
Focus Follows Mouse is a popular feature that has its origins in the UNIX world.
So, what is Focus Follows Mouse (FFM) anyway?
In a windowing environment, FFM automatically raises and brings focus to the window that is underneath your cursor. Power users love this feature as it makes switching between windows on your desktop much faster.
To better understand what FFM is, let’s look at how macOS (and Windows) currently handles active applications and windows on your desktop. Let’s assume you have two open windows on your Desktop. To move from one window to the other window using a mouse / trackpad involves two steps.
- Move your Mac’s cursor to the location of the window in question.
- Click this window to make it active. This action will bring the window to the front.
If your computing experience has been with Windows or macOS, you are already very familiar with this paradigm. But, if you are coming over to macOS from a UNIX or Linux-based environment, where FFM is considered core functionality, you’ll find the two step approach to selecting a window in macOS to be somewhat irritating.
Thankfully, FFM fans who use macOS finally have a solution: AutoRaise
AutoRaise is a GPL-3.0 licensed utility that automatically raises and focuses a window when your Mac’s cursor hovers over it.

When installed, AutoRaise lives on your Mac’s menubar. Clicking on its menubar icon will toggle AutoRaise on or off. When it’s off, your Mac works as it always has. But when AutoRaise is active, you can simply hover your mouse cursor over any window to raise it and make it active.

But AutoRaise has one extra feature that makes it even better, in my opinion: Mouse Warp.

With this option selected, AutoRaise will move your mouse pointer to the center of your activated window. No more looking around for your cursor. I use Mouse Warp when I cycle between applications using Command Tab or Command ~. Once I switch to a particular app, the cursor is right on top of my selected window.

AutoRaise includes the ability to adjust the amount of delay for both raising a window and window focus. These delays can be tuned independently for maximum control. (I prefer keeping the delay for both as short as possible.)
AutoRaise includes the ability to ignore specific apps, titles, and a custom key to temporarily disable AutoRaise.
In my testing, AutoRaise is fast and stable under macOS Sequoia and supports both standalone and multi-display setups. It’s free to download, so you can test it out for further evaluation. I recommend giving AutoRaise a try, even if you’re not coming from a UNIX or Linux environment. You may like the convenience and efficiency that Focus Follows Mouse functionality brings to your Mac.
I’m slow sometimes but after installing AutoRaise how do I get to it’s Preference window?
hi Larry,
AutoRaise’s preferences can be accessed via its menu bar icon. (The menu bar icon for the app is a pair of balloons.)