Lion Show Desktop Mission Control Gesture

Couple people have posted this solution, but I'll reiterate it since after trying a couple solutions I think it's the best. If you bring up Mission Control and mouse to the top right hand corner, you'll get a "+" tab that lets you generate additional desktops. You can then use 4-finger swipe right to switch to the empty desktop that will have all your desktop files, icons, mounted drives, etc. 4-finger swipe left to go back to your desktop that has all your applications open. You can even create multiple desktops with one app each and 4-finger swipe right and left between the desktops (even if your applications are not running in full screen mode).

I have had significant trouble with this, as well, but have two solutions.

1. Copy the gesture as seen in System Preferences->Trackpad. The little video is not exactly as you might expect, and I found my accuracy went way up after copying this.

2. Better Touch Tools, which has the added benefit of a huge number of customizations. I have just scratched the surface, but find it pretty awesome.

Cheers!

Try using the F11 key instead.

I agree, I hate the "three finger plus finger" show desktop command. Sometimes I get it to work, sometimes other things come up. It's so bad, that I just went ahead and disabled the Launchpad gesture because some of the other gestures seem to launch it.

I wish Apple would go back to the "four finger up" to show the desktop.

Please add more options to Show Desktop dropdown menu! My finger gets panic attack everytime I try to do that weird awful horrible gesture. I am so used to four fingers up that I disabled that too.

Just to share about the new show desktop gesture, I believe as long as left and right most finger is going "side way" instead of up, it will show the desktop...

Guys, download BetterTouchTool for Mac. It's completely free and it allows full customization, as well as having the option to enable Windows 7 like Window Snapping. However I did notice that at times it is slightly less responsive, but it gets the job done pretty well.

I still wish Apple didn't force things on their customers for no reason at all 😟

I agree. So does anyone know how to make Lion use the 4 figure swipe to show desktop?

Here is my solution:

4 finger up-swipe

Move cursor over top right corner of desktop

Create Desktop #2

4 finger down-swipe

Whenever you want your icons, you 4 finger up-swipe and select Desktop #2 . . . There are your icons!

To go back to your working desktop, you 4 finger up-swipe and select Desktop #1

Hope this helps . . . it is one more step than before for SN users.

We are not crying, we are explaining the features that we were able to do and we get used to do before then apple suddenly changed and limited everything. I will explain to you more because I know that you are not IT and you have limited brain: I need to see the Desktop not from Finder but to see the screen because I put all the icons in a way where I can find it easy to go through, and Apple they did apologize for this option and they are working to solve it but they did not tell us why you are crying, they said THANK YOU that you remind us about an important option for make it much easier for the user. Now who will cry you or us dummy and stupid user from where??? from London lol you better focus on the FOG you have in London better than write comments here

Thanks for this option, it worked for me and I hope they will do something with the trackpad.

I frankly recommend the BetterTouchTool. For me it works fine and brought a perfect solution > a way to bring back the old Leopard supported gestures (and many more if You wish).

The other thing that worked for me was to set a shortcut to desktop as 'right command' from the mission control preferences.

A work around I can live with. Thank you for restoring my sanity.

I hate the "thumb and three finger" gesture and I have tried some of the suggestions posted here (BetterTouch Tool; Swipe thumb + 4 fingersetc.). They do the job. But: am I doing something wrong or when a program window is fully maximized (full screen) the desktop never shows up no matter what you do?!Thanks for any suggestions or comments!
BTW: I am using OS X 10.7

This is still so annoying but I just discovered the the perfect way to do it, reminiscent of the good old days of the 4 finger up-swipe:

(it may sound awkward at first but it feels almost as nice as the old way when you get used to it)

1.) position your index and middle fingers on each hand to form a loose V in the center of the trackpad

2.) slide your fingers on your left hand toward the bottom left corner as you slide the fingers on your right hand toward the top right corner.

You're welcome.