Hide files/icons on the desktop but not in finder
In the terminal, do this:

defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop -bool false &amp;&amp; killall Finder


After this, there'll be nothing on your Desktop (but still in ~/Desktop, i.e. your Desktop Folder). It'll look like this:





Beautiful, isn't it? If you want to change it back:

defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop -bool true &amp;&amp; killall Finder