Whether you just got a new Mac or upgraded an old one, macOS Sonoma is filled with fun new features to explore all over the place. But after you set your new screen saver and customize your widgets, you might find one new feature you don’t actually want.
It’s called Click Wallpaper to Reveal Desktop and if you’ve used it, it’s probably been accidentally. Maybe you’ve misclicked on a file or shortcut or inadvertently clicked on your desktop wallpaper. However you got there, you were probably very confused when your windows flew away to reveal your desktop.
Apple has given us the ability to quickly show your desktop for a while, either through a four-finger spread gesture or Hot Corner, but in macOS Sonoma, your desktop will show just by clicking somewhere on your wallpaper. The first time I activated it, I thought I had done something wrong. The second time I thought I had inadvertently activated the gesture. By the third time, I just assumed I was going crazy.
Foundry
It turns out it’s a Stage Manager feature that Apple has turned on by default. If you go to the Desktop & Dock tab in System Settings, there’s a new Click Wallpaper to Reveal Desktop option in the Desktop & Stage Manager section with two options: Always and Only in Stage Manager. If you’re like me and never use Stage Manager, setting it to Only in Stage Manager means you’ll never see it again. I don’t know why Apple added it as a default, but thankfully they’ve given us an easy way to disable it.
Author: Michael Simon, Executive Editor
Michael Simon has been covering Apple since the iPod was the iWalk. His obsession with technology goes back to his first PC—the IBM Thinkpad with the lift-up keyboard for swapping out the drive. He's still waiting for that to come back in style tbh.