Here's DesktopSweeper 1.0, a freeware APE Module (the equivalent of Unsanity's Haxies) providing a hotkey to control whether or not Desktop icons are displayed.

I badly needed that feature back after CodeTek removed it from VirtualDesktop, so many thanks again to those who helped me making it possible and stable!

More info and download: http://flip.macrobyte.net/software/DesktopSweeper