How to Change Command-Tab on Mac, and What You Can't Change

You cannot rebind Command-Tab itself in macOS, but you can stop desktop jumping, view all windows with the Down Arrow, cycle same-app windows with Cmd + ` , or use a replacement switcher.

What you can’t change about Command-Tab

If you search macOS System Settings for Command-Tab settings, you will not find any dedicated controls. Apple provides no preference pane to rebind the shortcut, change its appearance, or adjust which open windows it selects. The only built-in adjustment is remapping modifier keys across your entire keyboard: under System Settings → Keyboard → Keyboard Shortcuts → Modifier Keys, you can swap the Command key with Option or Control. The rest of this page covers what you can change around the switcher: where it takes you, which windows you see, and where it appears.

Stop Command-Tab jumping to another desktop

By default, selecting an app in Command-Tab pulls your screen to whichever desktop space contains that app’s window. If you prefer to stay on your current workspace, you can disable this behavior:

1. Open System Settings.
2. Click Desktop & Dock in the sidebar.
3. Scroll down to the Mission Control section.
4. Turn off When switching to an application, switch to a Space with open windows for the application.

With this option turned off, Command-Tab activates the app without sliding your desktop away.

Show all of an app’s windows from Command-Tab

To see all open windows for a specific application directly from the switcher:

1. Press Cmd + Tab and keep holding the Cmd key.
2. Press Tab until the target application icon is highlighted.
3. While still holding Cmd, press the ↓ (Down Arrow) key to open App Exposé.
4. macOS displays all active windows for that app. Minimized windows appear in a small strip along the bottom.
5. Press ↓ again to move focus down to the minimized row, use the arrow keys to choose a window, and press Return to bring it forward.

Alternatively, when an application is already active, you can press Ctrl + ↓ at any time to open App Exposé for its windows without opening Command-Tab first.

Every way to get a minimized window back, with and without Command-Tab, is in How to Restore Minimized Windows on Mac.

Switch between windows of the same app

Command-Tab cycles between different apps, not windows of the same app. To cycle through open windows of your currently active application, press Cmd + ` (the grave accent key directly above Tab on US keyboards). Add Shift (Shift + Cmd + ` ) to cycle in reverse. Note that this shortcut only cycles through visible windows on your current desktop space; it skips any windows you have minimized to the Dock.

Coming from Windows? The Alt+Tab on Mac guide maps each Windows shortcut to its Mac equivalent.

Show the Command-Tab switcher on every display

On multi-monitor setups, macOS shows the Command-Tab overlay on only one display, the one that currently has the Dock. If you want the switcher to appear across all connected monitors at the same time, you can enable a hidden Dock preference using Terminal:

defaults write com.apple.dock appswitcher-all-displays -bool true && killall Dock

To revert to standard single-display behavior later, run the same command with -bool false.

Replace Command-Tab or fix it?

Deciding how to handle Command-Tab comes down to whether you want a brand-new switcher or just want the native one to work better.

Replacement utilities introduce their own switching overlays. AltTab maps to Option + Tab by default, offering thumbnail previews of every window; it needs Accessibility permission, plus Screen Recording for the thumbnails. Command-Tab Plus is designed for macOS 14 or later and can replace the native Command-Tab to switch between individual windows and apps.

If you like the speed and muscle memory of the built-in switcher, you do not need to replace it. A focused utility can fix its main annoyance, minimized windows left stranded in the Dock, while leaving the rest of macOS untouched.

If you’d rather keep it, Command Reopen can make Command-Tab restore minimized windows without any permission. For replacements, see Command Reopen vs AltTab and Command Reopen vs Command-Tab Plus.