How to Hide or Show Desktop Icons in Windows 11

Hide or Show Desktop Icons Using the Right-Click Menu

This is the quickest method and works on Home and Pro editions of a currently supported Windows 11 version (25H2 or 26H2). It affects only your own account and needs no administrator rights.

1. Right-click an empty spot on your desktop. The desktop context menu🖱️ opens.
2. Click View. A submenu opens with icon size and layout options.
3. Click Show desktop icons to turn the icons on (checked) or off (unchecked). The icons appear or disappear at once, and no restart is needed.

That’s it. Your desktop now shows or hides its icons, and the setting stays that way until you change it.

To undo the change, repeat the same steps. If you can’t find View, check that you right-clicked an empty area and not an icon. Also, if a Group Policy has been applied (see the next method), the desktop right-click menu is disabled and won’t open.

Option Two

Hide and Disable All Desktop Items Using Group Policy Editor

The Local Group Policy Editor is a built-in tool for managing advanced system settings. Here it hides the desktop icons through a policy, which is a setting Windows enforces instead of leaving it to the user. It works on Windows 11 Pro and Enterprise. Windows 11 Home does not include the tool. You need administrator rights to make this change stick.

On Home, this method won’t work, so use the right-click method above instead. On Pro or Enterprise, find the editor by searching the Start menu for Edit group policy.

1. Open the Start menu⊞, search for Edit group policy, and open the result. The Local Group Policy Editor window appears.
2. In the left pane, go to one of the locations below. The first applies to all users, the second to a specific user or group. This policy is a per-user setting. If a path starts with Computer Configuration and you don’t find the policy under Desktop, use the one that starts with User Configuration.

(For all users)

User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Desktop

OR

(For a specific user or group)

User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Desktop

3. In the right pane, under Desktop, double-click Hide and disable all items on the desktop. A settings window for that policy opens.

Hide and Disable All Items on the Desktop

To hide the icons:

1. Select the dot next to Enabled.
2. Click OK. The policy window closes and the policy is saved.

Undo Hide and Disable All Items on the Desktop

To show the icons again, open the same policy and set it back to its default:

1. Select the dot next to Not Configured.
2. Click OK. The desktop right-click menu🖱️ works again after the change applies.

Either way, finish with these steps so the change applies:

1. Close the Local Group Policy Editor.
2. Restart the🔄 explorer process (the Windows shell that draws the desktop and taskbar), sign out and back in, or restart your🔄 computer. Restarting the explorer process is the fastest option. Open Task Manager📊, find Windows Explorer📁 on the Processes tab, right-click it, and click Restart. The taskbar🖥️ disappears briefly and then comes back.

That’s it. Your desktop now shows or hides its icons according to the policy setting you chose.

Option Three

Hide and Disable All Desktop Items Using the Registry

⚠️ Requires administrator access

Sign in with an administrator account, or be ready to approve the admin prompt, before you start. The machine-wide change in the steps below cannot be saved without those rights.

Hide and Disable All Items on the Desktop for All Users

Applying this change disables the desktop right-click menu. The usual Show desktop icons toggle stays unavailable until you reverse it.

The change does not apply immediately. Restart the explorer process, or sign out and back in, or restart the computer before you check the desktop.

1. Open Registry Editor: press Win+R, type regedit, and press Enter. Select Yes if User Account Control asks.
2. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer — paste the path into the address bar at the top of Registry Editor and press Enter.
3. If there is no Explorer key, right-click Policies in the left pane, select New › Key, name it Explorer, and select it. Create any other missing key in the path the same way.
4. Right-click an empty area of the right pane, select New › DWORD (32-bit) Value, and name it NoDesktop. If NoDesktop is already there, skip this step.
5. Double-click NoDesktop, set Base to Decimal, type 1 in Value data, and select OK.
6. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer — paste the path into the address bar at the top of Registry Editor and press Enter.
7. If there is no Explorer key, right-click Policies in the left pane, select New › Key, name it Explorer, and select it. Create any other missing key in the path the same way.
8. Right-click an empty area of the right pane, select New › DWORD (32-bit) Value, and name it NoDesktop. If NoDesktop is already there, skip this step.
9. Double-click NoDesktop, set Base to Decimal, type 1 in Value data, and select OK.

Undo Hide and Disable All Items on the Desktop for All Users

1. Open Registry Editor: press Win+R, type regedit, and press Enter. Select Yes if User Account Control asks.
2. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer — paste the path into the address bar at the top of Registry Editor and press Enter.
3. In the right pane, right-click NoDesktop, select Delete, and then select Yes.
4. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer — paste the path into the address bar at the top of Registry Editor and press Enter.
5. In the right pane, right-click NoDesktop, select Delete, and then select Yes.

That’s it. The registry change is in place, and your desktop shows or hides its icons once you restart the explorer process or sign out and back in. If you removed the value, the desktop right-click menu works again after that restart or sign-out.

Summary

If View is missing from the desktop right-click menu, a policy is probably still active. Set it back to Not Configured in the Local Group Policy Editor, or remove the registry value, then restart the explorer process. For daily use, the right-click menu is the better choice. Keep the policy and registry methods for machines where you want the setting enforced.