October 2, 2026

Lock the Mac by throwing the pointer into a corner

System Settings > Desktop & Dock > Hot Corners. The bottom-right corner starts as Quick Note.

• Mac
• Easy · 2 min
• Mac on current macOS, including Tahoe
• Fix: set hot corners on a Mac
• Cheat sheet

How to do it

1. 01

   Open System Settings > Desktop & Dock.

2. 02

   Scroll down and click Hot Corners.

3. 03

   Pick Lock Screen for a corner you can hit when you stand up. Pick Notification Center or Desktop for the others if you want them.

4. 04

   Hold Command, Option, Control, or Shift while choosing the action if you want that corner to require the key. Accidental locks are how people turn the feature off again.

Quick Note in the bottom-right corner is useful if you leave it. Move the pointer there and a note opens. Change it if you keep creating empty notes by accident.