Hide All Desktop Icons

I'm not sure why someone would actually want to do this — perhaps to tweak a pc in the workplace...

It's do-able and doesn't break much; you won't be able to right click on the desktop after you've done this. Thus if you want to access something like the display settings you'll need to do so through the control panel or use some run commands, such as listed in our Run Control Panel Commands article.

 Before attempting the following make sure you read and understand Registry Editing Warning.

To hide all desktop icons:

1. Press the Start button
2. Click on Run
3. Type regedit and click OK
4. In the Registry Editor open the following:
   
   



5. In the right hand pane double-click the NoDesktop value

   If it's not there, then create it:
   On the toolbar, at the top, select Edit, New, then Binary Value
   and name it NoDesktop (once created, double-click it)

6. Modify its value to 01 00 00 00
7. Triple check the above - it MUST be exactly as above...
   The key should appear like this:
   
8. Click OK and close the Registry Editor
9. Log off and then back on, or reboot, and you should have no desktop icons.

OS: XP > Tips / Tweaks
Date: 02/15/06

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