Hide desktop clutter during a presentation

The riskiest moment in any talk isn't a slide — it's the half-second gap when you quit one app and open the next and the whole room sees your desktop. If that desktop is a mosaic of client files and personal downloads, hide it first. macOS offers no System Settings toggle for this, but one Terminal command empties the desktop so every transition lands on a clean wallpaper.

Set it before you plug into the projector

Run this a few minutes before you connect to the projector or big screen. Open Terminal (Spotlight → Terminal), paste both lines, and the desktop is clear the instant Finder relaunches.

# Clear the desktop for the talk
defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop -bool false
killall Finder

Now, whenever your desktop peeks through — switching between Keynote and a browser demo, mirroring to a second display, dropping out of full screen to grab a file — the audience sees only your wallpaper. No file names, no folder titled with a client's name, nothing to explain.

Restore your icons after the talk

When you're back at your desk, put everything back with the opposite value.

# Show the desktop icons again
defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop -bool true
killall Finder

Icons return to their exact positions — hiding never rearranges anything. The switch works identically on macOS Ventura, Sonoma, and Sequoia, and if you prefer, defaults delete com.apple.finder CreateDesktop then killall Finder resets it just as cleanly.

What's safe about doing this mid-prep

Hiding icons doesn't move or delete your files. The CreateDesktop key just tells Finder to stop drawing the desktop, so your files stay in the Desktop folder and you can still open them from a Finder window's sidebar during the talk if you need to. The one thing to know: while hidden, you can't drop a new file onto the desktop or double-click the wallpaper, so pull up any files you'll demo before you go on. Flip the setting back after and the desktop behaves exactly as before.

Test it before you're in front of anyone

Set this the night before, not thirty seconds before you present. Hide the icons, then rehearse the exact transitions you'll make on the day — quit your slides, open a browser, mirror to a second display — and confirm the desktop reads clean in every gap. The change persists across restarts, so once it's set it stays set through a reboot in the conference room. If you mirror your screen to the projector, the hidden desktop shows clean on both your Mac and the projected image, since there's simply nothing to draw. When the talk is over, one command restores every icon exactly where it lived.

Hide the Dock too while you're at it

The Dock is the other thing that gives away a cluttered setup mid-talk. Pair the clean desktop with hiding the Dock during a presentation on Mac for a screen that's nothing but your content.