The 12 best ways to customize your Mac’s desktop

A lot of Macs look the same, but there are a lot of things you can do to make them feel like you. This includes everything from changing the appearance and placement of items to adjusting how macOS feels and behaves.

Change wallpaper (and screen saver)

Probably the most visible and visually impressive decision you can make, you can change your macOS wallpaper using System Preferences (System Settings) > Desktop & Screen Saver.

You can choose from dynamic Apple wallpapers that change throughout the day, simple light and dark backgrounds that switch according to the current theme, or wallpapers supplied by Apple. You can also choose from your Photos library, nominate a folder, or turn on “Change Image” to keep things fresh.

If you’re still using a screensaver, you can change it here as well. We recommend saving power instead and changing the “Turn off display after” setting to something nice and short in System Preferences (System Preferences) > Battery (or Power Saver on a desktop Mac.)

You can also set any image in Safari as your desktop wallpaper by right-clicking (or tapping with two fingers) and selecting “Use as desktop wallpaper” from the context menu.

Choose between light, dark and automatic themes

macOS now has a dark theme that’s much easier on the eyes when using your computer at night. You can find this option under System Preferences (System Settings) > General, where you can choose between light, dark and automatic themes. If you choose Automatic, your Mac will change based on the time of day.

You’ll also find a few other options, such as the macOS highlight color (which is used to highlight objects such as menu items or desktop icons).

Set custom user icon

The user icon is what you see when you first start your Mac, so make it personal. You can change what is displayed in System Preferences (System Settings) > Users. Make sure your user account is selected on the left, then click your current user icon to change.

You can choose from animated memoji in different positions, static emoticons, a monogram of your initials, a photo taken by a webcam, a photo from your photo library, or one of Apple’s attached images in the “Designs” tab. You can also click on any image and drag it to the circle in the lower left corner of the screen to use an image you found on the web or created yourself.

Customize the Dock

The Dock is one of the most functional aspects of your Mac’s desktop, so you should take some time to customize it to work for you. The first thing you should do is remove any icons that aren’t useful by clicking on one, dragging it from the dock, and then releasing it when the “Remove” label appears.

You can add items to the Dock by clicking and dragging them from a folder such as Applications or Tools, or by right-clicking on the currently open application and selecting Options > Keep in Dock from the context menu.

Go to System Preferences (System Settings) > Dock & Menu Bar and change things like the location of your dock. Placing the dock on the left side of the screen maximizes the available vertical screen space, which is useful if you have a MacBook with a smaller screen.

If you don’t find it useful to go back to apps you’ve used recently, you can also remove the “Recent apps” section from the dock. In this menu there are settings for automatically hiding the dock, enabling zooming, and changing the animation styles used when minimizing and maximizing windows.

Perhaps one of the most useful things you can do is pin frequently used folders to the dock. You can do this using the area on the far right (or bottom if you’re using vertical dock) of the dock. Drag a folder into this section, then right-click on it to change how that folder is displayed (choose from Folder and Stack views, with the option to expand the folder in List or Grid view).

You can then quickly access the folder from that part of the dock, or even drag and drop items directly into that folder using the same shortcut.

Customize the menu bar

The menu bar is a thin strip of contextual and system preferences that runs along the top of the screen. On the left you’ll find the Apple menu and app-specific options like “File” and “Edit,” while on the right you’ll see the time and icons for currently running apps and services.

You can tidy up this part of the menu bar by using an app like Bartender ($16) or the free alternative Dozer to hide unsightly icons while giving them one-click access. If you don’t have enough stuff in the top-right corner of your screen, apps like iStatMenus (free to try) and Hot (free) can display information like CPU load, read and write speeds, and internal temperatures at a glance.

Go to System Preferences (System Settings) > Dock & Menu Bar and click “Clock” to change how the time is displayed, including options for 24-hour time format and flashing seconds indicator. Click “Battery” to add a percentage of the current battery level on MacBooks.

You can use other sections like Bluetooth and AirDrop to add dedicated icons to the menu bar or remove icons like Wi-Fi and Siri. It is also possible to automatically hide the menu bar under the “Dock and Menu Bar” option at the top of the list.

Customize the Finder

The Finder sidebar contains Favorites that let you quickly jump to different places, such as Documents and Downloads. To remove places that aren’t useful, right-click and select “Remove from Sidebar” or launch a Finder window, then click Finder > Preferences and use the “Sidebar” tab to check or uncheck the items you’re interested in.

You’ll also find options to change which Finder windows appear by default (on the “General” tab), change labels and label colors (on the “Tags” tab), and change Finder’s default search behavior (on the “Advanced” tab.)

To add other folders that you use regularly to the Finder sidebar (such as the Invoices or Finances folder), click the folder and drag it to the sidebar. Click and drag items in this area to rearrange them. If you don’t see the Finder sidebar, you may have disabled it. Open a Finder window, then turn it back on using View > Show Sidebar at the top of the screen.

Finally, if you want to keep showing hidden files, you can open a new terminal window, type (or paste) the following, and then return:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles true; killall Finder

To hide them again, change them true on false in the above command and run it again.

Add some widgets to the notification center

Widgets for macOS aren’t anything groundbreaking, but you might find a quick view of the calendar month and world time handy. You can access the notification center by swiping with two fingers from the edge of the trackpad. Here you will see excellent notifications and widgets, you can edit them by clicking “Edit Widgets” at the bottom of the list.

Change the behavior of the trackpad and keyboard

You may be happy with the default macOS keyboard and trackpad behavior, so you may want to leave these settings alone. Go to System Preferences (System Settings) > Trackpad for options to turn on silent clicks (Tap Clicks), change trackpad sensitivity (Track Speed), adjust haptic feedback (Clicks), or disable Apple’s special clicks (Force Clicks and Haptic Feedback) on the “Point and Click” tab.

If typing seems a little slow, use System Preferences (System Settings) > Keyboard and change the speed of “Key repeat” and “Delay until repeat”. We recommend this if you type a lot and use text editing shortcuts like Shift+Arrows when selecting text. You can speed up the entire editing process by increasing the repeat rate and reducing the delay.

Make the notch disappear

Newer MacBooks like the MacBook Pro 2021 and MacBook Air 2022 have a notch at the top of the screen. While it’s not really a big deal, you can make this feature practically disappear using apps like TopNotch, Forehead, and De-Notch-ifier. By adding a black background and rounded border to your current wallpaper, these apps fit the entire menu bar into the natural frame of your MacBook.

Get rid of desktop icons

If you like the clean look of your desktop, you can turn off all desktop icons, open a Terminal window and type (or paste the following and then Return):

defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop false; killall Finder

By changing it, you can turn the icons back on false on true in the above command. If you want quick one-click access to this option, you can use the Toggle Hide Desktop Shortcuts workflow. Don’t forget to enable Shortcuts in the macOS menu bar for easy access.

Even with desktop icons turned off, you can still use the “Desktop” folder in the Finder.

Organize Windows faster

It’s more of a productivity enhancement than a true customization, but it has the power to change the way you use your Mac. Using keyboard shortcuts and an app like Magnet ($7.99) or the free alternative Rectangle, you can quickly rearrange windows to get the most out of your screen.

Once installed, you can use keyboard shortcuts like Control+Option+Left Arrow to place a window on the left half of the screen and Ctrl+Option+Right Arrow to place another window on the right side. It’s so useful, you’ll wonder why Apple hasn’t already added it to macOS.

Add a Windows-style “Start” menu

If you came to macOS from Windows and miss the good old Start menu, help is at hand. With uBar (free to try, $30), you can completely replace the Mac dock with the familiar Windows-like interface you’re used to. This includes quick launch icons, currently open applications, and grouped windows. You can even hover over and preview grouped windows.

The app may command a premium price, but if you just can’t get used to the way Apple does things, it’s a small price to pay to get your productivity back.

Also consider customizing Safari

Safari is a solid browser, but with a few extensions it’s even better. Do more with Apple’s browser by downloading some of the best Safari extensions from the Mac App Store.

Starting with macOS Ventura, expected in fall 2022, these extensions will even sync between iOS, iPadOS, and macOS. However, not all Macs will get macOS Ventura. If yours doesn’t, you’ll need to buy a new MacBook or desktop Mac to take advantage of these new features when Apple releases macOS Ventura.