How to hide desktop icons and widgets on your Mac

To hide every icon on your Mac's desktop before a screen share, a recording or a talk, open System Settings, Desktop & Dock, and untick On Desktop next to Show Items. Untick it under Widgets too to hide the widgets. Koi 1.13 does both at once: tap Shift over the desktop and click Hide all. Tap again and click Show all to bring them back.

A desktop full of screenshots, invoices and half-named files says more about you than the slides do. Hiding it takes a few seconds, and your files stay exactly where they are.

We make Koi, so read this with that in mind. Everything about Koi here is what version 1.13 does. The System Settings and Finder steps come from Apple's own guides, checked October 21, 2026.

1. Choose Apple menu, then System Settings, then click Desktop & Dock in the sidebar. You may need to scroll.
2. Under Desktop & Stage Manager, next to Show Items, untick On Desktop. Untick In Stage Manager too if you use Stage Manager.
3. Under Widgets, next to Show Widgets, untick On Desktop and In Stage Manager.
4. To bring them back, tick the same boxes again.

With On Desktop off, the icons are hidden until you click the desktop to show them. That's handy day to day, and a trap on a call: one stray click on the wallpaper and everything is back on screen. Apple's guide to Desktop & Dock lists every option there, including Show Desktop, which sets whether a click on the wallpaper moves your windows aside.

Finder has a hidden setting, CreateDesktop, that stops it drawing the desktop at all. Apple doesn't document it, but it works on macOS 27, and it's the one Koi uses. Open Terminal and type:

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

Finder restarts and the icons are gone, even when you click the wallpaper. To bring them back:

• defaults delete com.apple.finder CreateDesktop
• killall Finder

This hides the icons only. Widgets still need the Desktop & Dock switch above.

Finder, then Settings, then General has a list called Show these items on the desktop: hard disks, external disks, CDs and DVDs, and connected servers. Unticking those hides the drives, not your files and folders. It's worth doing if a USB drive's name shouldn't be on a shared screen, but it won't clear a messy desktop. Apple's Finder settings guide has the list.

1. Move your pointer over the desktop, where no window is under it. It doesn't matter which app is in front.
2. Tap Shift on its own, quickly. A wheel of two opens round your pointer.
3. Click Hide all. Every icon and widget on the desktop disappears.
4. To bring them back, tap Shift over the desktop again. The wedge now reads Show all; click it.

• Icons are hidden with Finder's CreateDesktop, the same as the Terminal way, so Finder restarts and a click on the wallpaper doesn't bring them back.
• Widgets are hidden with Desktop & Dock's own switch, on the desktop and in Stage Manager. Show all turns back on only the widgets Hide all turned off, so your own settings stay yours.
• Your files stay in the Desktop folder. Finder's sidebar still shows them.
• A click elsewhere, Escape, or Shift again puts the wheel away. Shift with another key, or Shift-clicking icons, never opens it.
• Nothing is sent. The desktop wheel sits under the same switch in Koi's settings as the Shift wheel.

Koi needs Accessibility permission to hear Shift in other apps, which it asks for when you set it up. More on the Shift wheel, or the other wedge in switching dark mode fast.

• Hide the desktop icons and widgets, as above.
• Share one window rather than your whole screen when the app lets you. Zoom, Meet and Teams all have it, and nothing behind the window shows.
• Turn on Do Not Disturb, or a Focus, so messages don't pop up mid-talk.
• Close tabs and apps you won't show, so the Dock and the window list don't give anything away.
• Recording the call? Koi's Record calls saves both sides on your Mac, with the words written down.

• Your desktop pictures stay: hiding icons doesn't change the wallpaper. Pick a plain one if yours is personal.
• Stage Manager: with Stage Manager on and In Stage Manager unticked, the icons are already hidden. Check both boxes when you turn them back on.
• Finder restarts: the Terminal way and Koi both quit and reopen Finder. Let any copy in Finder finish first.
• Restart: the Terminal setting and Koi's Hide all stay after you restart your Mac, until you turn them back.

Hide them once and leave them hidden? Untick the boxes in Desktop & Dock. Happy in Terminal and only care about icons? Two lines do it. Share your screen, record or present several times a week? Koi hides icons and widgets in one tap and puts them back the same way. It pairs well with Koi's call recorder and our guide to recording a Zoom meeting.

The macOS ways are free. Koi has no free plan: Pro is $20 a month, or $192 a year, after a 3-day free trial that needs a card. Lifetime is paid once, from $59. The desktop wheel uses no AI, so it never counts against Koi's usage. See the plans.