Miss Launchpad in MacOS 26? I found a way to restore it for free – here’s how

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ZDNET’s key takeaways

• Apple removed Launchpad in Tahoe, breaking muscle memory workflows.
• Spotlight’s new app grid is clunky, buggy, and nearly unusable.
• A free combo of Launchie and Hot-Corners restores the Launchpad feel.

In 2011, Apple introduced Launchpad to MacOS. It’s an almost pixel-for-pixel clone of the iPhone Home screen, but bigger. When it was introduced, die-hard Mac users almost universally gave it a “meh” because there were other well-traveled ways to launch apps on the Mac. But over the years, some of us grew to rely on Launchpad for its simplicity and clarity of presentation.

Also: 5 things I love about MacOS 26 Tahoe after one week with it on my Mac

But now, in MacOS Tahoe 26, it’s gone. Unfortunately, I didn’t think to take a few screenshots of my perfectly organized Launchpad on my main machine. This is a quick snap of Launchpad on one of our spare Mac minis.

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In place of Launchpad is a horrid little grid of apps that drops down under the Spotlight bar. You can’t rearrange the apps. You can’t choose which apps go in which category. You can’t even assign your own categories or pick which apps go into them.

For that matter, you can’t actually scroll the list of categories if you only have a mouse. That horizontal scrolling action is limited to Mac users with trackpads using the two-finger horizontal scroll.

Also: MacOS Tahoe finally turned me into a desktop widget user – here’s why

Worse, it’s buggy. This is a screenshot of what it looked like after scrolling down just a little bit. It has chunks of text from part of my to-do list, chunks of text from some notepad notes, and a set of tiny Reminders icons along the left side.

It is always so frustrating when a new release takes away something you counted on. It adds insult to injury when the replacement is worse than the original. Now, to be fair, as a software publisher, I’ve done that to my customers for what I thought were very good reasons. So I’m sure the folks on whatever committee at Apple approved this thing had their reasons, too.

How to replace Spotlight with a custom Launchpad app on Mac

What you’ll need: Fortunately, there is a set of free apps that approximates the functionality of Launchpad. The look isn’t quite as nice, and the solution is a tiny bit clunky, but it works. I settled on Launchie<!–> because it was both free and distributed through the Mac App Store (and presumably somewhat vetted by Apple), but there are other options that show promise as well.

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Once you have it installed, go ahead and launch it. The first thing you’ll want to do is click “Grant Access to User Applications Folder.” Doing so will bring you to System Settings, where you’ll need to approve Launchie to access the User Applications folder in ~/Applications, as well as the main Applications folder.

Also: How to send quick messages via Spotlight in MacOS Tahoe – and why I’m obsessed

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OK, that’s enough Launchie setup for now. We’ll be back.

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While you could launch Apple’s Launchpad from an icon on the Dock, the more common way of invoking it was through the lower-left hot corner. You’d just drag your mouse to the lower-left corner and Launchpad would appear.

Also: How to customize MacOS Liquid Glass and make it uniquely yours

Launchie doesn’t do that. Worse, while you can configure hot corners on your Mac, you can’t use a hot corner to launch an application. The MacOS hot corners configuration options will only invoke system-level features. This is what the Desktop & Dock setting for hot corners allows.

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The Apps item currently selected opens that mess of an app window in Spotlight I showed you earlier.

But there’s an app that will let you configure hot corners to launch specified applications. Go ahead and point yourself to the Mac App Store one more time, and this time install Hot-Corners–>

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Do that, and then set Hot-Corners to launch at login.

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Next, pop open the selector for the lower-left hot corner and choose Launchie.

Now, any time you move your mouse to the lower-left corner of your screen, Launchie will launch, just like Launchpad.

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Let’s just work our way down. Turn on Start at Login. Then, it’s a good idea to refresh the apps list by clicking Refresh Now.

Next, here’s the setting I mentioned above that you don’t want to miss. Hit the Clear button to turn off the Command-K hotkey. Command-K is the key sequence used by Google Apps, Microsoft Office, WordPress, Notion, and a ton of other apps to quickly insert a URL into text. It’s probably one of the most common key sequences there is, and you don’t want Launchie to hijack it!

Also: Your old MacBook’s days are numbered, as Apple confirms end of support

Moving down below the scroll horizon of this dialog are two more options. Make sure Close on Background Click is turned on to make the Launchie screen go away if you click its background. You can also choose Add to Dock if you want Launchie to show in the Dock. I didn’t because I use the hot corner.

Next is the Appearance tab.

There’s nothing here I recommend you change. I was disappointed to discover I couldn’t change the spacing of the icons or the color of the background. I’m not super thrilled with the light gray. If you are running Dark Mode on your Mac, the Launchie screen will also go dark, so that’s something.

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I like to put all the Adobe apps into one folder. I do the same with Microsoft. Here’s what the Adobe folder looks like at the top level of Launchie.

And here’s what it looks like when you click into it. When you click one of the application icons, the program will launch and Launchie will hide. But if you hit the Back button, you’ll go back to the main screen.

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I try to avoid being too anal in my first pass. My goal is simply to get most of the applications into category folders. For example, I have 3D Printing and Video Editing folders because I have a lot of tools that fit those categories.

Also: New to MacOS? 8 beginner tips and tricks to try first – and why

To put applications into a folder, you can drag an icon into the folder you want. But Launchie has a nice little feature where you can right-click and choose Send to Folder.

This really comes in handy when you’re way down in the list and your folders are at the top. Here’s a quick request to Nick Friedrich, the author: please organize this list alphabetically (or at least make that an option). Still, you get used to the placement of the names when doing a big organizing sweep.

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Unfortunately, some of the application names can appear truncated, even though there is plenty of space for them. I’m guessing he built this application on a laptop screen, not a super-wide monitor like I’m using.

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A good start

Once my first pass is done, I’ll go back into the folders over time and optimize what’s in them. I’ll move some applications to folders that better represent how I work. But for now, here’s my first pass.

Here’s a look inside one of the folders, the Games folder. Most of these are from my Apple Arcade subscription.

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And there you go. While I do have some minor nits about Launchie, it fills a fairly important muscle memory need. The program is free. It’s really very helpful. Hot-Corners is also free. That makes this solution good enough to replace Apple’s very wrong-minded decision to get rid of Launchpad in favor of its ugly, unusable, buggy Spotlight applications grid.

Also: Addicted to making lists? Here are my top apps for Windows and MacOS

What about you? Have you tried building your own Launchpad alternative yet, or are you still struggling with Tahoe’s new Spotlight app grid? Do you prefer Apple’s uglified interface, or do you miss the control and visual organization Launchpad offered? Have you experimented with Launchie or Hot-Corners (or perhaps one of the other apps I mentioned) to get your workflow back to the way you like it? Share your experience and ideas in the comments below.

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