How to Hide Desktop Icons Before You Share Your Screen

File names are more revealing than they look: "Q3-layoffs-draft.xlsx", "Offer - Priya.pdf", "invoice_acme_overdue". When you share your whole screen, every one of them is visible for as long as the desktop is. Here’s how to hide them in a few seconds.

Windows 10 and 11

1. Right-click an empty spot on the desktop.
2. Hover over View.
3. Untick Show desktop icons.

Repeat the same steps to bring them back. Your files aren’t moved or deleted, they just stop being drawn.

macOS

The quickest way is to open Terminal and run the following, which tells Finder not to draw the desktop:

defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop false
killall Finder

To show the icons again:

defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop true
killall Finder

On recent versions of macOS you can also turn off Show Items → On Desktop in Finder’s Settings for a similar effect with no Terminal.

Better: don’t share the desktop at all

Hiding icons fixes one leak, but a full-screen share also shows your dock or taskbar, notifications, and every other open window. Sharing a single window or browser tab avoids the whole category. If what you’re presenting is in the browser, share the tab and use BlurSite to blur anything sensitive on the page itself.