3 ms·

I like to hide all icons or folders on my Desktop when I need to be more productive or when I'm presenting. This can be done with: # hide desktop icons and f

by verst 3y ago

I like to hide all icons or folders on my Desktop when I need to be more productive or when I'm presenting. This can be done with: # hide desktop icons and folders defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop 0 killall Finder # restarting Finder is required # unhide desktop icons and folders defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop 1 killall Finder # restarting Finder is required I made myself a convenient bash alias for this which lets me simply toggle the desktop on and off Here is a gist: https://gist.github.com/berndverst/6f58c0d6aedddb6c06c23e57dd50d198 https://gist.github.com/berndverst/6f58c0d6aedddb6c06c23e57d... toggledesktop () { if [[ $(defaults read com.apple.finder CreateDesktop) -eq "0" ]] then export SHOWDESKTOP=1; echo "Unhiding Desktop icons" else export SHOWDESKTOP=0; echo "Hiding Desktop icons" fi defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop $SHOWDESKTOP killall Finder }

IggleSniggle 3y ago
I've used this one for over a decade now. When I was a teacher, I even assigned it to a key-combo. Consider pairing with a few other things you might want in a presentation setting
- verst 3y ago
  What do you use for assigning it to a key combination? Can it be done without a third party tool?
  - niels_bom 3y ago
    Automator should be able to do that.
desro 3y ago
Turning off the desktop is one of the first things I do when setting up a new Mac. I still use ~/Desktop often enough that it's one of two folders I keep in the Dock (the other being ~/Downloads). Although: the introduction of Stacks to the macOS desktop was a great thing — I always show that feature to anyone whose Desktop is helplessly cluttered with files.