Hide all desktop icons on Mac
A clean desktop makes your wallpaper look better in presentations and screenshots, and removes visual clutter from your everyday view. You can hide every icon on the Desktop with one Terminal command — nothing gets deleted, and you can bring everything back in seconds.
The command
Open Terminal (Applications → Utilities) and run:
# hide all desktop icons (files stay in ~/Desktop, just invisible)
defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop -bool false
killall FinderFinder restarts and the desktop goes blank. Every file that was there is still in your ~/Desktop folder — it's just not rendered on screen. Open a Finder window and navigate to Desktop to access them.
Bring them back
# restore desktop icons
defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop -bool true
killall FinderAll your icons reappear exactly where they were.
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What this affects
The CreateDesktop key tells Finder whether to render the Desktop as a file-system view. Setting it to false hides:
- Files and folders saved to
~/Desktop - External drives and USB sticks that mount to the desktop
- Disk images (.dmg) that appear on the desktop when opened
- Network drives shown on the desktop
It does not affect the wallpaper, Dock, or menu bar. External drives are still accessible via Finder's sidebar; they just don't appear as icons on the desktop.
Hiding specific icons instead
If you only want to hide external drives or disks (not your own files), go to Finder → Settings → General and uncheck Hard disks, External disks, CDs, DVDs, and iPods, and Connected servers. This gives you a clean desktop while keeping your personal desktop files visible.