Hiding Desktop Icons on MacOS Using Terminal
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This post originally appeared on the very first blog
Sometimes when you are giving a presentation or recording a screencast, you may not want your audience to see your messy desktop. Fortunately, there is a quick and easy way to hide all of your desktop icons using command line.
First, open up the Terminal app.
Then execute the following command by pasting it into terminal and hitting enter. This will deactivate Finder’s desktop creation.
defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop false && killall Finder
Now your desktop should be cleared. Enjoy the absence of distraction, if not your unobstructed wallpaper.
Once you have decided to bring your desktop back, you can execute this following command in terminal, which essentially writes the opposite setting. Note that your desktop can take some time to appear as Finder loads.
defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop true && killall Finder