IconCloak User Guide

1. Getting started

Open IconCloak from your Applications folder. Its window appears, and an eye icon appears in the menu bar at the top right of your screen. That eye is where IconCloak lives: it doesn't sit in the Dock.

• Click the eye for the quick menu: hide icons, start presenting, pick a backdrop, sweep the desktop.
• Choose “Open IconCloak…” from that menu to bring back the window, which has three tabs: Cloak & Present, Backdrops and Sweep.
• Closing the window doesn't quit IconCloak. It keeps running in the menu bar until you choose Quit IconCloak.

The eye shows what's going on at a glance: an open eye when your icons are showing, a crossed-out eye when they're hidden, and a play symbol while you're presenting.

2. IconCloak Lite FREE

IconCloak Lite does one thing: hide and show your desktop icons.

1. Open IconCloak Lite. A small window says whether your icons are showing or hidden.
2. Click Hide Desktop Icons (or press Return). The icons disappear and the window closes.
3. To bring them back, open IconCloak Lite again and click Show Desktop Icons.

Tip: drag IconCloak Lite into your Dock for one-click access. The rest of this guide covers the full IconCloak.

3. Cloak: hide your icons

Click Hide Icons on the Cloak & Present tab, choose Hide Desktop Icons from the eye menu, or press ⌃⌥⌘H. Do the same again to show them.

• Hide desktop widgets too (on by default) hides any widgets on your desktop at the same time.
• Your files don't move or change. They're only hidden from view, and they're still in your Desktop folder in Finder.
• IconCloak uses the same switch as System Settings › Desktop & Dock › Show Items on Desktop, so it's instant and works with Stage Manager.

4. Present

Present gets your screen ready for a screen share, presentation or recording in one go. It:

• hides your desktop icons and widgets,
• puts up your chosen backdrop behind your windows, and
• if you've ticked Also hide other apps, hides every other app's windows, apart from the app you were last using.

Start it with Start Presenting on the Cloak & Present tab, from the eye menu, or with ⌃⌥⌘P. The IconCloak window gets out of the way by itself.

Stop it the same way. Everything goes back exactly as it was before: icons, widgets, backdrop and apps.

Choose which backdrop Present uses in the Backdrop menu on the same tab, or pick None to keep your normal wallpaper.

5. Backdrops

A backdrop is a plain colour or picture that sits behind all your windows, covering your wallpaper and desktop. Your real wallpaper is never changed, so there's nothing to put back afterwards.

Showing a backdrop

• On the Backdrops tab, click a backdrop to show it. Click it again to hide it.
• Or click the eye › Backdrop and pick one.
• ⌃⌥⌘B shows or hides the backdrop you used last.

The backdrop appears on every display and in every Space. It stays up only while IconCloak is running.

Adding your own

• Pictures: click Add Picture…, or drag pictures from Finder onto the Backdrops tab. IconCloak keeps its own copy, so it still works if you later move or delete the original.
• Colours: pick a colour in the colour well, then click Add Colour.

Options

Right-click (or Control-click) a backdrop for:

• Fill Screen or Fit Inside Screen (pictures only): fill crops the edges to cover the whole screen; fit shows the whole picture with black around it.
• Use for Presenting: makes it the backdrop Present uses.
• Remove.

Six colours come built in, including a Green screen for video work.

6. Sweep

Sweep clears your desktop in one click by moving everything on it into a dated folder. Nothing is ever deleted.

The first time

On the Sweep tab, click Allow Access to Desktop…. A window opens with your Desktop folder already selected: just click Allow. This is a one-time permission that Apple requires.

Sweeping

1. Click Sweep Desktop Now, or choose it from the eye menu.
2. IconCloak tells you how many items will move and asks you to confirm. Tick Don't ask again to skip this in future.
3. Everything moves into a folder named with the date and time, for example Desktop › Swept › 2026-10-12 14.30.

Undo

Undo Last Sweep puts everything from your most recent sweep back on the desktop. If something with the same name is already there, the returning item gets a number added, so nothing is overwritten.

Where swept files go

By default they go into a Swept folder on your desktop: one folder instead of dozens of files, and invisible when your icons are cloaked. To use another folder, such as one in Documents, click Change…. Use Default switches back.

7. Filing screenshots

Turn on File new screenshots automatically on the Sweep tab, and every new screenshot or screen recording saved to your desktop moves into a Screenshots folder in your swept-files folder, sorted by month, for example Swept › Screenshots › 2026-10.

• IconCloak waits until a recording has finished saving before it moves it.
• It only files screenshots saved to your desktop, which is where macOS saves them unless you've changed it.
• It works while IconCloak is running, so turn on Open at login to keep it going.

8. Keyboard shortcuts

These work from any app.

⌃ is Control, ⌥ is Option and ⌘ is Command: hold all three and press the letter.

9. Settings

At the bottom of the IconCloak window:

• Open at login starts IconCloak quietly in the menu bar whenever you log in (macOS 13 or later).
• Keyboard shortcuts turns the three shortcuts on or off, for example if another app uses the same keys.
• Quit IconCloak closes it completely.

10. Questions and fixes

My icons haven't come back.

Open IconCloak and click Show Icons, or press ⌃⌥⌘H. You can also switch them back yourself in System Settings › Desktop & Dock › Show Items on Desktop.

Where have my files gone?

If you swept them, they're in the Swept folder on your desktop (or the folder you chose), in a folder named with the date and time. Undo Last Sweep brings back the most recent sweep.

My backdrop disappeared.

Backdrops only show while IconCloak is running. If it was quit, open it again and pick the backdrop.

I can see my real wallpaper for a moment when I switch Spaces.

That can happen briefly during Mission Control or Space animations, because the backdrop sits over the wallpaper rather than replacing it. It returns as soon as the animation finishes.

A shortcut doesn't work.

Another app may be using the same keys. Check that Keyboard shortcuts is ticked, and quit other shortcut apps to test.

Does IconCloak send anything anywhere?

No. It never connects to the internet. See the privacy policy.

11. Removing IconCloak

1. If your icons are hidden, show them first, because the setting stays as it is after IconCloak is gone.
2. Click the eye › Quit IconCloak.
3. Drag IconCloak from Applications to the Bin.

Anything you swept stays in your Swept folder.