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MacOS Mojave 10.14 has arrived: How to download, best new features and more

Apple's latest version of MacOS is free and easy to install.

Matt Elliott Senior Editor
Matt Elliott is a senior editor at CNET with a focus on laptops and streaming services. Matt has more than 20 years of experience testing and reviewing laptops. He has worked for CNET in New York and San Francisco and now lives in New Hampshire. When he's not writing about laptops, Matt likes to play and watch sports. He loves to play tennis and hates the number of streaming services he has to subscribe to in order to watch the various sports he wants to watch.
Expertise Laptops, desktops, all-in-one PCs, streaming devices, streaming platforms
Matt Elliott
2 min read
Apple

At WWDC 2018 Apple  took the name for its Mac operating system down from Northern California's majestic mountains and moved southward to the Golden State's famed desert. After a run of mountain themes -- Yosemite, El Capitan, Sierra and High Sierra -- Apple has named the next version of MacOS (version 10.14) after California's Mojave Desert. 

MacOS Mojave (version 10.14) is available now as a free update and offers a bunch of new features and enhancements, including Stacks, Dark Mode and an improved Finder among many more.

Watch this: Apple MacOS Mojave is here, but we're still waiting for one killer feature

How to install MacOS Mojave

After preparing your Mac for Mojave, it's time to download and install the update. To do so, open the Mac App Store and click the Updates tab. MacOS Mojave should be listed at the top after it's released. Click the Update button to download the update. (You can also click the Apple icon in the top left of your display, click About This Mac, and then click the Software Update button, which will open the Mac App Store app and prompt it to check for the update.) You can track the progress of your download on the Purchased tab of the Mac App Store.

After Mojave finishes downloading, just follow the prompts of the installation wizard to install it. When it comes time for future updates to Mojave, however, you'll find that Mojave has moved system updates from the App Store to a new location.

WWDC 2018: Everything from Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference

See all photos

Best new features

MacOS Mojave is not a "behind the scenes" update. The new software introduces features you'll notice immediately, from the option to enable a dark mode to the appearance of apps you might already be familiar with from iOS. We covered the 12 best new features, and here are some highlights: 

  • Dark mode: Turns everything, including the finder and menu bars, dark. 
  • New apps: Familiar iOS apps News, Stocks, Voice Memos and Home come to MacOS
  • Group FaceTime: Chat with up to 32 people on FaceTime 
  • Stacks: Mojave will automatically group (or "stack") file types to declutter your desktop

Mojave's security and privacy improvements

Originally published on Sept. 24, 2018.
Update, Sept. 25: Added new information.