Windows Tip: Hiding Desktop Icons

Date Posted: June 25, 2018

Author: tekm

Very few people have a pristine desktop. Most of us have shortcuts, files, folders, and other items everywhere! In some cases, however, you may want to hide your desktop icons temporarily. This is a great thing to do if you’re presenting your computer remotely to an audience.

For example, you might be presenting a document you’re working on collaboratively with a remote team or you might be showing a slideshow during a presentation. In cases like this, for security, confidentiality, or aesthetic reasons, you may want to hide your desktop icons so people can’t see them.

This is very easy to do in Windows!

Now you see them:

Now you don’t!

How do you do it?

 

  1. Right-click your desktop.
  2. Select View.
  3. Deselect “Show desktop icons”.

That’s it! And when you want to make them reappear, do the same thing, but re-select “Show desktop icons”.

 

used with permission from Heartland Technologies.

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