Hide the clutter.One hotkey.Restore in a blink.
Hide the windows, taskbar buttons and tray icons you don't want on screen — all with one keystroke — then bring them back exactly where they were. Great for focus, screen-sharing and presentations. Optionally pause or mute what you hide, so a background app stops eating CPU or making noise.
Free for up to 5 apps. No account. No telemetry.
See it for real
The actual interface — not a mockup
Pick the apps to manage, give them hotkeys, and hide them — window, taskbar button and tray icon — with one keystroke.
What you get in Settings
- PIN lock (Pro)
- Require a PIN to open Settings. Someone who grabs your mouse can’t undo your rules or close gohide — while your own hide and restore hotkeys stay instant.
- Privacy cover screen (Pro)
- Hit “Hide all” and a full-screen image covers every monitor — your own picture or a plain dark screen, Esc takes it down. Or switch to cover-story mode: gohide pushes a real app you nominate to the front instead.
- Mouse & hot-corner triggers (Pro)
- Pick a screen corner, a mouse side button, or both. Slam the pointer into the corner and gohide hides everything — handy when your hand is already on the mouse.
- Dynamic selection (Pro)
- Match windows by title or window class and gohide hides new ones the moment they open — built for apps that keep spawning windows, like File Explorer.
- Four global hotkeys — free
- Hide all, restore, summon gohide, hide gohide. They fire even when gohide is unfocused or sitting in the tray, and each app can have its own hotkey too.
- Hide gohide itself
- Send gohide's own window away and, if you want, its notification-area icon with it — your Show-gohide hotkey brings it back.
- Startup, theme and language
- Launch at sign-in with the rights it needs and no UAC prompt, start straight to the tray, follow the system theme or pin light/dark, switch between English and 简体中文.
- Defender exclusion, one click
- gohide isn't code-signed yet, so Defender can flag it by mistake. Add its folder to the exclusion list from here — and remove it just as easily.
Features
One tool to hide windows and tray icons cleanly
Alt+Tab isn't hiding: the taskbar still shows the app, the tray icon is still in the corner, the sound still plays. gohide removes every trace you choose — and restores it cleanly — even on the latest Windows 11, where other tools quietly give up.
Hide windows & taskbar entry
Remove an app's windows and its taskbar button in one move. Nothing flashes on screen; nothing lingers in Alt-Tab.
Hide system-tray icons
The part most tools get wrong. gohide hides apps' tray icons too — not just their windows — and keeps them hidden until you restore them. It keeps working on the latest Windows 11, where most window hiders quietly fail.
Dynamic selection (Pro)
Hide apps by window title or class instead of picking each one — e.g. every File Explorer window. New matching windows are caught the instant they appear, and stay hidden until you turn the rule off. Pro rules survive a reboot, so a program that auto-starts with Windows is hidden automatically.
Global hotkeys
One hotkey hides everything at once; plus per-app hide/show and a hotkey to summon gohide. They all work system-wide, even when gohide is just a tray icon.
Mouse & hot-corner triggers (Pro)
Throw the pointer into a screen corner — or press a mouse side button — and everything vanishes. No keyboard, no visible tell.
Restore all at once
One hotkey brings everything back at once — nothing gets stranded, and everything returns exactly where it was. A second hotkey locks the screen outright when there’s no time to hide.
Suspend or mute while hidden
Optionally pause a hidden process so background games and heavy apps stop using CPU and GPU while off-screen — or just mute it so a background video stays silent. Resumes the moment you restore it.
Privacy cover screen (Pro)
The moment you press “Hide all”, a full-screen cover drops over the desktop — a plain dark screen or any image you choose. Or switch to cover-story mode and gohide brings a real, innocuous app to the front instead. Esc or the restore hotkey lifts the image cover.
PIN lock for Settings (Pro)
A PIN guards the Settings window, so nobody at your desk can change your rules or quit gohide. Hiding and instant restore stay unlocked.
Start with Windows, elevated
Start automatically with Windows, already elevated, with no UAC prompt — via a Task Scheduler task, not a fragile Run key.
English & 简体中文
The app follows your Windows language automatically, with a manual override. The website does too.
Light and fast
gohide stays small and quiet — no bloat, no background web services, no account servers. It barely touches your system resources.
Use cases
Built for the moments that matter
Whether you're at work, gaming, or sharing one PC, gohide gives you a clean screen that shows only what you want — in a second — and brings everything back with one key.
Focus & presenting
Before you screen-share or present, one hotkey clears away chat, email and every other off-topic window — a clean, professional screen that shows only what you mean to show. One key restores it all afterward, without interrupting anything that was running.
Game boss key
The classic boss key, modernised: instantly hide a game window and its launcher, full-screen games included, in milliseconds. Optionally mute it while hidden — the game keeps running in the background and comes back exactly where you left it.
Shared / family PC
Sharing one computer and still keeping your own space: hide your private apps with a keystroke and summon them back when you need them. Everything runs locally and uploads nothing — your privacy stays on your own machine.
Streaming & recording
Before you go live, record, or demo, clear your private windows AND the tray icons in the corner so nothing slips into frame. Windows and tray icons hide together, without a trace — the part most window-hiders can't do.
How it works
Three steps to a clean desktop
Pick the apps
gohide lists running apps (and tray-only ones). Tick the ones you want to manage.
Assign hotkeys
Give each app a hide/show hotkey, plus a global restore-all. Set it once.
Hide & restore
Hit the hotkey — the windows and tray icons you chose hide. Hit it again — everything's back, exactly where it was.
Trust & privacy
Built to be trusted on your machine
gohide is engineered to be safe and transparent by default: it runs locally, changes nothing permanently, and is easy to verify.
Fully reversible
Nothing gohide hides is ever deleted or permanently changed. One keystroke restores every window, taskbar button and tray icon exactly where it was — and gohide only acts on your own windows on your own machine.
Offline, perpetual license
Activation happens entirely on your own PC and works without an internet connection — no account, and no license server is ever contacted.
No accounts, no tracking
gohide has no accounts and no analytics, and runs no background web service — it never sees or sends what you hide.
Clean and contained
gohide keeps to itself: it doesn't change the apps you hide, and removing gohide leaves your system exactly as it was.
Pricing
Free to start. Pay once to go Pro.
No subscription, ever. Pro is a one-time perpetual purchase with free updates.
Free
- Hide windows, taskbar & tray icons
- Global, per-app & summon hotkeys + restore-all
- Lock-screen hotkey for emergencies
- Mute app while hidden
- Up to 5 managed apps
- Works on the latest Windows 11 — tray icons too
- No account · no telemetry · fully offline
Pro
- Everything in Free
- Remembers your settings across restarts (Free does not)
- Unlimited managed apps
- Suspend process while hidden
- Privacy cover on “Hide all” — image or cover-story app
- Mouse & hot-corner triggers
- PIN lock for Settings
- Dynamic auto-hide rules (by title or class)
- Priority support
- Free updates
Pay with card, Alipay or WeChat Pay. Activation is offline and tied to your machine.
FAQ
Questions, answered
Is gohide a 'boss key'?
Yes — gohide is a modern boss key (panic button): one hotkey instantly hides the windows, taskbar buttons and tray icons you choose, and another restores them exactly where they were. Unlike classic boss-key tools it also hides system-tray icons and keeps working on the latest Windows 11.
What do people use gohide for?
Everyday focus and privacy on your own PC: clear distracting apps while you work, keep personal windows off-screen while screen-sharing or presenting, tidy a cluttered taskbar and notification area, or pause a background app to save CPU. gohide only hides your own windows on your own machine — it doesn't monitor anything, collect data, or run in the background watching you.
Is gohide safe to use?
Yes. gohide only acts on your own windows on your own machine — it has no telemetry, no accounts, and never sends anything off your PC. Everything it does is fully reversible: one keystroke restores every window, taskbar button and tray icon exactly where it was.
Is gohide on the Microsoft Store?
Yes, and that version is signed by Microsoft, so it installs with no browser or SmartScreen warnings and updates itself. Two things are the same as the download from this site: gohide asks for admin once at startup, and if Windows 11's Smart App Control is on, tray-icon hiding is blocked — we recommend turning Smart App Control off (it can be switched back on later) so gohide works completely.
Does it need an internet connection?
No. gohide works fully offline. Even license activation happens entirely on your own PC — nothing is contacted at runtime, and there's no account.
Is Pro a subscription?
No. Pro is a one-time, perpetual purchase. You own that version forever and get free updates. There is no recurring charge.
Does tray-icon hiding work on the latest Windows 11?
Yes. gohide hides system-tray icons on the latest Windows 11, where most other window-hiders simply stop working. For a few protected apps it tucks the icon away instead of fully removing it — either way, it's restored the moment you bring things back. The one exception is Windows 11's Smart App Control: when it's on, it blocks the small helper gohide uses for tray icons and tray hiding fails (windows and taskbar buttons still hide fine). We recommend turning Smart App Control off before using gohide — you can switch it back on later.
What Windows versions and CPUs are supported?
Windows 10 and Windows 11, on x64 and ARM64 (64-bit) — gohide supports them automatically.
gohide hid the window, but the tray icon is still there. Why?
That's almost always Windows 11's Smart App Control. It blocks the unsigned helper gohide uses to hide tray icons — Windows even shows a "Part of this app has been blocked" notification. Turn Smart App Control off in Windows Security (App & browser control → Smart App Control settings) and try again; you can switch it back on later. If Smart App Control is already off, the app is likely protected or anti-cheat — gohide then tucks the icon away where possible instead of fully removing it.
Can I get a refund?
Yes. gohide Pro comes with a 3-day money-back guarantee — if it's not right for you, email support within 3 days of purchase for a full refund. We also offer a free edition with no time limit, so you can confirm gohide works on your PC before buying Pro.
Take back your taskbar.
Download gohide free and hide your first app in under a minute.