Clear desktop

I seem to recall reading somewhere that one can have a desktop folder with files in it but have it set up so that none of the files would appear on the screen. T or F?

Yes, that's correct.
There are 2 desktop folders:
1) the folder that holds files visible on the desktop is found at /users/(yourusername)/Desktop
2) the folder not visible on the screen is found at /Desktop, ie at root level on the hd.
I'm not sure that my terminology is quite correct.
I presume that with different accounts each account has its own customized version of desktop so the user variety is only visible to the current user on the visible desktop. The root level desktop is visible to the administrator, at least this is my limited understanding.
Neville

Similar Messages

HT204382 I was attempting to upload a video to face book and decided to cancel, now I can not get the quicktime icon with Facebook icon embedded to delete? what are steps to clear desktop?

I was attempting to upload a video to face book and decided to cancel, now I can not get the quicktime icon with Facebook icon embedded to delete? what are steps to clear desktop?

A warm welcome to Apple discussions!
A 2003 iMac cannot support Snow Leopard 10.6; you'd need an Intel processor and that cannot be retrofitted to your Mac. What does "About this Mac" in your Apple menu say for your processor speed? What does it say about how much RAM you have?
If the processor is 1ghz or faster, you can run OS 10.5; otherwise, you are maxed out at 10.4.11.
Also, are you running any commercial ("pay for") anti-virus or security software? They are notorious for slowing most Macs to a fraction of their speed potential.
A too-full hard drive can drag down performance, especially if you don't have a lot of physical RAM installed. If you single-click your hard drive icon and then do command i, you'll see the disk usage. Looks like this:
The value for "Used" should be no more than about 90 percent of "Capacity." In the example image, that drive has about 34 percent of its space used and 66 percent free--more than enough. Please post what you see for your Capacity and Used numbers
There are a few more things we might check but this is a good start.
Awaiting your information,
Allan

Clear Desktop on open

I am creating a Flash menu that will launch from a CD, it is
800x600.
When it opens I want the screen desktop to be blank, a color
is fine but I don't want all the icons. Anyone have any idea how to
do this?
Thanks
Dan

... No, you cannot clear the icons off of a persons desktop,
nor would any user want you to - it would be a gross overstep of
boundaries if a CD were to clear my desktop off without my
permission. What if I want to open a different file while the CD is
still running.
What you want to do is set your flash to go fullscreen on
launch. This is the only way you are going to control what the
background looks like in even the slightest way.
Actionscript 2:
fscommand("fullscreen",true);
Actionscript 3:
stage.displayState = StageDisplayState.FULL_SCREEN;
If you don't want your movie to scale, then turn scaling off:
Actionscript 2:
Stage.scaleMode = "noScale";
Actionscript 3:
stage.scaleMode = StageScaleMode.NO_SCALE;

F11 key not working to clear desktop

All of a sudden, my F11 key does not work to clear my desktop. Is anyone else having this problem? Is there a fix for it? I use this all the time.

First, go to System Preferences>Keyboard and Mouse pane. Select the "Keyboard Shortcuts" tab. Hit the "Restore Defaults" button.
If that fails, go to your Home/Library/Preferences folder, and remove "com.apple.finder.plist to the trash. Restart.

How to clear desktop on firefox (using android mobile)?

I have/had firefox on 3 laptops...work, netbook, laptop. Each show the 3 different versions of Windows NT for the machines in firefox android mobile desktop. Problem is the laptop is broken and hasn't beenused in 1 month (will no longer use it, can't turn it on). How do I not show (or remove) firefox results for the laptop in the desktop tab of android mobile???

Here's one way to do this:
# Open the "Sync" section of the Firefox preferences/options window on your PC.
# Press the "Manage account" button and choose "Reset sync"
# Choose "Replace all other devices with this computer's data" and press the Next button.
# Press the Next button again to confirm your choice.
This will get rid of the old data, including the tabs from your old computers. Warning: This will cause each browser to re-download all of your sync data, which can take a while (especially on a mobile device).

How to hide open windows with one swipe so i can see my desktop clear, as it was in snow leopard?

Hi, this was one very handy feature which I can not find now in Lion and kinda frustraits me. When I wanted to go strait to a clear desktop to open a folder, while being on another window, I had to swipe three fingers up (I think). Now trying swipe up, down, whatever, I got different showing of all opened windows, the one which says desktop though when clicking on it, brings the current window. Is it me or Lion is missing that? thanx

Hello,
Apple employees do not read very often the messages here.
The only (and official) way is to send a suggestion via this page :
http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

HT3231 How do i get rid of the Macintosh HD off my desktop?

I just migrated my user but i like having a clear desktop and after i migrated the Macintosh HD showed up on my screen i don't even have a Hard Drive i have the SSD

The desktop is an illusion maintained by the Finder.
Finder > Finder menu > Preferences > General ...
check and uncheck the boxes for what you want on the desktop display.

How can I get more than 5 items in my Recent Projects list?

After a rather horrendous incident with trying to do a series of videos all in one project using bins and shared media and a savefile that got *WAYYY* out of hand (20 minutes to load the file)- which I believe was tied to importing media from another .proj file, I have switched to a more modular approach with anywhere from 2-5 projects in each project and now a collection of around 15-25 projects on the go. Most of these are "work on a chapter, then change to another project while waiting for footage for another project" and several of them share pieces including multicam segments and sync'd audio.
Rather than importing from another project, I am using Control-C, switch to a different project file, then paste in. This isn't the most "Adobe Professional" style way of doing things, but considering that I lost several hours to trying to recover from the last project, even when I only needed to spend 20 minutes pumping out a rough cut, I'm not going back to that method until my next computer upgrade and until I begrudgingly switch to CC in around 1-1.5 year's time.
So the issue that I'm faced with is that I'm often using the Open Recent Project flyout and having 5 projects on that list is just not enough to be remotely useful.
In MS Office, the list is quite long and even in photoshop, I can get 10. That's enough for my Photoshop, but I switch projects using the Recent Projects list in Premiere a LOT more often. I could just use my explorer windows to jump around, but given that I have 5-6 explorer windows open per project most of which are folders crammed with footage, PSD stills and peak files, plus other non-video things I'm working on right now, that's really not the simplest way to navigate at a glance.
How can I get 10, 20 or 25 items in that flyout list instead of mucking about with 5?
I run Adobe Production Premium CS6.

I see a lot of people not reading the circumstances of what I said.
I did mention that currently I use the "explorer" method and it's kind of clumsy. Although I liked the idea of using shortcuts. I had thought about moving the files, but didn't think about shortcuts... considering everything on my desktop is a shortcut, I'm really not sure why I didn't think of that.
But I did mention that I almost always have anywhere from 12-15 windows open at any given time in my explorer. I am involved with management of 4 different companies right now, two of which are in startup mode. Videos are important for me, but not my only duty. These windows only go down when I shut down my computer, which happens on average once every 4 months. It is not a problem on a reasonably capable system.
Still, for a project of currently 23 files (just got increased to 28 and expected to rise to 32-35), and because I have had project files go sour on me, I keep some hierarchy and because I don't have 100% creative control over all my projects, I also occasionally have to do re-overs ie when a specific style of writ is nixed by a boss or customer. Those 23 project files also have version iterations.
So navigating 'at a glance' through a file explorer isn't always the most practical.
In the end, I'll probably try to find some time to re-organize my file structure using shortcuts.
Still, given the number of 'recent files' can be modified or is larger than 5 in: Windows Start Menu, Recent documents, Adobe PDF recent documents, Adobe Photoshop, All Office suite programs...
It's just weird that there's only 5 for a program intended for the kind of people that work on projects somewhat larger in scope than "hey, we took the dog to the park the other day".
@Jerry Klaimon - not sure what version of Premiere you're using, I'm using CS6 with Production Premium CS6. Recent files only shows 5. Photoshop shows 9. For my current workload, I'd probably want 10-12 and it would be nice if they could go to 20 or more IMHO. Look at History states. History states default to 20. I usually set this to 35 whenever I set up any user's computer. It's easy to choose what suits me from the preferences menu. I don't see why they wouldn't have the same idea for 'recent files'
@anyone who thinks I'm stupid - please feel free to insult me. A forum scuffle is often a great way to get the attention of moderators who might be in a position to pass this idea on to someone who could do something about it. I'm also anal, stubborn, holier-than-thou and not-as-smart-as-i-think-i-am if you want some ideas to get started .
@Steven Gotz - you are quite correct that asking is important. Probably a smarter thing to do before pestering the devs with feature requests is to thoroughly check to see if it is in fact already existing. Adobe products are famous for having features that nobody knows about. Most of the questions I have that Google or Lynda.com didn't answer have been answered here in the forums. Then once I've seen that a few hundred pairs of eyes sharper than mine have also come up with nothing, then perhaps it might be worthwhile sending in a feature request. In this case, I will probably toss a feature request in later, but I'll probably just use your idea of keeping a master project folder with shortcuts.
@MarkMapes - I do not have a problem loading files. Project files load just fine for me. But I have one project file that has a problem that loads a HUGE amount of RAM and takes nearly 20 minutes to open. It even takes almost 8 minutes to close it. It was acting as my master file with everything nested in sequences and I needed to spend a whole afternoon to pull those sequences out using copy-paste because bringing them in via Import Sequence brought the problem into the new file. I would file that under "glitched save files" rather than "slow loading".
@Jon-M-Spear - good idea too - although I did cringe a bit at the suggestion of putting things on the desktop. I have bad habits and I work very hard to try to make other people who have worse habits in this company to try to get them to not keep anything on the desktop. In fact, it's probably my favorite thing about Windows 7 that you can have a clear or nearly totally clear desktop.
Thanks for your comments folks.

Time Machine Not backing up home Folder

Time machine is not backing up any of my Home Folder files for ONE of my users.
I have two users, one of them gets backed up, the other does not.
I have a Mac Pro with all latest updates from Software Update.
The machine has 4 HDD's, Mac HD, Home, Data and Time Machine Drive
Mac HD is where the system lives
Home is where the Users Home folders are. Copied across when first installed and location changed in System Accounts/Advanced/ Home Directory.
Data drive is where I first import all data (music/photos etc)
Time Drive....well obvious I think
From a clear desktop, If I click on Mac H, a finder window pops up, then click on the Home Icon folder and get 6 folder within the Home folder (Desktop/Docs/Downloads etc).
I click on the TM Icon in the Dock, TM does its thing and the front Finder Window alters its appearance changing to the Top level in the Devices in the sidebar.
If I move to the Home HDD, it show the User folder for one user but not the other.
I thought maybe it was because you could not see logged in User files, but not the case. Even if I log in as the other user, the particular user Folder is not backed up.
I have checked the TM options, and the only items excluded are the Data HDD and the TM HDD

Well it is working....properly....not sure.
What with all the mucking around with different users etc, and 3 or 4 restores from TM backups it has all got very confused.
Have deleted all TM Backups, iPhoto Libraries, iTunes libraries the lot and starting with a clean install from Disk again. Third time lucky
I tried a restore from the first TM backup, but then I am back to the wrong user name scenario again....So it is time to bin it all and learn from mistakes over the last week
This is the first Mac I have had, so trying out loads of new software, lots of installs, and removals etc as I find apps to replace my old windows ones.
I knew there was going to be a lot to learn switching Gatesware and the odd Ubuntu machine over to Mac, but I had thought it was going to just be learning to find my way round the new OS.
Had really hoped all this sort of OS agro was in the Windows past....ah well...was obviously just a case of 'The Grass is greener on the other side' syndrom.
Well the new instal is now underway...at least I kept all the Software Update downloads
Thanks for the help
NP

How do I hide ALL windows using apple H? The final window stays open.

When I press apple-H it hides the windows except the last one. To hide that one I have to click on the desktop, then back to the window, then press apple H again to hide it.
Is this an intentional function of Mac's operating system? Seems awkward, and it's certainly annoying as I have to access the desktop many times during my work day. I realize I can press F11 and get the desktop, but that merely pushes windows to the side and when I open something new they come back on screen and interrupt my workflow.
I would like to be able to press apple-H multiple times (or a different shortcut) until I reach a clean and clear desktop. So if I have 3 applications open, I want to press apple-H 3 times and to reach the desktop. When I open a folder, I don't want the windows that were pushed aside to slide on screen blocking my workflow.

Why not use multiple desktops?
I have 5 desktops being used. Desktop 1 is my "working" desktop where I open/close apps/windows a lot. While I keep Calendar on desktop 2, full screen. Mail on 3 at full screen, iTunes on 4 full screen and Stickies, Reminders and Notes on desktop 5.
As I typed this, I tested it out. I opened Messages along with Safari (obviously) on my desktop 1. I then pressed Command H twice. Both Messages and Safari disappeared leaving me with a clean desktop. But it left all my other desktops alone and left each of the apps/windows opened on their desktops. I think this would be a great solution for you as you can leave apps/windows opened on other desktops with out having to disrupt your work flow on your main desktop.
You can also assign an app to open just on one particular desktop. As with me, I have all of those apps to open at start up. But on that desktop that it's assigned to. Example I opened Calendar on desktop 2. Then I right clicked the App in the Dock, scrolled to Options then selected "Assign to This Desktop". And so on with the remaining desktops and apps.
To move between desktops, since you have a Trackpad, just swipe back and forth with four fingers. Or if you are on desktop 1 and want to get to find quickly. You can either click on the app that is assigned to desktop 5, in my case Notes, Stickies or Reminders. Or you can 4-finger swipe up then select desktop 5.
KOT

Shutting down freezes my G5

Hi all
Hope someone can help. Last night I reinstalled my system software, fully erasing my hard drive and doing a clean install to get rid of the clutter that was my apps folder that has been getting more crowded over the last year or so. everything was going fine. I had installed the Adobe creative suite and the online updates, Tiger was fully updates from the website and I was installing various other packages some witch required me to restart. This is when I noticed my mac wasn't shutting down. When I go to Shut Down or Restart the desktop clears (top menu bar disappears and all desktop items too). Normally this is where you get the little icon that you get at start up as well of the segmented circle thingy going round for a few seconds as it write data to the hard drive but on my machine this isn't happening. It just stays on the cleared desktop. I've tried several reboots, unplugging the computer and leaving it for a minute then trying again but to no avail. Has anyone got any ideas on what could be causing the problem and how I can solve it.
Cheers Tho

Some relevant discussion here
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=1738319#1738319
and others here
http://discussions.apple.com/search.jspa?objID=f596&search=Go&q=won%27tshutdown
Hindsight is a wonderful thing but...
Going straight to the untried 10.4.6 may have been an update too far - if everything was stable with 10.4.5. Trust you used the combo update?

10.4.10-Instabilities... blurry text on everything

As soon as I did the security and iTunes update all of my fonts look blurry, on my G4 PB. I tried dumping the font cashe with Font Finagler, restarted, and ended up with a very long wait with only a very clear desktop picture, spotlight icon, and later, when everything booted, the same blurry problem. Hmm, even seems like the blurring is greater away from the center of the screen. Weird.
Is there a way to rollback this update?
Thanks,
Tony

Tony,
Have you experimented changing the settings in System Preferences...>Appearance>"Font smoothing style:"...and "Turn off text smoothing for font sizes (x) and smaller?"
;~)

MacBook Won't Shut Down

Hi Folks.
I've been using Macs for a long time with much success trouble shooting when needed. But while my MacBook 2Ghz Core Duo starts & runs fine, but will not shut down normally. It stops at the "cleared desktop" view and that's it. I've repaired permissions, turned Airport on & off.......
Any suggestions? Many thanks!!
Message was edited by: e.maynard

Let's see... Although not directly related, I would zap the PRAM:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238
I've also read things about some USB peripherals preventing shut down. You might want to rule that out also (by removing them of course).
Finally, I would try trashing a .plist file wich may have become corrupt.
Here's the path:
HD > Library > Preferences > SystemConfiguration >com.apple.PowerManagement.plist
Drag it to the desktop, try shutting down. If it works, trash the file (a new one is automatically created in the appropriate place, no worries).
Hope this helps. I'm out of ideas. Thanks for the star.
Cheers

Why is my Mac's Flash Storage full?

I have an issue on my Mac where my flash storage's free space suddenly shrank.
            I am using a Macbook Air (128 GB). As the storage is pretty small, I am trying to keep my storage as efficient as possible. Last 3 days, my free space is 37 GB.The next day, I am given a task to edit a large video, from multiple devices which i copied to my desktop. After hours of editing on Final Cut Pro x, the movie is done, but when i rendered the video and i looked at my storage's free space, the space has shrunk to 4 GB.
               I have a portable hard disk, which i used to store large-sized data, and i managed to move all those storage-eating files. After moving, i then delete the original file on the desktop to the trash, then i emptied the trash. I looked at the 'About my Mac' to the storage tab, the free space has increased from 4 GB to 8 GB. Where is my previous 37 GB free space?
               I have tried to: - Move the media used for the large video-editing to another Hard Disk
                                         - Deleting iPhoto's trash
                                         - Move all downloads files to another Hard Disk
                                         - Emptying Trash
                                         - Emptying 'Mail' trash
                                         - Clearing desktop folders
                                          - Clearing Final Cut Pro's media library
My question is, where is my previous free space? Does Final Cut Pro's Library takes up Storage Space? Should i delete the 'Project' folders on Final Cut Pro? What should i do to get my free space? Thank you..
System: Macbook Air (13")                                  System Software: Final Cut Pro X (v10.1.2)
               [128GB]                                                                                 OSX Mavericks 10.9.4
               i5 Processor
               Intel HD Graphics 5000
               4 GB RAM

Of course the library takes up storage space.
Freeing Up Space on The Hard Drive
1. See Lion/Mountain Lion/Mavericks' Storage Display.
2. You can remove data from your Home folder except for the /Home/Library/ folder.
3. Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on freeing up space on your hard drive.
4. Also see Freeing space on your Mac OS X startup disk.
5. See Where did my Disk Space go?.
6. See The Storage Display.
You must Empty the Trash in order to recover the space they occupied on the hard drive.
You should consider replacing the drive with a larger one. Check out OWC for drives, tutorials, and toolkits.
Try using OmniDiskSweeper 1.8 or GrandPerspective to search your drive for large files and where they are located.

Finder window keeps popping out when booting up the computer

Lately I've noticed whenever I shut down the computer with the "Reopen windows when logging back in" uncheck, this Finder window will pop out the next time I startup the computer. Still new to Apple and am not sure any settings that I may have set before this.
I just want a clear desktop when I boot up the computer and not greeted by this system Finder window.

Finder does not obey the rules of the 'Reopen windows' dialogue box. It will reopen any Finder window that was not closed when you shutdown. This was also true in Snow Leopard and isn't part of the 'Resume' feature itself.
The only way to not see that window when you restart is to close it before you shutdown!

Clear desktop

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