How do I
cleanup the clutter on my Desk Top?
Your Desktop
display is like the name implies, i.e. your central workplace.
Often programs links/shortcuts/icons gets put there when they are
installed on your system, but you do not need to leave them there if
your Desktop is cluttered with lots of them. Almost always the
graphical link on your Desktop to a program is also in Start / Programs, so the
shortcut on your Desktop is just a convienence.
Since you can access any of the programs on your Desktop via Start / Programs, you should
only allow programs and hardware links on your Desktop that you use all
the time, and remove all others.
When housecleaning your Desktop of links, first look at the icon
itself, and see if there is a small box with an arrow in it, in the
lower left of the graphical icon. If so, then this is just a "shortcut" to the program (an
alternate method to start the program). Any
shortcuts that you do not use regularly you can just hold down the left
mouse button over, and then drag it to the Recycle bin for deletion.
Examples of links you probably want on your
Desktop:
- Links to your Internet Dialup Connections
- Link to where your files are stored: My Documents
- Links to any applications you use all the time (e.g. MS Word)
- Links to your internet browser(s)
Some
links you should not / can't remove, like:
My Computer, Recycle Bin, My Network Places, and any links that are not
shortcuts (no box with arrow) and are not listed under Start / Programs
Example of a clean Desktop
TIP: If you have lots of text files, or links
to them on your desktop (e.g. SystemStatus.txt), create
a subdirectory in your My
Documents directory (e.g. "storage"), put all your text files in
that directory, and then just put a shortcut link to that directory on
your desktop.
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keoni@isp.com
PC101-Personal
Computer 101