MinimizeAll

When you open a lot of applications and windows in Haiku, there's no simple way to hide them all in one click or in one shortcut.

What about having a tool to do that ?

It's possible and the native application is named MinimizeAll :)

To install MinimizeAll, type the below in a Terminal :

pkgman install minimizeAll

The application will then be available via the Applications menu :

It's possible also to add MinimizeAll in the Deskbar.

For that, launch the MinimizeAll entry accessible via Desktop applets :

The corresponding icon will be added as below :

When you click on this icon from the Deskar, it will minimize all the visible windows on the current workspace.

The same action will be done, if you launch MinimizeAll via the Applications menu.

Shortcut

What about adding a dedicated shortcut to minimize all the windows ?

Launch the Shortcuts preferences as below :

Add a new shortcut and type :

/system/apps/MinimizeAll/MinimizeAll

Then type the "D" key (like "D"esktop) and double click on "Alt" in order to have the "Either" value :

Let's test the shortcut on the workspace below :

Hit Alt+D. The result is that all the visible windows are now hidden, and the desktop is visible :

Really nice, isn't it ?

Please note that the MinimizeAll tool doesn't allow to do the opposite, meaning display again the windows which were hidden.

And as you can see, LaunchBox is made of a standard window, so it's hidden with that command like others windows.

For a tool like LaunchBox, it could be interesting to have a specific handling of the display like for the Deskbar, meaning it will not be considered as a standard window.

But that is another story :)