌥⇥ (Option+Tab). You can change it in the Shortcut field next to it: click the field and press the combination you want (a key on its own, without a modifier, won’t be accepted; Esc cancels).

While the switcher is open: pressing the shortcut again or ⇥ moves forward, with ⇧ backward, the arrow keys move the selection, ↩ or a mouse click takes you to the window, and Esc closes it. Letting go of the modifier switches you to the highlighted window, the way ⌘⇥ behaves; if you would rather confirm with a second keystroke, turn off Windows → Appearance → Switch when the modifier is released.

Minimized windows and windows of hidden apps stay out of the list, again like ⌘⇥. Show hidden and minimized windows in the same section brings them back.

Three layouts to choose from (Windows → Appearance → Style):

Grid — windows in two rows, page by page.
Carousel — the selected window large and centered, its neighbors angled behind it. This is the default.
List — every window as a plain list with no thumbnails, so it opens without waiting for them.

You can also switch layouts from inside the switcher itself — your choice is remembered. List text size sets how big the text runs: Normal, Large or Larger. It applies to the list layout and to the application window list below; bigger text also widens those panels.

The windows of one app

The switcher walks every window on the Mac. This one stays inside the app you are working in: hold ⌥ and press the key above Tab, and a compact list of that app’s windows appears. It carries no thumbnails, so there is nothing to wait for. Press the shortcut again to step down the list, release ⌥ to switch, Esc to close.

Turn it on in Windows → Application Windows → Enable application window list; off by default, like every shortcut DockView adds. The default shortcut is ⌥ and the key above Tab ( on most layouts), changed in theShortcut` field beside it.

Quick window commands (Quick Windows)

A small panel in the middle of the screen that lays the current window out across half the screen, a quarter, three columns, or the whole display.

The commands come from the app’s own Window menu, so you get exactly what you’re used to seeing in that program: Fill, Center, Zoom, Minimize, plus Move & Resize and Full Screen Tile. Apps without a Window menu won’t open the panel — you’ll hear the system alert sound instead.

Turn it on in Windows → Quick Windows → Enable quick window commands; off by default. The default shortcut is ⌥⌘F, changed in the Shortcut field beside it.

Inside the panel: the arrow keys pick a command, ↩ applies it, Esc or a click elsewhere closes it.

The DockView icon in the Dock and the app panel

Your own folder in the Dock: an icon that pops open a panel of apps — the ones you put there yourself. The app launches and focus goes back to whatever you were working in.

The icon is drawn as a folder full of apps so it reads as a folder in the Dock. You can turn it on in either of two places — System → Show icon in Dock or the first line of the Dock Panel tab, Show the apps panel in the Dock; it’s the same switch. Off by default. Clicking the icon again closes the panel.

You choose what’s in the panel on the Dock Panel tab: drag apps in from the Finder or add them with +, remove them with −, and drag the rows to reorder. It starts out with a few system apps so you can see straight away how it works.

Worth knowing: there’s only one such panel — you can’t create several separate folders. While the icon is showing, DockView 2 also appears in the ⌘⇥ app switcher. And if you turn the setting off while the icon was kept in the Dock, it stays behind as a shortcut — drag it out yourself.

This is where you open settings (⌘,), this documentation, check for updates, send feedback and quit. It also shows your license status and warns you if one of the permissions is missing.

You can hide the icon: System → Menu Bar → Show icon in menu bar. To bring it back, launch DockView 2 again from Applications or Spotlight — the settings window opens.

Startup, updates and license

System → Startup → Launch at login — start together with the system.
System → Updates → Check for Updates — check for updates by hand; also available from the menu bar.
System → License — your license status: trial, activated (with the address it was issued to), or not activated. Buying and managing the license starts here too.
System → About — the app version.

Where to find things in Settings

Tab	What’s there
Preview	what appears when you hover the Dock — the panel or App Exposé — and when; how fast it appears, which windows are listed, windows from other desktops, minimized windows, full-size preview, resetting settings
Appearance	how the panel looks: theme, animation and speed, thumbnail size, distance from the Dock, button style on thumbnails
Stage	previews for Stage Manager groups, their gap and delay
Dock	numbers on icons, what clicking an icon does
Windows	the window switcher, the application window list and quick window commands
Dock Panel	the apps in your Dock panel
Permissions	permissions and re-running the first-launch steps
System	license, launch at login, Dock and menu bar icons, updates, version

Previews for Stage Manager groups (beta)

With Stage Manager on, your windows collapse into a strip at the edge of the screen, and the shrunken cards rarely tell you what is in a group. Point at a group in the strip and you get the same thumbnail panel a Dock icon gives you, with the same jump straight to the window you want.

Turn it on in the Stage tab, Preview Stage Manager groups (Beta); off by default. Stage Manager itself has to be on in System Settings, or there is nothing to point at.

Two panel settings live in the same tab, separate from the ones for Dock previews:

Gap — the distance between the Stage Manager strip and the panel, from -60 to 80 points, 12 by default. A negative value pulls the panel over the strip.
Delay — how long you keep the pointer on a group before the panel appears, from 0.05 to 1 second, 0.1 by default. That is shorter than the delay for Dock icons, because the strip is narrow and the pointer crosses it quickly.

The feature is in beta. One known limit: the full-size preview of a window from a group sometimes arrives tilted and blurred, which is how the system hands it back while the window sits in the strip.