Show/Hide Desktop Icons with a single click

lucifer224 

Hi,

I found a way and tested it myself on latest Windows 10

here it is:

Create a Shortcut or Hotkey to Turn the Desktop Icons On or Off (howtogeek.com)

1. Download the tool from the website above
2. you might have to install this too 
3. make a shortcut of the file (.exe) on desktop
4. pin that shortcut to start menu or taskbar depending on your preference
5. clicking on the icon on taskbar or start menu instantly shows/hides desktop icons
6. in that website above, it also explains how to assign a hotkey to a shortcut, which is a built-in functionality of Windows.

Hello lucifer224,

If you want to use only hotkey, I believe you need to use third-party software as it seems not possible natively in Windows. Though, you can create a batch script for registry change  HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer\NoDesktop:1. 

I found a PowerShell script, but unfortunately that allows only to show Desktop icons, not hide.

I highly recommend you to post to PowerShell community to get more ideas and get this resolved:

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/powershell/ct-p/WindowsPowerShell  

Hope this helps!

lucifer224 

Late reply, but I found a solution that can be used with a keybind and doesn't require any downloads or installations.

I'm going to assume you know some basics, and won't need step by step.

If you do need step by step, let me know and I will make one. 

Create a .ps1 file call it "ToggleShowDesktopIcons.ps1" and edit it to read:

$source = @"
using System;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

namespace DesktopUtility
{
    class Win32Functions
    {
        [DllImport("user32.dll")]
        public static extern IntPtr FindWindow(string lpClassName, string lpWindowName);
        [DllImport("user32.dll")]
        public static extern IntPtr FindWindowEx(IntPtr hwndParent, IntPtr hwndChildAfter, string lpszClass, string lpszWindow);
        [DllImport("user32.dll")]
        public static extern IntPtr GetDesktopWindow();
        [DllImport("user32.dll")]
        public static extern IntPtr SendMessage(IntPtr hWnd, uint Msg, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam);
    }

    public class Desktop
    {
        public static IntPtr GetHandle()
        {
            IntPtr hDesktopWin = Win32Functions.GetDesktopWindow();
            IntPtr hProgman = Win32Functions.FindWindow("Progman", "Program Manager");
            IntPtr hWorkerW = IntPtr.Zero;

            IntPtr hShellViewWin = Win32Functions.FindWindowEx(hProgman, IntPtr.Zero, "SHELLDLL_DefView", "");
            if (hShellViewWin == IntPtr.Zero)
            {
                do
                {
                    hWorkerW = Win32Functions.FindWindowEx(hDesktopWin, hWorkerW, "WorkerW", "");
                    hShellViewWin = Win32Functions.FindWindowEx(hWorkerW, IntPtr.Zero, "SHELLDLL_DefView", "");
                } while (hShellViewWin == IntPtr.Zero && hWorkerW != null);
            }
            return hShellViewWin;
        }

        public static void ToggleDesktopIcons()
        {
            Win32Functions.SendMessage(Desktop.GetHandle(), 0x0111, (IntPtr)0x7402, (IntPtr)0);
        }
    }
}
"@

Add-Type -TypeDefinition $source

[DesktopUtility.Desktop]::ToggleDesktopIcons()

Code edited by: @Pyro2k6 

Save Exit.

Now create a shortcut of the script (Right click> Send to> Create shortcut desktop) and bind a shortcut key

Restart your PC.

The bind you chose should now toggle show/hide desktop icons.

 or just run the .ps1 script.

I believe the shotkey bind will only work when the shortcut is on the desktop.

Alternatively:

To hide the shortcut, place it inside:

"C:\Users\"Your Username"\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start