Hide desktop icons for a tidy Zoom screen share

On a Zoom or Teams call, sharing your whole screen means sharing your desktop — and a desktop covered in files reads as unprofessional and, worse, broadcasts your file names to everyone watching. macOS has no System Settings switch to hide desktop icons, but one Terminal command clears the desktop to a clean wallpaper before you share, and a second brings your icons back after the call.

Clear the desktop before you join

Run this while you're still setting up, before you click Share Screen. Open Terminal (search for it in Spotlight with Cmd+Space) and paste both lines.

# Hide desktop icons for the call
defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop -bool false
killall Finder

The desktop empties immediately. Now when you share your entire screen — or someone asks you to drop out of an app for a second — all anyone sees is a tidy wallpaper. No "Offer letter.pdf," no folder named after another client, nothing that pulls attention away from what you meant to show.

Bring your icons back after you hang up

Once the meeting ends, restore the desktop with the opposite value.

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

Every icon returns to where it was — nothing is rearranged. This behaves the same across macOS Ventura, Sonoma, and Sequoia. If you'd rather clear the custom value than set true, run defaults delete com.apple.finder CreateDesktop then killall Finder.

A quick pre-share checklist

Hiding icons keeps your files completely safe — the CreateDesktop key just stops Finder drawing the desktop, and every file stays in the Desktop folder, reachable from a Finder window's sidebar. For a screen share that looks deliberate, pair it with a couple of habits:

• Share a window, not the whole screen, when you only need to show one app — Zoom and Teams both let you pick a single window.
• Close tabs and apps you don't need, so the Dock and app switcher stay clean too.
• Mute notifications so a message preview doesn't slide in mid-share.

Do those three and hide the desktop, and a full-screen share looks as composed as a slide deck.

Set it once and forget it

You don't need to run this before every single call. Because CreateDesktop stays off across restarts until you reverse it, many people who share their screen regularly just leave the desktop hidden for good and keep their files in folders instead. If you'd rather it be per-call, the toggle is quick enough to flip before you join and flip back after. Either way, remember that a hidden desktop only handles the desktop — a screen share also exposes your Dock, your open tabs, and any notification that arrives, so treat clearing the desktop as the first item on a short pre-call checklist rather than the whole job.

Stop message previews from crashing the call

An empty desktop is undone by one notification banner. Before your next share, also hide notifications while screen recording or sharing on Mac so nothing slides into frame.