Show/Hide Files and Icons in GNOME Desktop

I wrote about webilder earlier which will give you stunning random wallpapers for your linux desktop from flickr. I have a habit of allowing the number of files, screenshots and documents in my desktop to go on a large number. Once they reach a critical number, I get around to cleaning the files. But because I have so many files, the beautiful wallpapers are sometimes not shown clearly. I felt there should be a way to toggle showing the files in Desktop and it turned out there is a way.

Step 1: Launch gnome-keybinding-properties

Step 2: Click on the "Add" button in the bottom and in the resulting dialog, type "Hide Desktop Icons " for the Name field and for the command field, type:

gconftool-2 -s --type boolean /apps/nautilus/preferences/show_desktop false

Step 3: Create another keybinding by clicking the "Add" button and this time create a "Show Desktop Icons" item. The command for this will be:

gconftool-2 -s --type boolean /apps/nautilus/preferences/show_desktop true

Step 4: Set custom keyboard shortcuts for these two commands. I have used Alt+F11 and Alt+F12 in my case.

Update: You can just use the following command and have only one keyboard shortcut as well. Thanks to the anonymous commenter who provided the tip (please guys, leave your name when commenting :))

gconftool-2 --toggle /apps/nautilus/preferences/show_desktop

Now you can toggle (show/hide) your desktop icons at a keystroke and enjoy your clean wallpapers.

HTH :-)