desktop icons are a common part of most computer users’ lives. They can be found on the taskbar, in the system tray, and even in the system folder. Desktop icons can be turned on or off by using the following steps:

  1. Open the Start menu and select Control Panel.
  2. In the Control Panel, click on Programs and Features.
  3. In the Programs and Features screen, click on Add/Remove Programs.
  4. Under Add/Remove Programs, click on Desktop Icons and Uninstaller to uninstall desktop icons if they are installed on your computer. If they are not installed, continue to step 5 below to add them back into your computer’s startup program list.
  5. To add desktop icons back into your computer’s startup program list, open Start up and type regedit and hit return key after you have entered the path to your registry editor (usually C:\Windows\system32\regedit). Once you have entered your registry editor, click on OK to close it when you finish editing it. After you have added desktop icons back into your startup program list, they will be available for use when you start up your computer again!

If you’ve got loads of icons cluttering up your desktop, you might want a quick way to turn them off without using the context menu; here’s a quick and easy way to make a shortcut key to turn them on or off.

Note: this article was originally written a couple of years ago, but we tested it out on Windows 8, 8.1, and even Windows 10 to verify that it works and figured that we’d update and publish it again.

Create a Shortcut to Toggle the Desktop Icons

The solution comes through a small utility written by one of the Desktop Sidebar programmers (an alternate sidebar with loads of modules). Just so we’re clear, this utility does the same thing as a right-click on the desktop and toggling the “Show Desktop Icons” item.

Setting Up the Shortcut

The first thing you’ll need to do is download the HideDesktopIcons application and save it somewhere other than the desktop, preferably somewhere where it won’t be deleted—you could put it under your Program Files folder if you wanted to.

If you’re using Windows 7, all you need to do is right-click on the file and choose Pin to Taskbar or Pin to Start Menu, depending on where you want it. We’ll put it on the Start Menu so we can assign a hotkey to it.

Still Using the Quick Launch Bar?

If you’re using a previous version of Windows and you’d like to put it on the Quick Launch bar, you can do that by opening up Explorer and typing the following into the address bar—just keep in mind that shortcuts on the Quick Launch bar don’t allow shortcut keys, so you’ll need to copy it to the Start Menu as well.

Now you have a shortcut that can be used for quick access…

Creating the Hotkey

To assign a hotkey, we’re going to assume that you’ve pinned the shortcut to the Start Menu. Go ahead and right-click on the shortcut in the Start Menu and choose Properties to assign a hotkey (I use Ctrl+Alt+D since it’s easy to remember).

Now you can access the desktop icons through a shortcut icon or shortcut key.

Supporting Files (If Needed)

If you get an error when you try to run this application, you probably need to have the Microsoft C++ runtime installed, which you can get get from the following link:

Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable Package (x86)

Download Application

Note: we normally wouldn’t host a download, but the original source appears to be gone.

Download HideDesktopIcons Application (How-To Geek Mirror Copy)