Set up the Dock the way you want it

The Dock arrives full of apps you did not choose and permanently occupying the bottom of the screen. Three changes in System Settings → Desktop & Dock fix that.

Get the screen back. Turn on Automatically hide and show the Dock. It slides away and reappears when you push the pointer to the bottom edge.

Keep only what you use. Right-click any icon and pick Options → Remove from Dock. If the app is running, quit it first. To add one, drag it out of the Applications folder and drop it where you want.

Stop the pile-up on the right. By default a minimised window becomes a new thumbnail at the right end of the Dock, so after an hour there are eight of them. Turn on Minimize windows into application icon and the window tucks into the app’s existing icon instead.

While you are there, Size and Magnification control how big the icons are and whether they grow as the pointer passes over them.