Keep the Dock clean by minimizing into the app icon

A clean Dock is one thing: a single strip of app icons, evenly sized, nothing shuffling around. The default behavior breaks that the moment you minimize a window, dropping a thumbnail onto the right of the Dock. Turn on Minimize windows into application icon and the Dock stays one tidy strip no matter how many windows you tuck away.

One strip, not two

Out of the box, the Dock is really two zones separated by a thin divider: apps on the left, and a growing collection of minimized-window thumbnails on the right. If you like a minimal, deliberate Dock, that right-hand pile is the enemy — it's unpredictable, it changes size as you work, and it makes the whole Dock feel busier than it is. Sending minimized windows into their own app icon keeps everything on the left where it belongs, so the Dock reads as a clean, fixed row.

Turn on minimize-into-icon

Flip the setting in System Settings → Desktop & Dock by switching on Minimize windows into application icon. Or, from Terminal:

# Keep the Dock to one clean strip of icons
defaults write com.apple.dock minimize-to-application -bool true
killall Dock

To reverse it:

# Restore separate minimized thumbnails
defaults write com.apple.dock minimize-to-application -bool false
killall Dock

It works identically on macOS 13 Ventura, 14 Sonoma, and 15 Sequoia. To bring a tucked-away window back, right-click the app's Dock icon and pick it from the list near the top of the menu.

Round out the clean Dock

This setting pairs well with a few others if a minimal Dock is the goal:

• Show only active apps. Strip the Dock down to what's actually running — see show only active apps in the Dock on Mac.
• Auto-hide the Dock. Keep the screen clear until you need it — make the Dock hide instantly on Mac removes the reveal delay too.
• Drop recent apps. Turn off the recent-apps section so the strip doesn't grow on its own.

Together with minimize-into-icon, these give you a Dock that only ever shows what you put there.

Set the whole Dock at once

If you're styling the Dock end to end, the best Dock settings on Mac covers size, position, magnification, and hiding — the choices that, together with minimize-into-icon, make the Dock feel intentional rather than default.