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I'm new to macOS and I really like the way you can assign a window to be it's own Desktop via full-screening. However, I have an issue with the default way the Menu bar works in full-screen.

I often move my cursor to the top of the screen to click on my tabs in my browsers and editors, and accidentally trigger the Menu bar obscuring my tabs. Other times I'd like the Menu bar to be available at a glance rather than having to trigger it by mousing up.

Is there some setting or application that will force the Menu bar to show at all times for full-screened windows?

It appears I'm not the first to have this issue, but the solutions in this post didn't work for me and based on the comment for the top answer it won't work for anyone.

If there is no way to do this can anyone give me a hint where I can get started writing an application to do this?

PS: Please don't suggest that I simply hold alt when clicking the fullscreen green button or anything else like just resize the window to fill the screen". This doesn't solve my issue because it strips away many of the advantages of fullscreening.

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    If you like the isolation of multiple desktops and being able to swipe between them etc, have you considered just adding the "maximised" version of the application to a new space/desktop? As "full screen" is "full screen" its not "full screen minus a bit" otherwise many people could get frustrated that full screen is not full screen :P - You say you lose advantages of fullscreening, maybe if you could elaborate on these advantages you want then would be easier suggest things
    – owenmelbz
    Commented Mar 13, 2017 at 11:26
  • Can you elaborate what you mean by "the advantages of fullscreening" please?
    – n1000
    Commented May 3, 2019 at 9:33
  • this issue (accidentally revealing the menu bar while aiming to click a browser tab) drives me mad.. unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a solution as yet - all answers below suggest avoiding full-screen Spaces mode altogether, which is not what I what..
    – Lloyd
    Commented Oct 14, 2020 at 11:41
  • Such a simple solution that apple could provide is a checkbox in Space √ Maintain Menu Bar when in Full Screen Mode. Come on Apple, give us options, not restrictions!!
    – Steve Torrence
    Commented Jan 15, 2022 at 9:57
  • One advantage of fullscreen mode - web browsers are easily tracked/profiled by viewport. When you're not in fullscreen, your viewport depends on things like location and size of your dock. You become pretty unique.
    – Dmitry Shvedov
    Commented Jan 22, 2022 at 21:21

6 Answers 6

Reset to default
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This is possible in macOS 12 Monterrey!! 🥳

In System Preferences ❭ Dock & Menu Bar ❭ Dock & Menu Bar, under the "Menu Bar" section at the bottom, you'll find this beautiful and glorious check box:

Here's a screenshot showing off the "Dock & Menu Bar" panel of System Preferences in macOS Monterrey, with the "Dock & Menu Bar" section selected, and an arrow pointing at a checkbox labelled "Automatically hide and show the menu bar in full screen".

Simply uncheck that box, and now when you bring an app into full-screen, the menu bar will remain at the top of the screen!

Then, a screenshot showing off Safari in full-screen mode, with the menu bar showing at the top of the screen.

The only strange thing to be aware of is the window control buttons (the "traffic lights"). Just like with this preference checked, the control buttons won't show until you bring your cursor to the top of the screen. This behavior strikes me as odd, but understandable, so I figured I'd note it here.

Here's an animation demonstrating the behavior described above.

🥳 This answer was outdated!

Since I still think there's merit in the old answer, I've archived it here:

I've been annoyed by this, too, and the simple, yet very, very painful answer is to hold alt ⌥
option and press the green title bar button (which should turn into a + when you hold option/alt)

enter image description here

If this doesn't make it cover the screen, you can finish the job by holding alt ⌥
option and double-clicking a corner to resize the window to fill the screen.

If you make your dock hide by default, this essentially gives you a "fullscreen" program with the menu bar always shown.

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    This is a great solution. However it doesn't work in split screen mode.
    – dorien
    Commented Jul 21, 2017 at 2:27
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    @dorien yep. Another reason I'm disappointed. Apple can do better.
    – Ky -
    Commented Jul 21, 2017 at 2:33
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    @Supuhstar Indeed. Also making a maximized window a separate desktop seems overkill. You can't have windows on top then if you want to float them over it.
    – dorien
    Commented Jul 21, 2017 at 3:13
  • @dorien - what makes you think that? In fact it's the opposite - a fullscreen app will take up the whole Space, a maximised one can have other apps/windows over it, if desired.
    – Tetsujin
    Commented Jul 21, 2017 at 5:08
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    Still, quite annoying that there's only one way to maximize windows.
    – Aaron Franke
    Commented Oct 22, 2018 at 19:15
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In addition to what others have said (using the ALT/OPTION + CLICK green maximize button), to designate a Desktop Space for one app, you can do a:

  • 3 (or 4) Finger Swipe Up to bring up the spaces menu at the top of the screen.

  • Bring your mouse over the top right and the (+) icon should expand and let you add a new space.

  • Drag that space in whichever order you desire (first, second, or last, etc.)

  • Now you can drag your desired app into that space, and (if it's not already...) you can maximize it with the usual keyboard shortcut trick.

It's worth noting that although ALT/OPTION + CLICK-ing the green maximize button does expand the window to full height, you probably want to combine it as SHIFT + ALT/OPTION + CLICK to expand to full width and height of your screen.

Add your own Desktop Space manually

Happy Spacing & Maximizing!

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0
12

This is possible in macOS 12 Monterrey!! 🥳

In System Preferences ❭ Dock & Menu Bar ❭ Dock & Menu Bar, under the "Menu Bar" section at the bottom, you'll find this beautiful and glorious check box:

Here's a screenshot showing off the "Dock & Menu Bar" panel of System Preferences in macOS Monterrey, with the "Dock & Menu Bar" section selected, and an arrow pointing at a checkbox labelled "Automatically hide and show the menu bar in full screen".

Simply uncheck that box, and now when you bring an app into full-screen, the menu bar will remain at the top of the screen!

Then, a screenshot showing off Safari in full-screen mode, with the menu bar showing at the top of the screen.

The only strange thing to be aware of is the window control buttons (the "traffic lights"). Just like with this preference checked, the control buttons won't show until you bring your cursor to the top of the screen. This behavior strikes me as odd, but understandable, so I figured I'd note it here.

Here's an animation demonstrating the behavior described above.

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    Just FYI, you have to logout and log back in for the changes to take effect
    – Luca Kiebel
    Commented Nov 2, 2021 at 18:42
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    Not for me, @LucaKiebel. Though, I did have to take the application out of fullscreen and put it back in. Which app(s) is/are giving you this trouble that it's not obeying this setting until relogging?
    – Ky -
    Commented Nov 9, 2021 at 2:28
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I use BetterTouchTool in two ways.

First, I defined an action that right clicking the maximize button will maximise windows rather than trigger fullscreen mode. Of course, you can set your own action or key combination instead or even override the green button entirely.

enter image description here

Second, I use Window Snapping, which basically imitates the functionality in Microsoft Windows. When you drag a window into a corner or to the top of the screen it will either enlarge it to an area of the screen or maximize it, respectively.

enter image description here

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2
  • Why the downvote?
    – n1000
    Commented May 3, 2019 at 9:31
  • Your link doesn't work anymore.
    – Josh Correia
    Commented Jul 16, 2019 at 13:54
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This might be a useful piece of info as an alternative to the other suggested options or for different use cases

Double Clicking the window title bar may also maximize the window size, keeping the menu bar and the dock visible.
However, this is only true for some applications. As stated correctly by Ky, this action might also just resize the window to a size the application sees fit.

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    Unfortunately, some applications (like Safari and Finder) don't maximize the window when you do this ☹️
    – Ky -
    Commented Oct 15, 2021 at 22:48
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⇧ shift-⌥ opt-click on the green stoplight button (+) to maximize the window in both width and height, keeping the menu bar visible.

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    What does ⇧ do in this case?
    – Ky -
    Commented Oct 5, 2018 at 17:40
  • @BenLeggiero, the + button is actually called Zoom, and it resizes the window to fit the content, not the screen. This is the case in every version before Full Screen replaced Zoom. ALT-clicking + would serve as Maximise. For many third-party apps, macOS decides that the right size to fit the content is to use as much space as possible, but other apps take full advantage of the Zoom button's intended use. After Full Screen replaced Zoom, Zoom became ALT-click, and Maximise ALT-SHIFT-click.
    – Jivan Pal
    Commented Sep 9, 2020 at 5:42
  • @JivanPal I tried ⌥-⇧-clicking the green button in Finder, and it behaved the same as ⌥-clicking
    – Ky -
    Commented Sep 9, 2020 at 16:35
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    @BenLeggiero, interesting, I just tried it too on Catalina 10.15.6, and it also doesn't do anything. I do remember this working on older versions of macOS, so I guess the feature has been removed.
    – Jivan Pal
    Commented Sep 10, 2020 at 1:18

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