How to hide Desktop icons on Windows 11

How to hide desktop icons on Windows 11 is a highly sought after topic in this last period. Often using the computer, and then downloading files, programs or creating documents, the desktop is populated with many icons that sometimes remain unused. Or, the icons you’ve collected over time are useful, but you don’t want that other people see them during screen sharing in a business call or an online lesson or exam.

Well, it’s time to take care of your PC and make some order. Today’s guide will explain how to hide desktop icons on Windows 11. Are you curious about how to do it? So, let’s see the various methods you can use to hide desktop icons in a quick and easy way.

Context menu of the desktop

The first method to hide icons with Windows 11 is through the desktop context menu. Follow these 2 simple steps:

1. Go to the desktop and right click on a blank space on the screen.
2. It will open a window where View item appears. Click on it and then uncheck Show desktop icons in the menu that opens.

If you want to restore icons, right-click again on the desktop, then tap View and select Show Desktop Icons.

Local Group Policy Editor

Another method to hide desktop icons on Windows 11 is by configuring some settings on the Local Group Policy Editor. Please note, however, that this feature is only available in Education, Pro and Enterprise of Windows 10 and 11.

But let’s go into the details of the operation:

1. Press the Windows + R key combination on the keyboard to open the Run command.
2. Type gpedit.msc and press Enter to go to the Local Group Policy Editor.
3. Go to the User Configuration section, click on Administrative Templates and then on Desktop.
4. Double-click on the option Hide and disable all objects on the desktop in the right side pane.
5. Next, click Activate, Apply, and then click OK.

If you want to restore desktop icons, change the Local Group Policy setting to Not Configured or Disabled.

Editor of the Registry

Finally, we also recommend the Registry Editor to hide desktop icons on Windows 11. This tool helps you to change the registry keys that control the operation of your computer. Before starting this operation, make a backup of the Windows registry, to remedy any settings configuration error.

Let’s take a look at the various steps to hide icons:

1. First, press the Windows + R key combination to open the Run command.
2. Type regedit and press Enter to go to the Registry Editor.
3. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER, then Software, Microsoft, Windows, CurrentVersion, Policies and finally on Explorer.
4. Right-click on a blank space in the right pane, choose New and after DWORD Value (32 bits).

Once these steps are done, type NoDesktop as the name of the DWORD value and press Enter. After that, double-click the NoDesktop value to set the Value to 1. Press OK and restart the PC to save the changes.

In case you do not see the Explorer folder, you can create it manually:

1. Right click on Policies, select New and then click on Key.
2. Rename the new key as Explorer.

Alternatively, you can also hide desktop icons by following these other steps:

1. Always go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER, then to continue click on Software, Microsoft, Windows, CurrentVersion, Explorer and finally on Advanced.
2. Locate Hidelcons and double-click this value in the right pane.
3. In the next window, change the Value to 1 and press OK. Finally, to save the changes, restart your computer.

In this guide we have shown you the easiest and fastest methods to run if you want to hide desktop icons with Windows 11.