ShowHide

In case you have dozens of icons on your desktop, then there is a good chance that you want to hide them all at the same time without using the context menu. ShowHide is a lightweight application that can provide you with a convenient way to toggle the desktop icons on and off whenever necessary.

After a quick and uneventful setup, you can launch and use the application right away. You should bear in mind that it does not come with an interface, but rather you can access it from the System Tray.

Given its role, the lack of a GUI is a minor inconvenience, particularly since the idea is to make your desktop clean and ready for some work-related screenshots, for instance. However, it would have been nice if it included a settings window where you can add your custom hotkeys for toggling the icons on and off.

Granted, hiding and showing the icons on the desktop can also be achieved via the standard settings in Windows. In fact in Windows 10 you can actually do it directly from the context menu. In case you cannot access this function for any reason, then this tiny tool can be the answer to this problem.

As far as the functionality goes, the program is as simple as it gets and toggling the icons on or off is a simple matter of pressing Atl and the H key simultaneously. Without denying that the key combination included is not exactly common, advanced users may already have it bound for other tasks.

Regardless of whether you need to take a few screenshots for work from your home computer or perhaps, you need a non-distracting background that allows you to focus on writing or composing, ShowHide might be worth a try.