Many times, user might want to capture the contents of the screen or take a screenshot with a neat desktop background without the presence of the icons. The desktop icons can be hidden temporarily in your Mac OS X system during some operation while taking a screenshot. This can be performed through the screencast menu option or by typing the appropriate commands in the terminal. Here is how you can hide the icons in the Mac OS X system.
Step 1
Select the ‘Screencast Option’
The user can hide the icons in their Mac OS X desktop while taking the screenshots. This can be performed by clicking on the ‘Screencast’ icon as shown below.
Step 2
Select ‘Hide Desktop Icons’
From the list of options, click on the ‘Hide Desktop Icons’ to hide all the icons present in the desktop.
Step 3
Select the ‘Terminal’ Option
Another way to hide the icons in Mac OS X is by typing some commands in the terminal window. You need to select the ‘Terminal’ option from the toolbar present at the bottom of the Mac screen.
Step 4
Type the Command for Hiding the Icons
In the terminal window, the user has to write the following commands. ‘defaults write.com.apple.finder CreateDesktop false' and press ‘Enter’. This will ensure that all the desktop icons are hidden in the Mac OS X system.
Step 5
Type ‘Killall Finder’
After the first command typed in the terminal, type ‘Killall Finder’ and press enter. Similarly, the desktop icons can be unhidden by writing the same first command, but along with the word ‘True’ at the end.
You can now easily hide the icons in the Mac OS X system by following the above steps in a sequential manner.