Look at all those icons strewn across your Windows desktop. Wouldn't it be great if you could make all or some of them disappear in an instant and then reappear when you need them? Or maybe you have a sensitive project -- that Resume folder, for example -- you want to keep handy yet away from prying eyes. With a little preparation, you can hide any or all of your desktop shortcuts and folders (except the default icons, My Computer and Recycle Bin).

First, make sure your system will let you conceal files in folder windows. Choose View-Options in any folder window (Windows 95 or NT 4.0) or View-Folder Options (Internet Explorer 4.x with the Desktop Update feature, or Windows 98). Click the View tab and select Hide files of these types (Win 95 or NT) or Do not show hidden files (IE 4.x or Win 98). Then click OK. Note: this is a simple condition for experienced users to reverse, so don't expect this tip to provide ironclad security. Instead, use it for convenience and short-term privacy.

Next, right-click the Start button and choose Open. Somewhere within the Start Menu folder, right-click an empty area and choose New-Folder. Type a name for your folder and press <Enter>. You'll use this folder for storing your hide and unhide commands. Since it's within the Start Menu hierarchy, you can execute the commands using shortcut keys. Right-click that folder and choose New-Shortcut. In Windows 9x, type this command line: attrib +h c:windowsdesktop*.* (your path may differ). In Windows NT, enter the following, adjusting the path as needed: %SystemRoot%\system32\cmd.exe /c attrib +h c:\WinNT\Profiles\Administrator\desktop\*.*

If you want to hide a folder, those wild cards won't do; instead, type the path and name of the folder itself. If the folder name includes spaces, put the entire path in quotation marks. For example, to hide a folder named Budget in Progress in Windows 9x, your command line might read attrib +h "c:windowsdesktopBudget in Progress". The secret here is the attrib command, which sets the designated files as hidden (+h). Click Next and type a name for your command, such as Clean Up Desktop. Then click Finish.

Caption: No you see them, now you don't. Make selected
desktop icons disappear with a simple batch file

If you want to hide some file types and not others ù say, .doc and .xls files, but not .lnk, which would hide all shortcuts ù enter multiple attrib command lines in Notepad (omit command.com or cmd.exe and its path, as well as the /c switch, which you need only if you want to launch a command from a shortcut without first creating a batch file) and then save the file with a name like "hide.bat" where you normally store batch files. Be sure to enter quotation marks around the file name when saving so that Notepad doesn't add its .txt extension by default.

For the finishing touches, right-click your new batch file or shortcut and select Properties. Click the Program tab and choose Minimized from the Run drop-down list and make sure the box next to 'Close on exit' is checked. If desired, click in the Shortcut Key box and press a keyboard sequence to launch your command. Click the Misc tab and make sure the box next to 'Always suspend' is unchecked. Then click OK.

To create a command that undoes the hiding and makes all your icons visible again, simply repeat all the steps listed above, with these two differences: change the +h switch to -h to remove the hidden attribute. Then give the command a different name, like Show All Icons.

From now on, whenever you want to hide sensitive items or clean up the desktop, just choose your new command from the appropriate submenu of the Start menu or press your shortcut key sequence. If you don't get immediate results, try clicking the desktop and pressing <F5> to refresh it. Any time you need to use one of your hidden icons, use your Show All command to reverse the effect.

If you still don't get the results you want, check the location of the shortcut (not the batch file, but the MS-DOS icon you created for it) by opening the batch file's Properties. A shortcut must be on the desktop or in some menu within the Start Menu folder in order to work. Also, you must be using Windows 95 or NT 4.0. If you're using Windows 98 or have Internet Explorer 4.x installed, you're out of luck ù Microsoft has taken away the ability to launch batch files or other DOS programs with shortcut keys. Try launching these shortcuts from the Start menu instead. If you're using Windows 95 or NT 4.0 and still experiencing problems, restarting your computer should enable your shortcut keys.

The only downside to hiding and unhiding desktop icons is that when you uncover the concealed icons in Windows 95 and NT, they don't return to their original places. In Windows 98 and IE 4.x, you can update the Desktop toolbar on your taskbar by simply right-clicking it and choosing Refresh. But getting the desktop to update its icons (with or without the Active Desktop feature) requires an act of God, or at least a change of wallpaper. Still, if you plan to hide icons for days at a time, this tip is valuable, since restarting Windows is a surefire way to refresh the desktop.