Free Mac Sunday, hide your OSX desktop icons with Desktopple
The last thing on a lot of our minds is where to put those downloaded files and they usually end up occupying a folder on the desktop. Unless they are filed away permanently, this can create a messy desktop after a while. Windows users should be familiar with Iconoid which hides desktop icons. Mac users also have a utility to do the same, Desktopple.
Desktopple comes in a “Professional” pay version and a free “Basic” version so decide whichever will suit your needs. Both have the icon hiding feature but only the “Professional” version will give you an auto-hide option and automater support.
Desktopple Basic uses hotkeys to show/hide the desktop as well as using your own background or using a solid color background when hidden.
The program resides in your Menu bar where preferences can be accessed with a click of your mouse or via hotkeys.
From the developer,
While Desktopple Basic does a great job of hiding your Desktop, Desktopple Pro adds a huge number of improvements, including Window Cleaning, Menu Bar dimming, and a whole lot more!
I still haven’t gotten out of the habit of just throwing everything on my desktop and forgetting about it thanks programs like Desktopple and Iconoid.
Both Desktopple basic (for Mac) and Iconoid (for Windows) are free but both have provisions for donating money to the developer/author if you so choose. These programs are useful for those of us that are disorganized but occasionally like to gaze at our custom desktop wallpaper.
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September 1st, 2008
Theres a free way to do this
first click anywhere on the desktop
then go to the menubar and click finder>prefrences
then click general and uncheck the things you want to hide
and to hide everything else open terminal and type
chflags hidden ~/Desktop/*
(to go back type chflags nohidden ~/Desktop/*)
January 30th, 2009
i am new to mac… how can i make an automator action or shortcut out of that terminal code