Apple - Hide files/icons on the desktop but not in finder

In the terminal, do this:

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

After this, there'll be nothing on your Desktop (but still in ~/Desktop, i.e. your Desktop Folder). It'll look like this:

Clean Desktop


Beautiful, isn't it? If you want to change it back:

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

enter image description here


There's another little free program that does exactly this, and nothing more:

http://blog.websecurify.com/2013/01/hide-desktop-icons-on-mac-os-x.html

It sits in the menu bar and lets you toggle icons on or off.


I don't believe you can hide files from the desktop while leaving them viewable from within the Finder, since the desktop is just a folder (~/Desktop).

However, here's an alternative that could work:

  1. Open your cheatsheet image in Safari (drag and drop the image onto the Safari icon in the dock)
  2. In Safari, go to File > Open in Dashboard...
  3. Your image should be selected/highlighted, or if not, then click it to select it. Click Add in the purple toolbar.

This will create a Dashboard widget that displays your image. Now to view the image, simply toggle Dashboard (F4 on a newer Mac or F12 on an older one).


Another alternative: if you're not accessing your files from the desktop, why keep them in the ~/Desktop folder at all? Just move them to another folder.