For Windows switchers

Virtual desktops on Mac: a guide for Windows switchers

On Windows you leaned on virtual desktops. One for work, one for email, one for whatever you were really doing. You moved between them with Win+Ctrl+Left and Right, and you could name each one in Task View. Then you switched to a Mac and the feature seemed to vanish. It didn't. It's just hidden, renamed, and missing a few things you relied on.

Updated June 2026

Mac's virtual desktops are called Spaces

Apple doesn't use the words "virtual desktops." On macOS the same feature is called Spaces, and you find them inside Mission Control. Each Space is a separate desktop with its own set of open windows, exactly like a virtual desktop on Windows.

The concept is identical. What changes is the controls, the defaults, and a couple of things Apple left out. If you set them up right, multiple desktops on Mac work as well as they did on Windows, sometimes better.

How to create multiple desktops on Mac

Open Mission Control: press Ctrl+Up, press F3, or swipe up with three fingers on the trackpad. Your desktops appear as a strip across the top of the screen.

Move your pointer to the top-right corner and click the + button to add a desktop. You can have up to 16. To remove one, hover over it in Mission Control and click the X. That's the Windows "new desktop" (Win+Ctrl+D) and "close desktop" (Win+Ctrl+F4) you already know, just in a different place.

Windows shortcuts, and what they map to on Mac

Most of your muscle memory transfers. Here is the translation table.

Two notes. The Ctrl+1 through Ctrl+9 shortcuts are off by default, turn them on in System Settings → Keyboard → Keyboard Shortcuts → Mission Control. And Cmd+Tab switches between apps, not windows, so it behaves a little differently than Alt+Tab. To cycle windows of the same app, use Cmd+` (the key above Tab).

Fix the two defaults that make Spaces feel broken

A lot of switchers try Spaces, decide they're worse than Windows, and give up. Usually it's these two settings, both in System Settings → Desktop & Dock → Mission Control.

The one thing Windows did better: naming

Here's the part switchers actually miss. On Windows 10 and 11 you could open Task View, right-click a desktop, and rename it. "Work," "Email," "Design." The names showed up everywhere.

macOS won't let you do this. Your desktops are stuck as "Desktop 1, Desktop 2, Desktop 3," and with four or five of them you lose track of which is which. There is no built-in way to name a Space, and there's no name shown in the menu bar to tell you where you are.

That gap is the reason I built SpaceJump. It gives every Space a name, icon, and color, shows the current Space name right in the menu bar and inside Mission Control, and adds a quick switcher (⌘+0) where you type a name and press Enter, closer to the Windows Task View you came from than anything Apple ships. It also tracks time per desktop if you bill by project.

Multiple desktops across multiple monitors

Each display can have its own set of Spaces. By default macOS links them, so switching desktops on one screen switches both. If you want them independent, like separate virtual desktops per monitor on Windows, turn on System Settings → Desktop & Dock → "Displays have separate Spaces."

Common questions