Show Desktop Button

Is there any button in Mac OS X like the button in Windows called "Show Desktop"? I use this button at work all day on my Windows PC and I am always looking for it on my Macs when I get home. Thanks

Indeed there is.
You can invoke Expose - on most Macs this is by pressing F11. (You can go to System Preferences -> Expose & Spaces -> Expose to see which key it is mapped to on your system). This will shove the windows off to the side, so that you can interact with the desktop, When you are done, just press F11 again.
You can do the same thing with a 4 finger swipe towards the monitor on a multi-touch trackpad. (Swipe in the opposite direction to get the windows back in their normal places).
Or, you can use the CMD-TAB task switcher to select Finder. Then press CMD-OPTION-H, and all windows from other applications will be hidden.
Cheers,
Rodney

Similar Messages

Show desktop button not working

This is my only problem. I installed gnome and got everything up and running sansthe show desktop button. My windows also look a bit funky (anytime I open something I can't see the my applications, locations, and settings menus uptop).
Whenever I click the show desktop button I get:
Your window manager does not support the show desktop button or you are not running a window manager.

I figured this out, I installed metacity and everything works now.

Restoring an app that has been hidden by Show Desktop in Windows 7

Does anyone know if a way to restore/unhide an AIR app that has been hidden by the Show Desktop command in Wndows 7? I used AutoHotKey to remap the Windows-D shortcut but it still does not capture the Show Desktop button in the Taskbar. I thought if there was a way that an AIR app could know that it had been hidden and restore itself I could use a Timer or create an eventListener to handle it.
I am trying to replicate the old Active Desktop of XP and the goal is to make sure that the app remains on the desktop at all times. This is the last hurtle!

Does anyone know if a way to restore/unhide an AIR app that has been hidden by the Show Desktop command in Wndows 7? I used AutoHotKey to remap the Windows-D shortcut but it still does not capture the Show Desktop button in the Taskbar. I thought if there was a way that an AIR app could know that it had been hidden and restore itself I could use a Timer or create an eventListener to handle it.
I am trying to replicate the old Active Desktop of XP and the goal is to make sure that the app remains on the desktop at all times. This is the last hurtle!

In this version - Firefox 5 - I cannot find a button for" show desktop". How can I find it please?

In the last version of Firefox, if I hovered my cursor over the right hand end of the toolbar, I could find a button to "show desktop". It is no longer there and I would like that convenience.

Hi cantfindanything,
I am gathering you are trying to get an iPod repaired by Apple.
In the US for iPod Touch Generation 5:
Every iPod comes with a one-year limited warranty and 90 days of complimentary telephone technical support.
If you are trying to get a replacement or repair job, Apple will just need your Serial Number, found on either the back of your iPod Touch or in: Settings, General, About, Serial Number.
When Apple receives this number, their database will be able to show up your information including device purchase and activation.
To get a repair job/replacement, it is best to talk to Apple on the phone or go to your nearest Apple store to find out possible resolutions.
To contact Apple call:
1-800-MY-APPLE
You can also take the iPod into your closest Apple Store and give them your serial number and they will be able to help you: http://www.apple.com/retail/storelist/
Many Thanks for your question and Happy New Year!
iBenjamin Crowley

Show desktop no longer works in Quick Look Full Screen view

Is anyone besides myself missing this functionality in Lion? Previously in Snow Leopard, you could be looking at a full screen slideshow in Quick View (by doing cmd+A and hitting the space bar then the full screen arrows) and at any time you were able to do a gesture swipe in order to show the desktop (or you could use a hot corner or keyboard shortcut) and then swipe back down to restore the full screen photo or slideshow. This function is now either broken or just ommitted all together for some reason.
I just can't figure out what logic there was in removing this feature. Anybody care to guess ?
Doug

Hi,
I had the same problem (the "show desktop" function didn't work in the corner, nor after pressing the keyboard button) and I found no real fix even after an extensive research, including a restart, permission repair, deleting some files/cache from the Library folder and so. THAN I discovered a function in Onyx which turns the "Mission Control" on and off. It was off (unchecked) in my case, so I checked it on and voilà, all of sudden the "Show desktop" function works again! Hot corners as well!
In Onyx -> Parameters -> Mission Control -> Turn on Mission Control.
Hope it helps!
Happy New Year to you all!

Does MAC OS have a "show desktop" function?

I want to be able minimize all windows instantly, to reveal the desktop, when desired. MS Windows has an icon in the task bar that performs that function. Very handy sometimes. Does the MAC OS have a similar function?
Thanks, Vince.

Use Exposé. One of the three commands pushes all the window off to the side of the closest screen edge and shows you the desktop. If mapped to the F keys, it is usually F11 that does the +Show Desktop+ trick. Push that button again to put your open windows back to where they were before.
You can change the Exposé settings in System Preferences +Exposé & Spaces+ pane, Exposé tab.

Show Downloads Button

I'm working on a 2009 desktop iMac with Mavericks 10.9.4
I've been trying to figure out why my downloads from websites don't appear in my downloads folder, with the help of some of the community members. I was gone for a few days, so that stream ended.
So now what I'm looking at is the Show Downloads Button on the Safari toolbar. When I attempt a download (say for a flashplayer update) the Show Downloads Button does pop up, but then disappears so fast I can't click on it. And then when I go to the Downloads Folder in Finder, my download does not show up.
Today I needed to download a Firmware update for my printer. The Show Downloads Button appeared and I rushed to click on it. I got it just in time and was able to successfully install my update. From my experience with the speed of previous downloads, I don't know if I'll be able to catch it every time.
I've added the Downloads Stacks to my Dock, but that doesn't show downloads that need to be installed.
I've turned off all Safari Extensions. The only Community suggestion I haven't followed up on is one that says I may have a corrupt system and need to take it to the Genius Bar.
Can anyone think of anything that I can do to slow down the Show Downloads Button so I can use it the way it was meant to be used?

Try clicking on View, then clicking the Show Downloads text in that menu. When I tried that, the button dissapears after you clear them.

Show Desktop command

I am writing an alarm clock-type program. I thought it would be great if the program would minimize everything (similar to the Show Desktop in windows) when it alerts you.
I am writing it for a Windows OS, but "Show Desktop" is a file-type of ".scf" which does not work with Runtime.getRunTime().exec()
If there is a way to access the "Windows button," then that would also work. Any suggestions?

Hi,
When you excute:
Runtime.getRuntime().exec("C:\\Documents and Settings\\XXXXXXX\\Application Data\\Microsoft\\Internet Explorer\\Quick Launch\\Show Desktop.scf");Is not working cause "%1 is not a valid win32 process" (this one is the error code that is launching the exec command). So:
Runtime.getRuntime().exec(new String[] {"cmd.exe", "/c","C:\\Documents and Settings\\XXXXXXXX\\Application Data\\Microsoft\\Internet Explorer\\Quick Launch\\Show Desktop.scf"});Hope this is going to help you.
Regards,
David.

Red, Yellow and Green button are grey. "Show All" button disappears

I'm having two issues that I can not figure out.
First the red, yellow and green buttons are grey not colored. They still work but they do not show the correct color.
The second problem is that the "Show All" button in system preferences is not visible until I float over the are where it should be. The button still works but is not visible.
I can not figure out what happened or if the two situations are related.
Any thoughts?
-Rich

Not sure on your other issue yet, but here's a suggestion for those buttons.
Open System Preferences and click the Appearance option. Is it set to Graphite? Switch to Blue.
I'll see if I can find a solution for your other problem as well!
Edit: Can't hurt to try removing the preferences file and see if that fixes things.
Click *Macintosh HD*, then Users> Library> Preferences. Delete--or move to the desktop--the com.apple.systempreferences.plist file. Restart your computer. Any changes?
Try another user account as well to see if the button reappears.
~Lyssa

"save optimized as" window in save for web shows desktop but not correct folder

In "where", it shows desktop, with the icon of a folder, and not the name of the folder the picture is in, as is usual, if I cick on the pop down menu,{of the where field) at the bottom i am showing recent places in gray, and then the name of a folder which is on the desktop, but not the one the picture is in. I want to keep the picture in the same folder.
I have been saving for web no problem recently. i quit PS and shut the computer, nothing
PS cs3 10 0 1
in the save as window I have no problem

There's another "drop down" in the save window. To the right of the file name (Save As: field), if you click that arrow, it will allow you to browse to ANY folder or location on the HD to save.

"Show Desktop" bug forces any program windows to be stuck "Always-on-top"

What I found under Windows 7, when you use the "Show Desktop" feature (I prefer the ⊞ Win + D shortcut) and then bring all windows back by using it again, some windows behave as if they're glued to the front of the z-order. What this means is, say, I have windows
A B and C open, with focus on A, hit ⊞ Win +D twice, and now it may happen that if I then want to switch to B or C, either by Alt+Tab or by selecting them on the taskbar, the taskbar shows the highlight, but A stays visible (and usable, it's not just a rendering
issue) in the foreground.
Imagine the following situations, all three windows cascading and overlapping:
A (focus)
B
C
-> ⊞ Win + D
Desktop (focus)
-> ⊞ Win + D
A (focus)
B
C
-> click C on taskbar
A
C (focus)
B
-> click B on taskbar
A
B (focus)
C
And so on. Focus means actual input focus, i.e. in second situation, any keyboard typing is sent to window B while window A is in the foreground.
It does not matter what kind of application; in my current case an instance of Outlook and an instance of Explorer is stuck, while a second instance of Explorer and an instance of Firefox behave normally. This should show that this problem can occur even between
multiple instances of the same application, and that there are no fancy applications involved that like to pretend they are the most important program and internally force "always on top".
Showing and unshowing the desktop again doesn't help; in the worst case another window might end up with the "glued to the top of the z-order" too. Between those, I can easily switch, but in order to get a window which still behaves normally on top, I have
to manually minimize the offending windows.
The only cure seems to close the offending windows so far, I've not found anything else that helps.
Could it be that Windows 7 has a bug that can force an ALWAYS_ON_TOP flag
onto some windows when restoring from "Show Desktop", or am I doing something wrong?
More information from another user:
I use win+d. Issue easy to replicate, Win7-64bit-Ultimate.
The affected windows (any program) seem to be placed into a separate "Z" group. You can place multiple/many windows into this always-on-top state, those in the affected state will function normally in relation to each other with the exception that: - The group
as a whole is always-on-top of any non-affected window - The whole group is on top of the taskbar. - The whole group does not respond to (context on taskbar) "cascade windows" or similar commands.
The fact that the affected windows are on top of the taskbar and otherwise function as "special windows" shows that windows 7 has a hidden "feature" of always-on-top that gets applied with Win+D. The feature appears to place windows in a super window state
that is on top of the taskbar. The normal group remaining behind the taskbar. (When you click the start menu or context menu of the taskbar, the start menu/taskbar comes to the foreground of the always-on-top group, however this does not revert the affected
windows, only a temporary takeover until you switch to something other than the start menu/taskbar)
This is key to finding an answer. How do we get windows to unassign the special status or not do the assignment in the first place?

It appeared to have cleared by closing all windows and restarting. Initially I could not reproduce the error, then after opening all my working windows, I did indeed reproduce it on any window.
I almost think it could be initialized with something to do with multiple windows of Chrome, and then the show desktop problem will crop up once one window has it. This was because: After messing around some more with a chrome session saver (session buddy)
and restoring sessions and getting the super state, I restored and closed the window I was in and now I am again at a place where I can not reproduce the error, even in my "work environment" with some 35 chrome tabs in two windows, plus other programs, file
locations, remote desktops and a second chrome profile with another dozen tabs.
So, back to square one with finding the actual instigator of the super state phenomenon.
Once you actually have the super sate issue, the following will reproduce:
Ok, I am doing this as I type it:
Open chrome (to view this website), then Notepad, then Calculator, (could be any windows, but for the purpose of demonstration, follow along with me)
The windows should function normally, overlap your windows so that you can see the edge of all windows and the Z-order is (from front to back):the browser on top, then the calculator, then Notepad (you should be able to see part of the background windows).
Now, with the browser on top, press win+d, then win+d again.
Click on Calculator, then your browser, your browser is now stuck in the foreground. Clicking on notepad will bring the focus to notepad, and it will be in front of the calculator, yet it will stay behind the browser, as your browser is in "super state". (many
arrangements of switching focus after returning from win+d will create the problem, with the exeption of clicking the desktop, I also noticed that I could not get calculator into super state unless it overlapped my chrome browser).
Again, this does not seem to work until at least one of your windows is affected. We do not know how to get the initial window, only subsequent ones.
I will post back if I find anything else.
Let me know if there is anything that develops.

"Show Desktop" doesn't work with function keys

I recently upgraded to snow leopard, while doing so I was messing with my expose settings, switching which shortcuts I want with what keys, and now I can't get "show desktop" to work with any of the function keys. I can set it to the shift key or something like that, but that's inconvenient. I've already gone to the keyboard section in system pref and set them to default, still nothing. Any ideas why this could happen?

Yes, I have the same issue on my MacBook pro. I used to have to press fn F11 to get the desktop to show in via Expose but now I am not able to access any of the F key functions since they are already predefined by volume, screen brightness etc.

Any idea what happened to the "Show All " button in my organizer ?

I am still very much a rookie at all of this so please bear with me. I have been working my way through the lessons in the "Photoshop Elements 7 Classroom in a Book" publication, and am on Lesson 3,page 106, step 4, of the "Viewing and Managing Files by Folder Location" feature ,which tells me to........
"Click the Display button and then choose Thumbnail View from the menu. In the Photo Browser,click Show All".......
There is NO "Show All " button option offered on my screen. Any idea where my "Show All " button might be hiding ? I had one awhile back ,but have no idea where it is now ?

More generally, Show All will only show when the Organizer isn't showing all your photos. For example, if you click on a tag to show just the photos with that tag, the Show All button will show up.
Alas, what I said above isn't completely true. There are a number of situations where this rule doesn't hold:
- When you've restricted the photos shown to a date range using Find > Set Date Range.
- When you've restricted which media types to show using View > Media Types.
- When you type text quickly into the search box and hit enter (on a large catalog).

How to show my button??

well, Im a newbie to java and im trying to make a calculator, but can any1 help me to show the button on the window, the application can run but no button were shown.. i wonder what code should i add to the main method ..
Here is the code:
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.awt.*;
public class BC extends JFrame
     JButton B1       =new JButton("1");
     JButton B2       =new JButton("2");
     JButton B3       =new JButton("3");
     JButton B4       =new JButton("4");
     JButton B5       =new JButton("5");
     JButton B6       =new JButton("6");
     JButton B7       =new JButton("7");
     JButton B8       =new JButton("8");
     JButton B9       =new JButton("9");
     JButton B0       =new JButton("0");
     JButton BPlus     =new JButton("+");
     JButton BMinus    =new JButton("-");
     JButton BDivide   =new JButton("/");
     JButton BMultiply =new JButton("*");
     JButton BEqual    =new JButton("=");
     JButton BClear    =new JButton("C");
     JButton BBackspace=new JButton("Backspace");
     JButton BSqrt     =new JButton("sqrt");
     JButton BPosMin   =new JButton("+/-");
     JButton BPoint    =new JButton(".");
     JPanel PButton    =new JPanel();
     Container contain;
     public BC()
     public void ButtonConfiguration()
     PButton.setLayout(new GridLayout(4,5,2,2));
PButton.add(B1);
     public static void main(String args[])
     BC calculator=new BC();
     calculator.setTitle("Butcher's Calculator");
     calculator.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
     calculator.setSize(300,350);
     calculator.setResizable(false);
     calculator.setVisible(true);


import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.awt.*;
public class BC extends JFrame
     JButton B1     =new JButton("1");
     JButton B2     =new JButton("2");
     JButton B3     =new JButton("3");
     JButton B4     =new JButton("4");
     JButton B5     =new JButton("5");
     JButton B6     =new JButton("6");
     JButton B7     =new JButton("7");
     JButton B8     =new JButton("8");
     JButton B9     =new JButton("9");
     JButton B0     =new JButton("0");
     JButton BPlus =new JButton("+");
     JButton BMinus =new JButton("-");
     JButton BDivide =new JButton("/");
     JButton BMultiply =new JButton("*");
     JButton BEqual =new JButton("=");
     JButton BClear =new JButton("C");
     JButton BBackspace=new JButton("Backspace");
     JButton BSqrt =new JButton("sqrt");
     JButton BPosMin =new JButton("+/-");
     JButton BPoint =new JButton(".");
     JPanel PButton =new JPanel();
     Container contain= getContentPane();
     public BC()
     PButton.setLayout(new GridLayout(4,5,2,2));
     PButton.add(B1);
     getContentPane().add(PButton);
     this.setSize(700,550);
     this.setVisible(true);
     public void ButtonConfiguration()
     public static void main(String args[])
     BC calculator=new BC();
     calculator.setTitle("Butcher's Calculator");
     calculator.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
}

Not showing the button

Hi,
Further to this
thread
I don't know why the vbs file is not showing which button has been clicked, when it is running this
file
Many Thanks & Best Regards, Hua Min

Hi,
Further to this
thread
I don't know why the vbs file is not showing which button has been clicked, when it is running this
file
Many Thanks & Best Regards, Hua Min
Somehow you are directed to this forum. However, this is not for VBS, the current forum is for VB with Visual Studio for .Net.
This is bellow the VBS forum.
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/scriptcenter/en-US/home?forum=ITCG
Success
Cor

Show Desktop Button

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