IconCloak for Windows

1. Getting started

Open IconCloak from the Start menu. Its window appears, and an eye icon appears in the notification area, next to the clock at the bottom right of your screen. That eye is where IconCloak lives.

• Right-click the eye for the quick menu: hide icons, start presenting, pick a backdrop, sweep the desktop.
• Click the eye to open the IconCloak window, which has four tabs: Cloak & Present, Backdrops, Sweep and Shortcuts.
• Closing the window doesn't quit IconCloak. It keeps running in the notification area 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 red eye while you're presenting.

2. Cloak: hide your icons

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

• Your files don't move or change. They're only hidden from view, and they're still in your Desktop folder in File Explorer.
• IconCloak uses the same switch as right-clicking the desktop › View › Show desktop icons, so it's instant.

3. Present

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

• hides your desktop icons,
• puts up your chosen backdrop behind your windows, on every screen, and
• if you've ticked Also minimise other apps, minimises 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 Ctrl+Alt+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, backdrop and apps.

Choose which backdrop Present uses in the Backdrop list on the same tab, or pick None to keep your normal wallpaper. While you're presenting you can switch backdrop at any time, from that list, the eye menu or the Backdrops tab, and they all stay in step.

4. 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 right-click the eye › Backdrop and pick one.
• Ctrl+Alt+B shows or hides the backdrop you used last.

The backdrop appears on every screen. It stays up only while IconCloak is running.

Adding your own

• Pictures: click Add Picture…, or drag pictures from File Explorer onto the IconCloak window. IconCloak keeps its own copy, so it still works if you later move or delete the original.
• Colours: click the colour box to pick a colour, then click Add Colour.

Options

Right-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.

5. Sweep

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

Sweeping

1. Click Sweep Desktop Now on the Sweep tab, or choose it from the eye menu.
2. IconCloak tells you how many items will move and asks you to confirm. Untick Ask before sweeping to skip this in future.
3. Everything moves into a folder named with the date and time, for example Desktop › Swept › 2026-10-13 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.

6. Sorting screenshots

Tick Sort new screenshots into monthly folders on the Sweep tab, and new files in Pictures › Screenshots and Videos › Screen Recordings move into a folder for each month, for example Pictures › Screenshots › 2026-10.

• Press Windows+Print Screen to save a screenshot of the whole screen to Pictures › Screenshots. On some laptops the key is labelled PrtSc, and you may need to hold Fn too.
• Windows+Shift+S only saves a screenshot if you click the note that pops up afterwards.
• IconCloak waits a few seconds before moving a new file, so recordings can finish saving.
• It works while IconCloak is running, so turn on Open at sign-in to keep it going.

7. Keyboard shortcuts

These work from any app. These are the starting shortcuts; you can change them on the Shortcuts tab.

Changing a shortcut

1. Open IconCloak and click the Shortcuts tab.
2. Click the shortcut you want to change. It says “Type shortcut…”.
3. Press the new keys. A shortcut needs at least one of Ctrl, Alt or the Windows key, or it can be a function key such as F5.

Press Delete instead to remove a shortcut, or Esc to keep the old one. If the keys are already used by another action, or by Windows or another app, IconCloak tells you and keeps the old shortcut. Restore Defaults puts all three back.

8. Settings

At the bottom of the IconCloak window:

• Open at sign-in starts IconCloak quietly in the notification area whenever you sign in to Windows.
• User guide opens this page.
• Quit IconCloak closes it completely.

To turn all the keyboard shortcuts off, untick Use keyboard shortcuts on the Shortcuts tab.

9. Questions and fixes

My icons haven't come back.

Open IconCloak and click Show Icons, or press Ctrl+Alt+H. You can also switch them back yourself: right-click the desktop › View › Show desktop icons.

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.

Some shortcuts stayed on the desktop after a sweep.

Those are shared by everyone on the PC, and only an administrator can move them. See Sweep.

My backdrop disappeared.

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

A shortcut doesn't work.

Check that Use keyboard shortcuts is ticked on the Shortcuts tab. If another app has started using the same keys, give IconCloak a different shortcut there.

Does IconCloak send anything anywhere?

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

10. Removing IconCloak

1. If your icons are hidden, show them first, because the setting stays as it is after IconCloak is gone.
2. Right-click the eye › Quit IconCloak.
3. Open the Start menu, right-click IconCloak and choose Uninstall.

Anything you swept stays in your Swept folder.