Hide / Show Mac OS X Desktop Icons

Posted by in OSX, Screencasting on May 17th, 2010 | 14 comments

So you want to make a screencast and you’d like to put your best foot forward which means, in my case at least, hiding the mess that is your Mac OS X desktop. No sweat. In the screencast below you’ll learn how to quickly build two Automator applications that will allow you to toggle the visibility of your desktop icons on or off.

Get Adobe Flash player

The shell commands you’ll need to build your Automator apps:

defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop -bool false
killall Finder

defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop -bool true
killall Finder

*Update*

You can reduce this to a single Automator app that checks the current visibility and toggles to the opposite state using the following bash script:

# checks visibility and stores value in a variable
isVisible=”$(defaults read com.apple.finder CreateDesktop)”

# toggle desktop icon visibility based on variable
if [ "$isVisible" = 1 ]
then
defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop -bool false
else
defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop -bool true
fi

# force changes by restarting Finder
killall Finder

***************************************************************************

And for the truly lazy–a precompiled app that toggles visibility on or off:

http://www.brooksandrus.com/downloads/hide_icons.zip



14 Responses to “ “Hide / Show Mac OS X Desktop Icons”

  1. Thomas Burleson says:
    May 17, 2010 at 8:11 pm

    Really liked the video tutorial. Especially liked the PiP and production effects.
    Superb job.

    PS Did you use FinalCut Pro? Can you provide a short video on how you make videos. This is an secret art that I have yet to master.

    Thanks again.

    ThomasB

  2. Brooks says:
    May 17, 2010 at 11:19 pm

    [Thomas] – Thanks for the kind words. The process is still very much experiential–I’m still figuring out what works, but its always nice to hear something resonated with someone.

    I use Premiere to edit, but most of the visual fx (lighting, perspective, etc.) are done with After Effects. I’ve used Final Cut in the past and its definitely up to the task–just a matter of personal preference / comfort.

    One of my goals is to stretch the space, documenting the techniques / process as I go. So I think its safe to say that you can look forward to several videos that explore / explain my approach. Thanks for the nudge.

  3. RobRayburn says:
    June 26, 2010 at 9:28 am

    I think this was and interesting aritcle. However I did not find it useful. I was looking for something similar but this isn’t quite what want. I want an easy to click app in my dock that shows or hides all the desktop icons WITHOUT restarting Finder. I know this can be done because I already have said feature built into an app I own called Hyperspaces. Which lets you tick or un-tick its show/hide desktop icons preference box. But it’s way to buried in the app for my taste and I would prefer to use AppleScript Editor to make a simple toggle app/button. Any ideas?

  4. Brooks says:
    June 26, 2010 at 3:08 pm

    [RobRayburn] – Sorry, I don’t know anything off the top of my head that will accomplish this. If I come across anything I’ll be sure to ping you.

  5. NeverResponded says:
    March 29, 2011 at 1:27 pm

    Thanks! That was fun to do and it works like a charm. Exactly what I wanted without having to buy a pre-made program. I’ve used a similar program in Windows for years. Thanks again!

  6. Newton Lewis says:
    May 5, 2011 at 1:04 am

    Thanks a bunch for this! Really helpful.
    Definitely going to install this on a few Macs and scare the users who always clutter their desktops with stuff :)

  7. festrir says:
    June 17, 2011 at 9:54 am

    Nice tutorial, unfortunately i can’t get it to work. any idea why?

  8. brian says:
    August 16, 2011 at 6:14 am

    this is brill mate thanks

  9. RobRayburn says:
    August 16, 2011 at 11:47 am

    Try Camouflage!

    It lets you show / hide the all the icons on your desktop (by simply clicking a menulet icon), all WITHOUT having to restart Finder!

    http://briksoftware.com/products/camouflage/

    P.S.: I have a development version of the Camouflage app that’s prettier and works even smoother than the current $2 paid release. If you can find me out here on the InterWebs a copy of the development version is yours… Free! _cheers, RobRayburn!

  10. Talking2No1 says:
    October 25, 2011 at 3:15 pm

    Thanks! I just downloaded the Automator. Loving it!

  11. Sei says:
    November 9, 2011 at 8:07 am

    Hey! I’m using the automator, works like a charm, but I’m doing a hit and trial with getting it to toggle off. How do I do it? :/

  12. Jason says:
    November 14, 2011 at 10:02 pm

    Brilliant tutorial! Easy to follow and beautifully done. U truly
    have a gift.

  13. Amanda says:
    January 10, 2012 at 11:31 pm

    Thank you so much for this! I’ve always HATED icons all over my desktop and this works like a charm! Thank you again!

  14. How to easily hide icons on your desktop – For Mac and PC | ScreencastingWizard.com says:
    February 7, 2012 at 12:39 am

    [...] How to Hide / Show Mac OSX Desktop icons using Automator scripts [...]

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