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When I see a desktop overcrowded with icons of files, folders, shortcuts and other stuff, I always admire the desktop owner’s skills in finding a wanted item in that mess. But my approach is different. I like to keep my desktop clean as well as my folders and files ordered. If you are a person like me, this article may help you to organize your desktop.
My desktop contains only 5 items, generated by the system after successful installation. Those are My Documents, My Computer, My Network Places, Recycle Bin and Internet Explorer. Sometimes I may add one or more folders containing links of my current project.
My taskbar contains only the running tasks, the language bar and the notification area. The notification area is the part of the taskbar where the current time is displayed. There is another part of the taskbar containing icons of frequently used application. This bar is called quick launch bar and located next to Start button. I usually turn it off in order to save more space for tasks. I place the quick launch bar along with other items into set of toolbars on the top of the desktop. Both the taskbar and the set of toolbars disappear from the desktop when they are not used.
There are software applications meant for desktop organizing. If you search the Internet for ‘desktop organizing software’, you can find plenty of them. You can download and use any of them, just take into account that any software application requires not only some maintenance work, but some resources of your computer. This type of software should remain in memory all the time while the computer is turned on, which means it always takes some memory and processor’s time.
What I’m going to show you is to organize your desktop using only system tools without a third party application. The key idea here is to move icons from desktop and taskbar to toolbars. Every Windows user is familiar with the desktop and the taskbar. Only lesson you have to learn here is how to deal with toolbars.
My desktop contains only 5 items, generated by the system after successful installation. Those are My Documents, My Computer, My Network Places, Recycle Bin and Internet Explorer. Sometimes I may add one or more folders containing links of my current project.
My taskbar contains only the running tasks, the language bar and the notification area. The notification area is the part of the taskbar where the current time is displayed. There is another part of the taskbar containing icons of frequently used application. This bar is called quick launch bar and located next to Start button. I usually turn it off in order to save more space for tasks. I place the quick launch bar along with other items into set of toolbars on the top of the desktop. Both the taskbar and the set of toolbars disappear from the desktop when they are not used.
There are software applications meant for desktop organizing. If you search the Internet for ‘desktop organizing software’, you can find plenty of them. You can download and use any of them, just take into account that any software application requires not only some maintenance work, but some resources of your computer. This type of software should remain in memory all the time while the computer is turned on, which means it always takes some memory and processor’s time.
What I’m going to show you is to organize your desktop using only system tools without a third party application. The key idea here is to move icons from desktop and taskbar to toolbars. Every Windows user is familiar with the desktop and the taskbar. Only lesson you have to learn here is how to deal with toolbars.
How to create toolbars?
- Right-click an empty area on the taskbar. If the taskbar is locked, unlock it clicking Lock the Taskbar item (the item should be unchecked).
- If the quick launch bar is displayed on the taskbar go to step 4, else right-click an empty area on the taskbar and select Toolbars item, then click the Quick Launch item.
- The quick launch bar appears next to the start button.
- Drag the quick launch bar from the taskbar and drop it on the top of the desktop.
- Right click an empty area of the newly created toolbar and select Toolbars item, then click Desktop item.
- The Desktop toolbar appear on the right side.
- Move the new toolbar to the left close to the previous toolbar and uncheck Show Text and Show Title items.
- Now there are two toolbars on the top of the desktop.
- Till now we have selected 2 toolbars from the list of existing toolbars. Now we are going to create new toolbars. For that we have to create some folders containing shortcuts for new toolbars. If you do not know how to create a new folder and shortcut refer to the Windows Help. First we create some folders. Let’s create a folder and its subfolders as shown in below picture.
You can name your subfolders differently. Just keep in mind that every subfolder is the base for a toolbar.
- Now let’s create shortcuts in My Tools subfolder as shown below.
We can copy these shortcuts from Start menu or create them anew. This is just an example. You can create any shortcut to any file, folder or application. If you do not know how to create a shortcut, refer to the Windows Help.
- Right click an empty area of the newly created toolbar and select Toolbars item, then New Toolbars… item.
- Expand folders and select My Tools, then press OK.
- The My Tools toolbar appears on the right side.
- Now repeat the step 7 in order to get new customized toolbar.
- Create as many toolbars as you need repeating above steps. At the end you can set some additional options, like Always on Top and Auto-Hide.
- Right-click an empty area on the taskbar. Lock the taskbar clicking Lock the Taskbar item (the item should be checked).
Conclusion
The above steps are just an example of creating and using toolbars. You may need more or less steps depending on your goals. You can place toolbars on the right or the left side of the desktop. Also, you may set some options differently to make your toolbars look as you like. Create your own toolbars and keep your desktop clean!
