Freeware Friday: Desktopple

Desktop, Desktop, wherefore art thou, Desktop? With Desktopple from FoggyNoggin Software, you can clear your desktop fast!

My desktop is messy. I admit it. That’s where files are downloaded to, it’s where I put stuff so I don’t lose it until I have time to attend to it, and that’s where I throw stuff I will be “filing tomorrow”. Sometimes tomorrow just doesn’t show up.

Anyone of us who has shown the boss or a client your progress on an image in Photoshop knows the annoyance of having the desktop icons in the way, detracting from your work. Yes, you can run Photoshop full screen, but sometimes you want to show the layers palette or color palette. If you regularly write tutorials as I do for Photoshop and Photoshop Elements, you will also have been faced with the “icon garden” in the screenshots.

Desktopple is a utility that takes care of all that. It sits in the Menu Bar until you need a clean desktop (or just want to see your fabulous wallpaper). Click to open the menu and choose Hide Desktop. You can choose to show the desktop as a solid color, or as your desktop picture. You can also change the desktop picture. When you need the icons again, open the menu and choose Show Desktop.

If you want it to run whenever you turn on your Mac, check the Start at Login box or add it to your Login items in System Preferences. Never be faced with a messy desktop again!

The developer’s web site states that Desktopple is for Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger), but that even though it has not been fully tested on Panther, it should work there too.

Download Desktopple