Take command of your desktop. Remove the digital detritus and organize the remainder for the way you want to work.
This is part 4 of a 5 part series, which covers both Windows and Macs.
- Part 1 covers physical cleaning
- Part 2 covers uninstalling applications and stopping unneeded ones from auto loading.
- Part 3 looks at deleting unneeded items and organizing your hard drives.
Does this look familiar?
It is not inevitable that our computer desktops look as cluttered and messy as the picture above or our real ones. With only a little planning, effort and vigilance you can keep your desktop uncluttered, (well maybe less cluttered) and improve your computer experience.
The computer desktop is designed for two related purposes. Firstly, it is a display. Secondly, it provides navigation. Macs have Menu bars on the top and Docks on the bottom. Windows has a Start button, a Taskbar and a System tray (AKA the notification area). Both operating systems allow users to place objects—shortcuts or aliases, applications, folders and files—on the desktop. This is to augment the other navigational elements.
If you have too many items on the desktop or in your program menus you will be slowed down finding the shortcut you want. You will suffer from disorganized, navigational overload. Feel empowered to delete unused shortcuts, dead links and old installation files that clutter your computer’s desktop. Many of these were placed there by companies who have their interests in mind not yours. If you do not use a desktop icon or use it once in a blue moon move or delete it. Most of the application icons are shortcuts and not the applications. Deleting those icons removes the clutter but the application is still installed and usable. You can still launch it via the Windows All Programs menu or the OS X Applications folder in Finder.
Windows users why not clean up your menu mess? You can right click on the Start button’s All Programs item and select Open. This will launch a Windows Explorer window. Double click on the window’s Programs item. You are now in the location where Windows stores your program shortcuts. You can consolidate this mess by creating folders for similar things and moving them. I typically create a Media folder and move Windows Media Player, Windows Media Center, iTunes, QuickTime and other media items into it. You can do the same thing for Adobe items or create a folder for Security programs.
After you finish organizing your local program folders have a go at the All Users menu structure. You can right click on the Start button’s All Programs item and select Open All Users. This will launch a Windows Explorer window. Double click on the window’s Programs item. You are now in the location where Windows stores the program shortcuts used commonly by all of the computer’s users.
Mac users should remove infrequently or unused Dock items. Do you use GarageBand or iChat? No? Why are they in your Dock? Send these shortcuts to the trash.
Vista desktop with no icons.
My desktops are different
My computer desktops are the antithesis of what most people have. There are no icons¹, as can be seen in the above picture. I see no reason to have desktop icons, either the operating systems’ or my own. When we use a computer we typically have several applications running and the desktop is hidden. What value are those shortcuts then?
I prefer launching applications via the built-in search bar in Vista, Windows 7 and OS X (Spotlight) or the launch shortcut areas provided on the Dock or the Windows Quick Launch toolbar. I also make liberal use of pinning² items to the Vista/Windows 7 Start menu, as is demonstrated in the picture to the right. The items from Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 to Windows Live Writer (Virtual Windo…) are permanently fixed to this Start menu. The other items listed are dynamic and change based upon frequency of use.
I launch less commonly used programs by typing their names in the Vista/Windows 7 Search bar or in OS X’s Spotlight 
on the Menu bar. Typically all I have to type is a two or three letters, “Pow” to find PowerPoint. Then all I need do is hit the Enter key to launch the application. I find this much faster than cluttering my desktop with shortcuts or manually searching through the Program menus or Application folder in Finder.
Windows XP lacks built-in application or document search capability like more modern operating systems have. You can add most of this functionality to XP by downloading, installing and configuring a free utility such as Launchy.
I navigate to documents, pictures… using the built-in links on the right side panel of the Start menu.
The Mac Dock is nice eye-candy but much slower than Spotlight. I see little reason to use it. I place my Mac Docks on the left side of the window and auto-hide them.
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Notes:
1. The exception is for home theater PCs. There I use a few desktop icons that can be selected from 10 feet away.
2. Windows 7 allows you to pin items to the taskbar, in addition to the Start menu.
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