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A menu-bar app for macOS desktops

Your desktops,
arranged in rows.

macOS lines your desktops up in one long strip. MiliControl groups them into rows — Home, Work, Side project — and moves you around the grid with macOS’s own slides. Plus a calm dashboard, a living notch and your favourite sites, one shortcut away.

Download for macOSStar on GitHub
  • Free & open source
  • macOS 13+
  • Apple silicon & Intel
  • Signed & notarized

Desktop 1 · Home

Home

Work

Side project

Click here and use your arrow keys.

Why MiliControl

Nine desktops in a line is a lot of swiping.

Give each part of your life its own row and you’re never more than a couple of slides away. MiliControl decides where to go; macOS does the switch — so it feels exactly like your Mac, only organised.

macOS

123456789

With MiliControl

Home
12
Work
345
Side project
6789

The grid view

Every desktop, and your day, at a glance

Press ⌃ ↑ for live previews of every desktop and fullscreen app, above a dashboard with your calendar, what’s next, a to-do list and a sticky note. Drag desktops between rows, click one to go.

MiliControl's grid view: a dashboard with a clock, a month calendar with Persian dates, upcoming events, a to-do list and a sticky note, above three rows of desktop previews

Features

Small app. Your whole Mac, a little calmer.

  • Grid navigation

    ⌃⌥ ← → moves within a row, ⌃⌥ ↑ ↓ between rows. Tap to slide instantly, or hold the arrow to see the whole grid and jump anywhere in one slide. Four-finger swipes work too.

  • The grid view

    Live previews of every desktop and fullscreen app, with browser profiles (“Chrome · Work”) on each tile.

  • A calm dashboard

    Clock, month calendar with your events, up next, to-dos and a note. Add a second calendar — Persian, Hijri, Hebrew and more.

  • A living notch

    Spotify and Apple Music widen the notch with artwork and a little wave. New Telegram, WhatsApp and Slack messages drop down from it.

  • Web tabs

    Keep chess.com, YouTube, ChatGPT — any site — one click away in the grid view. Pages stay exactly where you left them.

  • Light, native and private

    A menu-bar app with no Dock icon. Per-desktop Dock visibility, launch at login and automatic updates. Nothing ever leaves your Mac.

The notch

That black bar finally does something.

Now playing
Spotify or Apple Music widens the notch with the artwork and a little wave.
Full player
Hover it for artwork, progress and playback controls.
Messages
New Telegram, WhatsApp and Slack messages drop down for a few seconds.
No notch?
Other displays get the same player as a slim pill at the top of the screen.

Shortcuts

Five shortcuts. That’s the whole manual.

⌃⌥←or⌃⌥→
Previous / next desktop in the current row
⌃⌥↑or⌃⌥↓
Previous / next row
Hold the arrow
Show the grid · tap arrows to choose · release ⌃⌥ to go
⌃↑or⌃⌥Space
Open the grid view
⌃↓orEsc
Close the grid view

Get started

Set up in about a minute

  1. 1

    Download and install

    Open the DMG and drag MiliControl onto Applications. It’s signed with a Developer ID and notarized by Apple.

  2. 2

    Follow the checklist

    Settings shows a short setup checklist — Accessibility and a couple of Mission Control shortcuts. Keep going until everything is green.

  3. 3

    Arrange your rows

    Press ⌃↑ to open the grid view, name your rows and drag desktops into them. MiliControl updates itself from then on.

FAQ

Questions, answered

MiliControl is a free, open-source menu-bar app for macOS that arranges your desktops (Spaces) into rows — Home, Work, Side project — and lets you move around that grid with the keyboard or trackpad. It adds a grid view with live previews, a dashboard, a living notch and web tabs.

Give every part of your day its own row

Free and open source, for macOS 13 and later.

Download for macOSStar on GitHub