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@chockenberry
Last active February 10, 2024 19:05
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A simple shell script to turn the Finders desktop icons on and off
#!/bin/sh
defaults read com.apple.finder CreateDesktop > /dev/null 2>&1
enabled=$?
if [ "$1" = "off" ]; then
if [ $enabled -eq 1 ]; then
defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop false
osascript -e 'tell application "Finder" to quit'
open -a Finder
echo "Desktop icons are now turned off"
else
echo "Desktop icons are already off"
fi
elif [ "$1" = "on" ]; then
if [ $enabled -eq 1 ]; then
echo "Desktop icons are already on"
else
defaults delete com.apple.finder CreateDesktop
osascript -e 'tell application "Finder" to quit'
open -a Finder
echo "Desktop icons now turned on"
fi
elif [ "$1" = "status" ]; then
if [ $enabled -eq 1 ]; then
echo "Desktop icons are on"
else
echo "Desktop icons are off"
fi
else
echo "usage: `basename $0` ( on | off | status )"
fi
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