How to Automatically Hide Desktop Icons on Windows 11/10?

Once a bunch of customization is possible on Windows 11/10 desktop. So, you can resize the desktop icons by pressing Ctrl + mouse wheel scrolling. There are also options on Windows 11/10 to hide all the desktop icons. By default, on Windows 11/10 desktop, the Recycle Bin icon remained missing and was added through the Personalization section.

Then, you enter into your user account; the desktop comes first. We can launch almost all the programs/files/folders from the desktop without opening the respective programs/file locations. Generally, you can find program shortcut icons, system icons (Recycle Bin and This PC), folder, and file icons on the desktop.

AutoHideDesktopIcons for Windows 11/10

If you want more control over show/hide desktop icons, you can use a third-party freeware tool, AutoHideDesktopIcons. AutoHideDesktopIcons is not only free, yet it is also a portable utility that automatically hides desktop icons when they are not in use. It allows you to configure the time elapse after moving the mouse cursor away from the desktop or mouse idle time on the desktop before the program automatically hides all desktop icons.

Automatically hide desktop icons on Windows 11/10

At the start, AutoHideDesktopIcons comes pre-configured and is ready to use. AutoHideDesktopIcons automatically hides desktop icons with the default settings if you move the mouse cursor away from the desktop for 5 seconds. Still, you can set your own time by moving the slider.

To see the hidden icons on the Windows 11/10 desktop, you can do the following:-

1. Click Left Mouse Button on the desktop
2. Click Right or middle Mouse Button on the desktop, or

You move the mouse cursor from the desktop to another window or taskbar area, or when the mouse remains idle on the desktop for a specified time, the AutoHideDesktopIcons program automatically hides all the desktop icons. To make these icons visible, you can click the mouse’s left, right, or middle buttons on the desktop.

There is even an option to hide all the desktop icons for a long time

By clicking on the More options button, you can perform additional tweaking:-

• Hide via the middle mouse button.
• Make desktop icons visible by pressing Win + D keys combination.
• Show icons when the mouse moves across the desktop.
• Hide icons program start.
• Hide taskbar when icons hide.

After that, if you like this portable application, you can configure it to start with Windows by checking Start with Windows option under Preferences. You can also check “Always start minimized (To Tray),” so it will sit on the system tray.