How to Hide All Desktop Icons on Your Mac without Using Any Software or App

If you need to use your Mac for a presentation at work or school, you may want to tidy up your machine by removing all the icons that are cluttering up your desktop. You can drag all the icons off your desktop for your presentation and then drag them back when you are done, but that method can be inconvenient and increases the chance that you could accidentally lose a file or two in the moving process. There is an easier way that allows you to temporarily hide the icons, while still keeping the files in their original location.

There’s a faster and easier way to hide all the icons on your Desktop, though, using the Terminal.
Quickly launch Terminal using an app launcher like Alfred or just double clicking the app in your Utilities folder.

Once there, type or paste the following command in:

defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop false

then restart the Finder with the following:

killall Finder

This will hide all the icons on your Desktop in one fell swoop so you can go about your business on the big projector.

When you’re done and you want to see that giant pile of clutter again, simply reverse the command:

defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop true

killall Finder

There you have it – quick, easy, and trouble free without using any free or premium softwares.