On OS X, I believe there was some magic keystroke — possibly a magic click on a “close window” button — that closed all the windows and revealed the desktop. I’m pretty sure I’ve used it once before. I think.
On OS 9, it was easy — you’d just select “Minimize All” from the application menu (once again, I think that’s what it’s called — OS 9 and prior feel like distant memories now. On Windows, you can either click on the Desktop icon on the Taskbar or use the magic keystroke Windows-M.
Now you can get that capability in Show Desktop, an app that you can have either in the Dock or the menubar that will hide all open windows with a click. You can even provide it with a list of apps to exclude, just in case there were apps that you’d never want it to minimize (“Someone may be trying to reach me on iChat right now!)
I was going to post this entry to Forwarding Address: OS X, after looking for such a utlity to install on my spiffy new 12″ Powerbook. While checking to make sure that nobody on that blog had already written about it, I found that Ben Hammersely posted such an entry…today!
Damn you, Hammersley! Damn you to Hell!