Hide All 0.1.2
Right-clicks while hidden are ignored. Use the button or shortcut to restore
the windows and desktop together.

Hide All 0.1.1 — 30 September 2026

New: Center mouse on button is under When hiding. It starts off and remembers
your choice. When enabled, Hide now, the desktop button, the keyboard shortcut
and automatic hiding move the pointer once to the actual desktop button center.
It follows Screen center / My spot; restoring never moves the pointer, and you
can move it freely afterward. At least one hiding/audio action must be enabled.
Pick spot now uses a white crosshair with a complete 1px pure-black outline;
the current-position marker has the same outline, including all four tips.
The cursor asset is embedded when built. Keep Crosshair.cur beside build.bat.
Original source is MIT; retain the included LICENSE when redistributing it.

Hide All
========

Hides everything on your screen with one click: minimizes every window,
hides the desktop icons and the taskbar, and can pause what's playing and
mute the sound. Nothing is closed or deleted. Click the small round button
on your desktop and everything comes back.

While things are hidden, using the PC any other way (Start, Alt+Tab,
switching to a window) brings the taskbar, icons and sound back by
themselves. Just moving the mouse doesn't. A window that comes forward
on its own, like an update prompt or a call, stays visible, but
everything else stays hidden and muted.

Hide All used to be called Clutter Parker. If you had that version, open its
page from the tray and choose Uninstall... before building this one. If it's
still around, Hide All says so when it starts.


The desktop button
------------------
A black circle with a ring, a bit bigger than the cursor, at the screen
center or a spot you pick. It sits just above your wallpaper and under
every window, and it never takes focus. While things are hidden it shrinks
to a dim dot; move the pointer onto it and it grows back.

A window covering the button? Use Hide now on the page (click the tray
icon), or turn on the keyboard shortcut.


Pause media and Mute sound
--------------------------
Both are off unless you turn them on, and they work best together.

Pause media pauses what's playing and never presses play: whatever is
already paused stays paused. With HideAll.Media.dll (build.bat makes it
when this PC has what it needs), it pauses every player on Windows' media
list: anything playing in Chrome, Edge or Firefox, YouTube included, plus
Spotify and Windows' own media apps. Without the helper, Pause media sends no command. There is no media-key
fallback, because some players treat even Pause as a play/pause toggle. Players that don't report to Windows
(some versions of VLC, for one) keep playing, which is what Mute sound is
for.

Mute sound mutes every speaker and headset. Bringing things back unmutes
exactly the ones it muted; one you had muted yourself stays muted.

Bringing things back doesn't press play. If someone is still in the room
when your windows come back, nothing starts on its own.


The keyboard shortcut
---------------------
Off unless you turn it on. Ctrl + Alt + Space hides and brings back;
Change sets your own: any one key, or up to two of Win, Ctrl, Alt and
Shift plus one key. Esc cancels.

A key on its own, like Num +, stops doing its usual job everywhere while
Hide All runs, so it asks before using one. If Windows or another app
already has a combination, your old shortcut stays and the page says so.
Combinations of ordinary keys (like Q + W) aren't possible: they would
need Hide All to watch every key you type, and it doesn't.


It never leaves you stranded
----------------------------
Quitting, uninstalling, logging off, a crash, or restarting Explorer all
bring the taskbar and icons back and unmute what it muted. If it ever
stops while things are hidden, the next start restores them first. Your
"Show desktop icons" and taskbar settings are never changed: it only shows
again what it hid.


Works with Mouse Parker and Download Spots
------------------------------------------
They can all run together. A cursor Mouse Parker parks on the button
doesn't keep it in its hover state. Hide All moves the cursor only when
Center mouse on button is enabled and hiding begins.
Download Spots keeps placing files while things are hidden, without its
landing blink; you'll see them when everything comes back.


Build (once)
------------
1. Put this folder where it will live, e.g. C:\Tools\HideAll.
   "Start with Windows" points at this location.
2. Double-click build.bat. It uses the C# compiler that ships with Windows,
   so nothing needs installing. It builds HideAll.exe (and the media
   helper, when it can) and starts it.


Use
---
Click the tray icon (a white ring on black) to open the page. Click Close,
click anywhere else, or press Esc to close it.

  Moon / sun, top right   light or dark; the choice carries over to Mouse
                          Parker and Download Spots if you have them
  Hide now                hides everything now
  Desktop button          screen center or your spot; choosing one flashes
                          a thin cross where the button sits. Pick spot:
                          click anywhere on screen; Esc or right-click
                          cancels
  When hiding             minimize windows, hide desktop icons, hide the
                          taskbar, pause media, mute sound; each is its
                          own switch. Center mouse on button is optional
  Hide when not in use    off unless you turn it on; hides after the time
                          you set with no mouse or keyboard input, never
                          while something is fullscreen
  Keyboard shortcut       off unless you turn it on; Change sets your own
  Start with Windows      switched on the first time it runs

Without a mouse: Tab or the arrow keys move between controls, Enter or
Space uses one, and Page Up, Page Down, Home and End scroll when the page
is taller than the screen. The page also describes its controls to screen
readers such as Narrator.


Uninstall
---------
Open the page and choose Uninstall... After you confirm, it brings back
anything it hid, unmutes what it muted, removes its startup entry and
settings, closes, and a few seconds later deletes its own files (HideAll.exe,
HideAll.cs, HideAll.Media.cs, HideAll.Media.dll, HideAll.ico, Crosshair.cur,
build.bat, README.txt, LICENSE). The folder goes too if that leaves it empty; anything else in
it is left alone.
