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If you’re like me, you may not want the desktop items on your Windows 11 PC to show. I disabled mine and so can you – this guide shows how to achieve this in 2 simple steps.
Overview
Windows has a set of system icons that you can display on the desktop. As seen in the screenshot below, these are Computer, User’s Files, Recycle Bin, and Network.
By default, in Windows 11, only the Recycle Bin is set to show on the desktop. However, you can modify the settings to decide which of the icons to show or hide from the desktop.
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The first step below explains how to configure this.
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Beyond this, you can also decide whether to show or hide all items on your Windows desktop. In the second section of this guide, I share the steps you can use to do this.
If your aim or reading this article is to simply show or hide all items on your Windows desktop, skip to step 2. Otherwise, proceed to the first step below to decide which available system icons you want to show on the desktop.
Step 1: Configure System Icons to Show or Hide on Desktop
If you want to decide which system icons are displayed on the desktop, follow the steps below:
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- Right-click the Windows start menu and select Settings – this opens the Windows Settings app.
- Next, on the left pane of the Settings app, click Personalisation, then select Themes from the details pane.
- On the Themes settings – under “Related settings” – click Desktop icons settings.
- Finally, check the available desktop items you like to display and click OK.
Step 2: Configure the Desktop to Show or Hide All Icons
This section discusses the steps to configure whether Windows displays icons on the desktop (including the icons you configured in step 1).
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To stop all desktop items from displaying, right-click a space (with no icons) on the desktop, point to View, and select “Show desktop icons.”
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All icons on your desktop will disappear, leaving you with a cleaner-looking desktop!
Whenever you want the icons to appear, repeat the process: right-click the desktop ->pointbto View and select “Show desktop icons.” The items will reappear again!
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Conclusion
Having items on your Windows desktop is great because it gives you quick access to your shortcuts. However, if like mine, your desktop has too many items, it can become distracting or even outright “dirty.”
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The good news is that Windows offers a very straightforward way to remove these items – temporality – from your desktop.
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In this quick guide, I showed how to achieve this. But before then, I explained that Windows has some system icons that you can also determine whether to show or hide on the desktop.
I also demonstrated how to complete this optional configuration.
Before you go, why not browse our Windows 11 how-to guides? We would also love to hear what you think about this article.
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