All it starts from a clean desktop

A clean desktop not just feels nice to look at but also improve your workforce and enhance swiftness of your work. Desktop is basically the homepage or landing page of your computer where you visit quite often. It is important that you keep it clean and clear so that new files created while working have enough space to fit on the desktop. A messy desktop can easily confuse you between files and will take a lot of time to find your desired files later. There are several desktop utility programs which helps you to enhance the ability, looks and feel of your desktop but at the same time you can do quite enough on your own to keep your desktop as clean as a new one. Even though there’s no such rules or method to keep the desktop clean you can adopt the following tips or tricks to keep it organized and tidy.

1.     Organization

The very first step to a clean and smooth desktop is organization. You must have separate hard disk partitions for different kind of files. You wouldn’t keep your movies in a same folder where you saved a presentation file. Make separate drive partition for media, programs and one for your work. You can go even in more detail and create more folders within the drive partitions for different subcategories of the same type. For instance, MS Word is word processing program and Adobe Illustrator is a graphic designing program, so when you save the setup files (if you have) you can create different folders for those so that you don’t jumble up with so many kinds of programs in one folder/drive.

Most of the newly purchased computers have one or most of the time two drive partitions. To create more partitions or remove extra partitions you can use the Disk Management utility of windows. To find that right click on Windows logo on the left/start menu and select Disk Management. In the utility you’ll find a graphical representation of the hard disk and its partitions and accordingly you can create, extend, shrink and delete partitions. Here’s a video explaining how to do that

There’s a third-party application ‘MiniTool Partition Wizard’ which allows you to do the same in a more user-friendly way.

2.     Do not keep any files on desktop

Even though most of the times it is convenient to save your files on desktop, it is important that once you are done with that program or that particular file you move the file to a more safe and organized location that we talked about earlier. This way you not just keep your desktop clean but also make it easier to find it later. Create new folders within drive partitions if your new file does not fall under any existing category.

3.     Remove the shortcut arrow icon

If you choose to keep few icons on your desktop you can remove the shortcut arrow icon to give it a much cooler look. You need to keep in mind that not all icons have shortcut arrows, and not all icons on the desktop are shortcuts. Shortcuts are only those files/programs which are located in a different location and only a link is given on the desktop with the same icon as original for quick use. Usually This PC, My Computer or Recycle Bin do not have shortcuts arrow icons even though these are shortcuts. Files saved on the desktop itself won’t have shortcut arrow icons. You need to be careful while going for removing the shortcut icons so that you don’t confuse with shortcuts and files saved on desktop in future.

a.      To remove shortcut arrow icon, you can registry hack shown in the video:

Note: Registry Editor is extremely crucial tool for your computer to function properly, any mistake in the registry may computer to function improperly of not function at all, hence ultimate care must be taken while working in Registry Editor. Go for the next option if you are new to the registry editor.

b.   or use this user-friendly program with handful of tweaks including removing shortcut arrow icon. https://winaero.com/request.php?1796

Install the application and find the ‘Shortcut arrow’ on the left navigation pane and select the no arrow and click on ‘Restart Explorer’ on the bottom.

There are plenty of tweaks in the same app that we’ll discuss in another blog.

4.     Keep only frequently used application on desktop:

You probably wouldn’t like bundles of application icon on your desktop that you rarely use. You can make your desktop clean by simply deleting the redundant app icons. You must be aware while deleting app icon that you don’t uninstall the application mistakenly. Icons that can be kept on desktop that a general user would regularly use would be This PC, Recycle Bin, Browser or other apps that the user frequently use.

5.     Or don’t keep any icon at all

Some users do not keep any icons on their desktop. This way the desktop looks ultra clean and looks magnificent with good quality wallpapers.

6.     Remove unnecessary items on Windows explorer navigation bar.

Open Winaero Tweaker>File Explorer>Navigation Pane – Default Items uncheck Quick Access, Favourite, Onedrive, Libraries, Removable Drives. Uncheck Network too if you do not use shared network often. Sign out when done. You can bring back all those whenever you want them back using the same program.

In case you are wondering how I added that clock on desktop, visit my next blog.