Here is a quick tutorial about how to hide all desktop icons except system icons. To do this, I will use a freeware called SHIcons. SHIcons lets you hide all the desktop icons with just a click. But, it leaves the system icons unchanged. Using this free software, you can easily toggle the visibility of desktop icons.
Windows gives you an easy option to hide the desktop icons. But the challenge with that method is that all the icons are hidden. If that is what you want, then you are better off sticking with Windows’ native method (right click on desktop > View > Show Desktop Icons). However, I prefer to keep the system icons visible, and hide everything else, so that icons like My Computer, Recycle Bin, etc. are still visible. And that is what this software lets me do.
If you have a lot of icons, and haven’t arranged desktop icons, then sometimes it becomes too overwhelming just to look at the desktop. In those scenarios, this software is perfect as it lets you temporarily hide desktop icons, and still keep the system icons visible.
How to Hide all Desktop Icons Except System Icons?
SHIcon is a very nice software to hide all desktop icons except system icons. Also, it comes as a portable software so, you don’t really have to install it to make it work. The software works by toggling the hidden attribute of the desktop icons.
When you run this software for the first time, it places its magic wand like icon on the desktop. You can use that to toggle the visibility of all desktop icons. And do notice that it also changes the file name of its magic wand like icon. When you hide the desktop icons, it changes its name to Show icons and when you use it to show desktop icons, then it changes its name to Hide icons.
Follow these simple steps to hide all desktop icons except system icons.
Step 1: Download the portable executable file of SHIcon from this link. After that, double click on it and it will hide all the desktop icons and will place an executable file on the desktop. Do notice that it will only hide programs, folder icons, etc.; the system icons will be still visible.
Step 2: The file that it will place on the desktop will have the name: Show icons. If you double click on it, you will see all the desktop icons will become visible. And also, it changes its name from Show icons to Hide icons. You can see the below screenshot.
So, in this way you can easily hide all desktop icons except system icons using SHIcon.
You might also be amused with these tutorials:
- How to Hide Desktop Icons for Specific Time
- Hide Desktop Icons if PC Is Idle for a Specific Duration
Conclusion
In the above tutorial, I have demonstrated how to hide all desktop icons except system icons. And SHIcon makes it pretty easy to do that. I really like the software for its simplicity and functionality. I find it to be a quite useful software that you can often use in case you are working with a messy desktop.
