Introduction

It’s not unusual for me to go over to a colleague’s desk and see a desktop that looks something like this:

You may have seen even worse. Keeping your desktop so cluttered like this creates many problems:

§     It is difficult to find what you’re looking for.

§     Files, folders, and application shortcuts are grouped together without any logical separation.

§     You don’t know immediately where to place new files (downloaded files, attachments, temporary working documents, etc)

§     When the desktop gets too full, you waste time cleaning temporary/downloaded files.

§     If you are only backing up My Documents, items on the Desktop will be skipped.

§     If you are migrating to a different computer or keeping multiple computers synchronized, the Desktop folder is often missed.

§     It is visually distracting and just looks bad.

In the same way that your email inbox should be organized and kept to a minimum number of items (see Getting Things Done), your desktop should stay simple and uncluttered.

In this article I will show you how to achieve this Desktop Zen in four easy steps. My solution? Get rid of desktop icons completely.

Getting Rid of the Desktop

I find the concept of desktop icons on a computer completely unnecessary. To access icons the desktop, you have to resize windows or minimize all windows (or click the Show Desktop shortcut). These small distractions affect productivity. Luckily Windows gives us the tools to effectively disable the desktop and create a much more productive user experience. Here are the key functions provided by the desktop and how we will replace them:

§     Opening My Computer, My Documents, My Network Places, etc – we will use the Start Menu and optionally the Quick Launch toolbar.

§     Launching applications like Internet Explorer – again, we will use the Start Menu and Quick Launch toolbar.

§     Storing various downloaded / temporary / working files – we will create appropriate folders in My Documents

§     Moving files to the Recycle Bin – we will use the delete key in Explorer to trash files. We will create a desktop toolbar (Step 3 below) to facilitate emptying the recycle bin and access any remaining desktop items.

Let’s get started.

Step 1 – Move your desktop files into My Documents

§     Create folders in My Documents called “Downloads” and “Working”. I prefer to use an underscore at the beginning of these names to force them to the top of the list:

§     Now move all relevant files into these folders. If you have a large number of files, you can move everything into the “Working” folder and organize it later.

§     Set your browser to always download into the new “Downloads” folder you just created.

§     Use the “Working” folder sparingly when you need a temporary place to store a document before it is filed or deleted.

§     We are left with something like this:

 

Step 2 – Setup your application shortcuts

There are several different areas to place application shortcuts. No application shortcuts belong on the desktop.

§     Area A - Your most frequently used applications can be pinned to the top of the start menu. You can do this by dragging a shortcut to that area of the Start Menu, or right clicking on any program in area C and selecting “Pin to start menu”.

§     Area B - You can configure My Computer, My Network Places, and other special folders to appear in area B by customizing the start menu (right click on the taskbar, select Properties, go to the Start Menu tab, and click Customize).

§     Area C – Windows will maintain this section automatically. I configure it to show a large number of applications.

§     Area D - Frequently launched applications should go on the Quick Launch toolbar. Don’t confuse this with your frequently used applications. For example, I use Outlook pretty much all day, but only launch it once in the morning, so it doesn’t need to be in the Quick Launch toolbar (it can go in area A instead). However, I open my browser, My Computer, My Documents, and a few other applications throughout the day, so I put those on the Quick Launch toolbar. I also put a shortcut to my Downloads folder here.

So take a look at the important application shortcuts on your desktop. Make sure you can find them easily in one of the five shortcut areas shown above. Get rid of everything else.

After cleaning up application shortcuts, we are left with a much cleaner desktop – but we aren’t finished yet.

Step 3 – Create a Desktop toolbar

The Desktop Toolbar is similar to the Quick Launch toolbar, but it shows all items that are on your desktop. This will be useful to us when we hide the desktop icons.

§     Right click on the taskbar and select Toolbars -> Desktop

§     You will see a new toolbar called “Desktop” on your taskbar:

§     You can use this toolbar to access desktop items, the Recycle Bin, and clean up any icons that new applications may install on the desktop. The great thing is you can access these items without having to minimize whatever you’re working on.

§     Alternatively, you can reposition this toolbar to the top of the screen (unlock the taskbar first) so that it looks like the screenshot below (and some users prefer to move the taskbar to the top of the screen and keep the Desktop toolbar at the bottom).

Step 4 – Turn off the desktop icons

The final step is to right-click on your desktop, go to “Arrange Icons By”, and then de-select “Show Desktop Items”. Now just find a pretty wallpaper and you’re done:

It may take a couple days to resist the urge to minimize everything and go back to the desktop, but once you get used it you will find yourself being more productive and working more efficiently.

Maintenance Tips

§     Don’t let your Downloads and Working folders fill up with junk. Delete documents you don’t need it, and file items that you need to keep.

§     When installing applications, de-select the “Create Desktop Icons” option if it is available. If an application installs desktop shortcuts, use the Desktop toolbar on your taskbar to relocate or delete them.