Desktop Icons - Hide or Show

Ixbitz · Apr 26, 2013

Hey Brink,

Thanks for replying, i'll await your results

Gz

Brink · Apr 27, 2013

Gz,

I haven't been able to reproduce this in Windows 7.

As a test, how does it work for you in another or new user account?

Ixbitz · Apr 28, 2013

Hey,

In another(new) user account, it does the same.

But a friend of mine who's got knowledge about this, is helping me as we speak.

I'll let you know if it's fixed

Grtz

iceblast · Apr 19, 2014

Help

I downloaded the 2 bat files to hide, and show icons.

Bat hide icons works fine.

Bat show icons doesn't work at all

I can right click on desktop and go to View and there is a check by show icons. But there still isn't any icons.

I even restored the computer to a earlier date, and that made no difference to my problem.

I can't get my icons back.

Can anyone help me with this problem???

Brink · Apr 19, 2014

Hello Iceblast, and welcome to Seven Forums.

Use Option One to hide and unhide them again to toggle it to see if they show then.

Are they at your "C:\Users\(user-name)\Desktop" folder location?

iceblast · Apr 19, 2014

Well, I just fixed the problem. I don't know why this fixed it though. I had to go to my Desktop folder, and move all the files there to another folder I randomly made, and then move the files back. Now, I can see my icons. Nothing else worked.

Right click the desktop menu made no difference if you had show icons or not checked.

Refreshing you desktop made no difference, and restoring you computer to a earlier date did no good.

But moving the files from and back to desktop folder did. Strange...

Thanks for responding so quick though. But it looks like everything is straight again. I'll be deleting those bat files though. Not worth the trouble they caused.

Brink · Apr 19, 2014

Not sure what the problem was since the .bat files work just fine on my system, and they only toggle the same settings the desktop context menu uses to hide/show them.

speedgamer01 · Aug 23, 2015

I think the below utility is well worth a mention.

Create a Shortcut or Hotkey to Turn the Desktop Icons On or Off

It works well for me on Windows 7, although the origin of the exe file is unclear.

MourningStar · Dec 16, 2015

Just found this tutorial. Using the 2 .bat files all is well except for one critical issue. For some reason, executing either of these closes all my open explorer windows. Thoughts anyone?

Brink · Dec 16, 2015

Hello Marc,

That's normal when using the .bat files. They need to restart explorer to apply.

MourningStar · Dec 16, 2015

Brink said:
Hello Marc,

That's normal when using the .bat files. They need to restart explorer to apply.

oh well, it was a nice idea - thx Shawn

p.s. if anyone comes up with a clean toggle for hide/show let me/us know -laters

MourningStar · Dec 16, 2015

MourningStar said:
p.s. if anyone comes up with a clean toggle for hide/show let me/us know -laters

This is it : http://www.sevenforums.com/general-...-show-toggle-key-post3190170.html#post3190170

Pyprohly · Dec 17, 2015

Because writing to the registry is not the proper way to toggle Show Desktop Icons, restarting Explorer is the only way for a batch file to get it to read newly assigned registry values. This unfortunately has the caveat of closing all Explorer windows.

Utilising C# code, PowerShell may interact with the Windows API. This allows for a "clean" way of toggling that Show Desktop Icons using a builtin script.

ToggleShowDesktopIcons.ps1

Code:

$signatures = @'
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
public static extern IntPtr FindWindow(string lpClassName, string lpWindowName);
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
public static extern IntPtr FindWindowEx(IntPtr hwndParent, IntPtr hwndChildAfter, string lpszClass, string lpszWindow);
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
public static extern IntPtr SendMessage(IntPtr hWnd, uint Msg, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam);
'@
$API = Add-Type -MemberDefinition $signatures -Name 'Win32' -Namespace 'Win32Functions' -PassThru
 
$progman_handle = $API::FindWindow('Progman', 'Program Manager')
$shellviewwin_handle = $API::FindWindowEx($progman_handle, 0, 'SHELLDLL_DefView', '')
[void]$API::SendMessage($shellviewwin_handle, 0x0111, 0x7402, 0)

Brink · Dec 17, 2015

Great job Pyprohly.

MourningStar · Dec 17, 2015

Brink said:
Great job Pyprohly.

I agree (tho I have no understanding of the posted code whatsoever

). Shawn, will this be incorporated into this tutorial, or how would I do it here at home?

Brink · Dec 17, 2015

Yeah, I'll get it added later tonight.

MourningStar · Dec 17, 2015

Brink said:
Yeah, I'll get it added later tonight.

Brink · Dec 18, 2015

Marc,

I've been playing with the .ps1 file, but I'm just not sure how it's any easier than just using OPTION ONE when you still need to right click on the .ps1 file and click on "Run with PowerShell".

You could create a .bat file to run the .ps1 file with PowerShell.exe though.

MourningStar · Dec 18, 2015

Brink said:
Marc,

I've been playing with the .ps1 file, but I'm just not sure how it's any easier than just using OPTION ONE ...

Thx for the effort. I've no clue what all is happening/involved, thought maybe the code would be incorporated into your OPTION TWO, I do not like having all my open explorers closed.

Option One and/or the app referenced in post#51 will suffice.

-thx

Pyprohly · Dec 20, 2015

Brink said:
I've been playing with the .ps1 file, but I'm just not sure how it's any easier than just using OPTION ONE when you still need to right click on the .ps1 file and click on "Run with PowerShell".

A good idea would be to shortcut it: assign the script a hotkey. I can't imagine why anyone would want to recreate the Show Desktop Icons functionality if their intentions aren't to bind it to a hotkey.

Brink said:
You could create a .bat file to run the .ps1 file with PowerShell.exe though.

If it helps, any PowerShell script can easily be turned into a batch file by placing the below lines at the top of the script and renaming the file accordingly (with a .bat extension). (Caveat: the resulting script will not be able to accept arguments. Though, there exists another version for that.)

Code:

<# :
@powershell -Command Invoke-Expression $([String]::Join([char]10, (Get-Content \"%~f0\")))"
@goto :eof
#>

E.g.
ToggleShowDesktopIcons.ps1.bat

Code:

<# :
@powershell -Command Invoke-Expression $([String]::Join([char]10, (Get-Content \"%~f0\")))"
@goto :eof
#>
 
$signatures = @'
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
public static extern IntPtr FindWindow(string lpClassName, string lpWindowName);
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
public static extern IntPtr FindWindowEx(IntPtr hwndParent, IntPtr hwndChildAfter, string lpszClass, string lpszWindow);
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
public static extern IntPtr SendMessage(IntPtr hWnd, uint Msg, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam);
'@
$API = Add-Type -MemberDefinition $signatures -Name 'Win32' -Namespace 'Win32Functions' -PassThru
 
$progman_handle = $API::FindWindow('Progman', 'Program Manager')
$shellviewwin_handle = $API::FindWindowEx($progman_handle, 0, 'SHELLDLL_DefView', '')
[void]$API::SendMessage($shellviewwin_handle, 0x0111, 0x7402, 0)

Brink, MourningStar, the PowerShell script I posted was just a demonstration of a native solution for toggling Show Desktop Icons in a clean way, to satisfy MourningStar. I posted the PowerShell script to prove that such native solution does exist. I didn't expect both of you to want to incorporate the script in the tutorial, so I kept the script short and simple, at the price of ignoring a noteworthy bug. But if you guys wish for an proper improvement to Option Two, that can be done...

Especially with Windows 8 or newer, there is an issue with the 'ToggleShowDesktopIcons.ps1' script where it fails to toggle desktop icons on or off after the user changes their desktop wallpaper. The script works again after restarting Windows Explorer.

TL;DR,
This bug occurs because SHELLDLL_DefView (the window where the desktop icons are drawn, and the thing that gets destroyed and recreated when a desktop refresh takes place), the usual child window of the "Program Manager" shell, detaches from "Program Manager" to a new shell which has the class name of "WorkerW" and are a good number of windows that have the same class name, so locating SHELLDLL_DefView when this happens is no easy chore. I believe the reason why SHELLDLL_DefView is moved is to allow for the smooth transition effect. I'm not sure when SHELLDLL_DefView moves back to begin a child window of Program Manager, or if it does at all.

The PowerShell script below is safe from the mentioned bug. It looks full on though. And all it's doing is executing C# code.

ToggleShowDesktopIcons2.ps1

Code:

$source = @'
using System;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
 
namespace DesktopUtility
{
    class Win32Functions
    {
        [DllImport("user32.dll")]
        public static extern IntPtr FindWindow(string lpClassName, string lpWindowName);
        [DllImport("user32.dll")]
        public static extern IntPtr FindWindowEx(IntPtr hwndParent, IntPtr hwndChildAfter, string lpszClass, string lpszWindow);
        [DllImport("user32.dll")]
        public static extern IntPtr GetDesktopWindow();
        [DllImport("user32.dll")]
        public static extern IntPtr SendMessage(IntPtr hWnd, uint Msg, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam);
    }
 
    public class Desktop
    {
        public static IntPtr GetHandle()
        {
            IntPtr hDesktopWin = Win32Functions.GetDesktopWindow();
            IntPtr hProgman = Win32Functions.FindWindow("Progman", "Program Manager");
            IntPtr hWorkerW = IntPtr.Zero;
 
            IntPtr hShellViewWin = Win32Functions.FindWindowEx(hProgman, IntPtr.Zero, "SHELLDLL_DefView", "");
            if (hShellViewWin == IntPtr.Zero)
            {
                do
                {
                    hWorkerW = Win32Functions.FindWindowEx(hDesktopWin, hWorkerW, "WorkerW", "");
                    hShellViewWin = Win32Functions.FindWindowEx(hWorkerW, IntPtr.Zero, "SHELLDLL_DefView", "");
                } while (hShellViewWin == IntPtr.Zero && hWorkerW != null);
            }
            return hShellViewWin;
        }
 
        public static void ToggleDesktopIcons()
        {
            Win32Functions.SendMessage(Desktop.GetHandle(), 0x0111, (IntPtr)0x7402, (IntPtr)0);
        }
    }
}
'@
Add-Type -TypeDefinition $source
 
[DesktopUtility.Desktop]::ToggleDesktopIcons()

Combine this script with four special lines and you've got quite a power-shell batch file.

Edit: I've attached a Batch-wrapped ToggleShowDesktopIcons2.ps1 PowerShell script to this post, and I have also included a binary version of it.

Edit 2: Fixed execution policy error message in batch file.

Desktop Icons - Hide or Show

Hide or Show Desktop Icons using the Desktop Context Menu

Hide or Show Desktop Icons using a BAT File Download

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