Peekaboo: Hide Your Messy Desktop in One Click

We’ve all been there — you’re about to share your screen on a call, and suddenly you notice the chaos. Screenshots from three weeks ago, random downloads, that embarrassing folder you forgot to hide. You frantically drag windows around trying to cover it up.

I built Peekaboo to solve this problem once and for all.

What is Peekaboo?

Peekaboo is a tiny macOS menu bar app that instantly hides your desktop icons and all open windows with a single click or keyboard shortcut. When you’re done presenting, one more click brings everything back exactly as it was.

Why I Built This

I’m someone who uses the desktop as a temporary dumping ground. Screenshots, downloads, quick notes — they all end up there. And every time I needed to share my screen, I’d spend 30 seconds minimizing windows and feeling embarrassed.

Existing solutions either:

• Only hid desktop icons (not windows)
• Required multiple clicks
• Were bloated with features I didn’t need

So I built exactly what I wanted: one shortcut to hide everything, one shortcut to bring it back.

Features

🎯 One-Click Toggle

Click the monkey icon in your menu bar. That’s it. Desktop gone. Click again, it’s back.

⌨️ Global Keyboard Shortcut

Press ⌘⇧D from anywhere — even while in a full-screen app or on a video call. Completely customizable in preferences.

🪟 Hides Windows Too

Unlike other tools that only hide desktop icons, Peekaboo minimizes all your app windows as well. True clean slate.

🔄 Auto-Updates

Built-in update system keeps you on the latest version without any manual downloads.

How It Works

When you trigger Peekaboo:

1. Hide mode: All app windows get minimized, desktop icons disappear
2. Show mode: Windows are restored, desktop icons reappear

The app remembers which windows were visible before hiding, so only those get restored — not every minimized window on your system.

Download

Grab the latest version from the GitHub releases page.

Requirements: macOS 11.0 (Big Sur) or later

Open Source

Peekaboo is completely free and open source. Check out the code, report issues, or contribute on GitHub.

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Stop the pre-meeting panic. Download Peekaboo and share your screen with confidence.