

But a messy desktop isn’t going to cut it. Desktop icons and shortcuts can help you be more productive. While it’s great that macOS offers a quick way to hide all desktop icons, there will be times when you’ll still want to use them.

It’s a small, single-purpose utility that sits in the menu bar and lets you hide desktop icons with just a click. If you aren’t comfortable using the Terminal app every time you want to hide or show desktop icons, try using the free HiddenMe menu bar application. You can now go back to your merry work life! Once again, use the red Close button in the top-left corner of the Terminal window to safely exit the application. The desktop icons will spring back to life! Type the following command and then press the Return (Enter) key to restart Finder. If you want the desktop icons back, return to the Terminal app, type or paste the following command, and then press Return (or Enter).ĭefaults write CreateDesktop true You can reverse this change using another Terminal command. You can now carry on with your presentation or screenshots. All icons are now hidden.Ĭlick the red Close button in the top-left corner of the Terminal app to safely exit the application.

Type in the following command and press the Return (or Enter) key.Īll Finder windows will restart, and just like that, your Mac desktop will be blank. Next, you’ll need to restart the Finder application. It will not affect your work or the macOS system.Īfter opening the Terminal app, type or paste in the following command, and then press the Return (or Enter) key.ĭefaults write CreateDesktop false In this guide, we will be using Terminal to run a specific command in a safe manner. Terminal is the built-in command-line application on Mac. To get started, open the Terminal app on your Mac using Spotlight Search or Launchpad. RELATED: How to Organize Your Desktop With Stacks on macOS Mojave While you can use Stacks to automatically organize the desktop, nothing beats a clean slate. Is your Mac desktop a mess? Don’t really want to organize everything? Don’t worry, you can use a terminal command to quickly hide all desktop icons before sharing your screen on a work call or taking a screenshot.Ī cleaner desktop is only a terminal command away.
