I was getting annoyed with how long it took to see a screenshot appear on the desktop after I took it, as I typically want to share the screenshot right away. To resolve this, I disabled the 5 second floating thumbnail delay:
- Open the Screenshot Utility (CMD + SHIFT + 5 by default)
- Under Options, disable “Show Floating Thumbnail”
You can also swipe the thumbnail out of the way if you’d rather keep the floating thumbnail.
To shave another half second off the time, you can also:
- Right click any blank space on the desktop
- Click Show View Options
- Untick Show Icon Preview and Show Item Info
MacOS still isn’t quite as fast at refreshing the desktop as I remember Windows XP being, but it’s tolerable now. If you still see a delay updating Finder, try disabling any Finder extensions in Settings.
One other tip: Remap the Screenshot Utility to something easier to remember, like CTRL + S, via the Keyboard:

You must be logged in to post a comment.