Hide selected icons on desktop

Discussion in 'Mac OS X Lion (10.7)' started by acuriouslad, Jul 1, 2012.

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  1. acuriouslad, Jul 1, 2012

    acuriouslad macrumors regular

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    #1
    Hi all,

    I am looking to clean up my desktop but want to keep some icons there and make some disappear. I have a 2TB Seagate GoFlex drive that I have partitioned so that I have one appropriate for Time Machine backups and one for storage. So when I connect the drive they both show up on my desktop, I know how to get rid of them both from the desktop with Finder's options however I only want the Time Machine HDD to disappear while leaving my general storage partition available from the desktop.

    Is there an app that can hide selected icons from the desktop not just all or none??

    P.S. I don't mind having it show up in the Finder side bar so that I know it is connected and backing up I just don't want to see it on my desktop.
     
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  2. robgendreau, Jul 1, 2012

    robgendreau macrumors 68040

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    Jul 13, 2008
    #2
    I don't know of a utility that does what you want, and I don't find icons a very useful way to organize stuff, but an easy work-around would be to make an alias of the main drive and keep it on the desktop. Then use Finder's preferences to de-select the show hard drives option and you're done.

    As for the other icons, just put the files somewhere besides your desktop folder, like a folder called "hidden icons." Then make an alias of that to store on your desktop. There's nothing much special about the desktop; it's conceptually like having the desktop folder window open in icon view.



    Rob
     
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  3. acuriouslad, Jul 2, 2012

    acuriouslad thread starter macrumors regular

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    #3
    Thanks for that idea Rob.

    Will the alias disappear and reappear when the HDD is connected and disconnected?
     
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  4. robgendreau, Jul 3, 2012

    robgendreau macrumors 68040

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    #4
    Nope; they are files that exist on the drive where you put them that point at files elsewhere.
     
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  5. acuriouslad, Jul 5, 2012

    acuriouslad thread starter macrumors regular

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    #5
    Thanks Rob!
     
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