The Apps Menu

The Apps Menu is the launcher at the leading end of the bar. Click it for a list of:


Favourites	The applications pinned to the bar
All Apps	Everything in your Applications folders, grouped by category
Recent Apps	What you have used most recently, tracked from first launch

It opens correctly whichever edge the bar is on. Right-click the button to switch lists or hide it.

Searching

The search field is focused the moment the launcher opens, so you can type without reaching for the mouse.

Matches are ranked.
Initials work — vsc finds Visual Studio Code.
↑ and ↓ move through the results.
Return launches.
Escape clears the search, and then closes.

The gear to the right of the field opens Settings.

Opening it from anywhere

⌃Esc opens it from anywhere, which is the Windows key’s job: press it and start typing. Press it again to close. It is on out of the box.

Settings ▸ Behaviour ▸ Apps Menu ▸ Shortcut offers three, one you record, or none:


⌃Esc	The default. macOS does not use it, and on Windows it is the Start-menu shortcut, so it already means this. Escape has no text-input role, so it shadows nothing.
⌥Space	What most launchers use, so it is the one you may already reach for. It does take over the non-breaking space that ⌥Space types into a text field.
Tap right ⌘	The closest thing to a real Windows key: a lone modifier macOS assigns nothing, tapped and released on its own. Needs Accessibility.
Custom Shortcut	Any combination you record, for when the others are taken. See Recording a shortcut.

macOS leaves less room here than it looks. ⌃Space and ⌃⌥Space are input-source switching, ⌘Space is Spotlight and ⌥⌘Space is Finder search — all on by default. The two combinations above are what is left.

A right-⌘ tap only counts if right ⌘ goes down alone, nothing happens while it is down, and it comes back up within 0.4 seconds. So right-⌘S, right-⌘-click and a held ⌘ all leave the launcher shut.

More than applications

Include System Items — on by default — adds two sections after the applications in All Apps:

Section	What it holds
System Settings	Every pane System Settings shows, opened straight to it
Folders	Home, Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Pictures, Music, Movies, iCloud Drive, Applications, Utilities

They are appended to the applications rather than given a list of their own, so a single search reaches all of it: type displ for Displays, downl for Downloads, restart to restart. Browsing is unaffected — both sort after every application category, so the list still opens on apps.

How the panes are found

The panes are enumerated, not hard-coded. /System/Library/ExtensionKit/Extensions is where System Settings keeps them, and each declares the extension point and a bundle identifier that x-apple.systempreferences: opens.

Names come from each bundle’s localised dictionary, which is what makes them read “Wi‑Fi”, “Desktop & Dock” and “Touch ID & Password” rather than “WiFiSettings” and “DesktopSettings”. The handful with no localised name fall back to the sidebar label declared in the bundle, which is why Battery is not listed as “PowerPreferences”.

The older /System/Library/PreferencePanes route looks like the obvious one and is not: on macOS 26 most of those bundles are empty stubs with no Info.plist at all, which yields names like “DesktopScreenEffectsPref” and entries for hardware nobody has had in a decade.

Two of Apple’s own flags do the filtering, so there is no list of exceptions to go stale: a pane must declare allowsXAppleSystemPreferencesURLScheme, and one whose every representation is marked hidden is left out.

Power actions

Sleep, Log Out, Restart and Shut Down are a permanent row of buttons above Open Applications Folder, rather than four more rows at the bottom of a list you would have to scroll to reach.

They are icon-only and evenly spread, and each names itself in a tooltip — a power symbol and a restart symbol are not worth guessing between. Typing still finds them, so restart reaches Restart whether or not you were looking at the buttons.

Sleep is at the left-hand end and Shut Down at the right, furthest from it: a list you drive by typing is exactly where a mistyped Return lands one row off.

Log Out, Restart and Shut Down each ask first, in a dialog that names which of the three is about to happen — three alerts reading “Are you sure?” would be three ways to shut the machine down by mistake. Return is the action and Escape is Cancel. Sleep does not ask, because it is undone by moving the mouse.

They are Apple events to loginwindow — there is no Cocoa API for any of them and the shell equivalents need root — so the first use raises the Automation prompt, exactly as emptying the Trash does.