ShiftOS

macOS is powerful but deliberately incomplete. Windows switchers reach for keyboard shortcuts that don't exist. Power users waste time hunting for the right window. Keyboard-first users are forced to grab the mouse for two-keystroke actions. ShiftOS fixes all of that in one app, without the tab-sprawl of five separate utilities.

What's inside

Window Snap Engine

• 14 built-in snap zones — halves, thirds, 2/3 splits, quarters, maximize
• Green button popup — hover shield suppresses macOS native tiling menu; ShiftOS replica card shows all 14 zones + Full Screen with native beak style
• FancyZones — visual drag-editor for custom layouts; Dashboard + Focus presets built in; per-monitor profiles; export/import .shiftos-layout
• Snap Groups — auto-detects windows snapped together within 3 seconds; restore or delete groups from Settings
• FancyZone stacking — multiple windows per zone; cycle with keyboard; occupancy tracking
• Win+Arrow equivalent — Option+Arrow snaps; fully remappable
• Undo snap — Cmd+Z restores previous window position (20-deep undo stack)
• Windows-style Dock minimize — click Dock icon to minimize; click again to restore to last snap position

Clipboard Intelligence

• 200-item history — open with Cmd+Shift+V (Win+V equivalent)
• All content types — text, rich text, images, URLs (with favicon + title), files
• Most Used — tracks copy and paste frequency; surface your top snippets instantly
• Smart dedup — identical copies merge; copy-count badge shows how many times
• Inline Markdown rendering — bold, italic, code, links rendered in the panel
• Starred collections — organise clips into named folders
• Privacy first — per-app exclusion list (1Password, banks etc.); encryption at rest; auto-clear timer

SwitchTab — Window Switcher

• Five view modes — Thumbnails, App Icons, Titles, 3D Tile, Aero
• Thumbnails — 340pt cards, live ScreenCaptureKit previews, 16:10 ratio, icon + title header
• 3D Tile (Pro) — iOS-style spatial card deck with real-time previews (300ms recapture loop), perspective stacking, 3-step depth setting
• Aero — Windows 7 Flip 3D replica; tilted cascading planes, spring-animated advance, cyclic deck
• Per-window — one entry per window, including minimized and every window of multi-window apps (e.g. all your Terminal tabs), MRU-ordered to match the Dock; synthetic entries for windowless apps
• Per-slot config — three independent shortcut slots each with their own view mode, Space filter, window order, and after-release action
• Blacklists — hide VMs and other apps by BundleID prefix; pre-populated with Parallels/VMware
• Live previews — ScreenCaptureKit + WindowServer fallback for minimized/occluded windows; graceful no-preview banner when Screen Recording not granted
• Action keys — W (close), M (minimize), Q (quit), H (hide), S (move to Space) while overlay is open

Finder & File Intelligence

• Native right-click → ShiftOS submenu — one branded entry holds Copy Path/Filename/URL/Markdown, New Text File, Open in Terminal, Open in New Window, Move To, Copy To, Make Symlink, AirDrop, Label Color, Advanced — all in a clean flat list
• Return key navigates in place — opening a folder with Return reuses the current Finder window instead of spawning a new one, so trackpad back/forward gestures keep working
• Shift+F10 — full menu — keyboard context menu (Windows equivalent) with arrow-key navigation and 1–9 number shortcuts; adds the actions that need system access (Git, Invert Selection, Run Shortcut) which the Finder extension sandbox can't run
• Cut and paste files — Cmd+X marks for move; Cmd+V pastes. Same muscle memory as Windows
• Git integration — status, diff, add, commit, push; Go to Repo Root; Show on GitHub
• Advanced ops — MD5/SHA-256 checksums, Make Executable, Lock/Unlock, Remove xattr, Flatten Folder
• Folder colour labels — 12 colour options persisted in iCloud Drive

Keyboard & Shortcut Intelligence

• Shortcut inspector — lists every registered global shortcut on the system
• Conflict detection + one-click rebind — detects ShiftOS vs system conflicts; suggests a free alternative; applies with one click
• Per-app profiles — different hotkey overrides per app (Video Editing, Coding, etc.)
• System toggles — Dark Mode, Grayscale, Low Power Mode, Night Shift, True Tone — all with configurable shortcuts
• Power management — Normal / Safe Sleep / Full Hibernate picker; auto-hibernate below a battery threshold
• App launch slots — 5 configurable global shortcuts to launch any app instantly

System Control

• Quick Settings — click the menu-bar icon for volume, brightness, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Dark Mode, Focus Mode, battery — all in one panel; tiles are user-configurable with drag-to-reorder
• Settings Search — search any macOS system preference by keyword; jump directly to it; star favourites
• OCR & QR scanner — select a screen region or use clipboard image; one-click Translate
• Keep Awake — prevent display sleep; timer (15 min / 30 min / 1 hr / 2 hr) or indefinite; a HUD toast confirms the active duration
• Auto-quit — close idle apps after a configurable timeout; protected-app list
• File Properties panel — floating panel shows size, type breakdown pie chart, and checksums; bulk multi-file mode
• Cat Mode — oversized cursor + scroll-to-zoom for presentations and low-vision use
• Settings backup — export/import all preferences as .shiftos-backup; iCloud sync across Macs
• TCC reset — reset any app's privacy permissions with one click
• Default Browser picker — optional menu-bar item; switch your system default browser in one click, no System Settings detour