May 2, 2026

When you are presenting at a conference, the last thing you want to show is your messy desktop. Files everywhere. Maybe some revealing. I use this little shell script on MacOS to hide all the files on the desktop. Run it againt to bring them back. Also good for recording videos.

#!/bin/bash
file="present.txt"

if [ -f "$file" ]
then
	rm $file
	defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop true
	killall Finder
else
	echo "You got this." > $file
	defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop false
	killall Finder
fi

~/present.sh