IIIII 2 Posted June 3, 2011 Share Posted June 3, 2011 My PC desktop that is. Files, icons, all over the place. What a mess that was. I've gone and put them all in folders off the desktop now with some shortcuts to important stuff, got myself a nice background image and defragged etc. All looking nice and also noticeably faster. I should really do this more often. Highly recommended! Link to post Share on other sites
Tubby Beaver 209 Posted June 3, 2011 Share Posted June 3, 2011 I wanna do this but don't really know what to do Link to post Share on other sites
BagOfCrisps 24 Posted June 3, 2011 Share Posted June 3, 2011 What don't you know TB? Link to post Share on other sites
ShinyDiscoBall 2 Posted June 3, 2011 Share Posted June 3, 2011 I just counted. 76 icons on my desktop. I think I need to clean too! Link to post Share on other sites
minus 1 Posted June 4, 2011 Share Posted June 4, 2011 I tend to create new folders and shover stuff into there. It's like a Russian Doll thing, folders within folders full of unorganised stuff. Very stop gap. Link to post Share on other sites
Go Native 70 Posted June 4, 2011 Share Posted June 4, 2011 20 icons on my desktop. 10 of them are shortcuts to games. All neatly arranged down one side. Link to post Share on other sites
snowdude 44 Posted June 4, 2011 Share Posted June 4, 2011 17 Icons on my desktop, all a straight line of course. My comp is about 5 years old now, but still running well. I do defrag, file cleaning, registry cleaning and organising, etc a couple of times a month. Link to post Share on other sites
muikabochi 208 Posted June 4, 2011 Share Posted June 4, 2011 At times mine gets way too cluttered, I am not good at keeping things clear. I do try and give things a sort out about once a month Link to post Share on other sites
Metabo Oyaji 71 Posted June 4, 2011 Share Posted June 4, 2011 I have only one icon on my desktop, which is a folder into which I dump all the junk that otherwise accumulates on my desktop. Doesn't help me find anything any quicker, but dang my desktop looks clean! Link to post Share on other sites
NoFakie 45 Posted June 4, 2011 Share Posted June 4, 2011 When things get too slow, I usually buy a cheap new hdd and install windows onto it. I leave the old one as a working backup. About once every two years I guess. Link to post Share on other sites
bobby12 0 Posted June 4, 2011 Share Posted June 4, 2011 My desktop is always empty. "OMG HOW???" I hear you cry. Well: - For quick access to my favourite folders, I use the Quick Launch bar - For quick access to my favourite applications, I use the Quick Launch bar - My Docs/downloads for all temporary internet files (excels etc that you download) - My Docs/TEMP for all files that I think I probably will not need for long - Every 2 years or so, drag the entire "My Documents" into a new folder called "archive-2010-06" and make a new My Documents. If there are any files in the old one that you need and use often, just drag them into the new My Documents. - On PC upgrade, burn everything to DVD or external HDD and dont bother putting the "archive" folders onto the new HDD Link to post Share on other sites
Tubby Beaver 209 Posted June 4, 2011 Share Posted June 4, 2011 Originally Posted By: BagOfCrisps What don't you know TB? pretty much what everyone is talking about on this thread! Link to post Share on other sites
muikabochi 208 Posted June 5, 2011 Share Posted June 5, 2011 Don't worry TB, it's not that exciting. Link to post Share on other sites
best skier in hakuba 5 Posted June 6, 2011 Share Posted June 6, 2011 I'm pretty bad at this kind of thing too. Just counter. 20. Not so bad, but behind all that thingd are a mess. Link to post Share on other sites
best skier in hakuba 5 Posted June 6, 2011 Share Posted June 6, 2011 Originally Posted By: bobby12 - Every 2 years or so, drag the entire "My Documents" into a new folder called "archive-2010-06" and make a new My Documents. If there are any files in the old one that you need and use often, just drag them into the new My Documents. Good idea that. Sounds like something to do a bit more regularly than that. Link to post Share on other sites
veronica 2 Posted June 6, 2011 Share Posted June 6, 2011 I keep mine minimal too. And clean up once a week usually. Can't be doing with a messy desktop. Link to post Share on other sites
joshnii 2 Posted June 7, 2011 Share Posted June 7, 2011 After reading this I decided mine needed a bit of a clean. Ah that's better now. Give it another few days though and it'll be nice and messy once again. Link to post Share on other sites
loaf of bread 0 Posted June 8, 2011 Share Posted June 8, 2011 Can one of you consciencious cleaning people come over and sort mine out. It could do with a good scrub up in lots of ways I think. Link to post Share on other sites
JA2340 16 Posted June 8, 2011 Share Posted June 8, 2011 Actually, any FILES on the desktop are gonna slow the startup significantly, as tghe 'puter has to load the entire file every startup. Far better to have shortcuts to the necessary files on the desktop. I have ALL my files on a network drive (Network Attached Storage or NAS) that I can access from the 2 desktops and/or the 3 or 4 laptops I use at various times during the day at home. Emails are also stored on the NAS drive so I can see all the emails etc from the various computers as well. But, On Topic, all icons on the desktop are shortcuts pointing to where the files are. Even having a full "Recycle Bin" can slow the startup process as the actual files are stored in the bin, so big graphic files binned will be slowing the startup, as will all the binned emails, word docs etc. So ... delete is a permanent thing, my deleted files do not exist any longer, they are gooorne! Link to post Share on other sites
big-will 7 Posted June 8, 2011 Share Posted June 8, 2011 Originally Posted By: JA Actually, any FILES on the desktop are gonna slow the startup significantly, as tghe 'puter has to load the entire file every startup. Far better to have shortcuts to the necessary files on the desktop. I learnt that last year and it did make a difference. I had many GB lying around on the desktop! Link to post Share on other sites
SantaCruz 0 Posted June 8, 2011 Share Posted June 8, 2011 Originally Posted By: JA Actually, any FILES on the desktop are gonna slow the startup significantly, as tghe 'puter has to load the entire file every startup. Far better to have shortcuts to the necessary files on the desktop. I've never heard of this before and I'm surprised that this makes a difference. The desktop is just a folder whose contents happen to be displayed. If it's a fairly recent system (last few years) the it has more than enough RAM and CPU to handle it and the perf difference should be non-existent or imperceptible. It is true that it needs to create resources to display each icon on the desktop but this has nothing to do with the contents of the file. I'm very curious now why this speeds things up. Link to post Share on other sites
JA2340 16 Posted June 9, 2011 Share Posted June 9, 2011 When Windoze starts up, it loads the contents of everything on the desktop so it can be accessed immediately. Shortcuts are tiny bits of data pointing to the location of the item. Actual files are loaded in their entirety. As you said, SC, they are in a folder, but the desktop folder is treated differently to "ordinary" folders. If you don't believe, do an experiment. Save a BIG graphic file onto the desktop - better still, copy a large folder full of big graphics files and time the startup. I have done this in reverse for clients, ie I have removed huge files/folders from the desktop, replacing them with shortcuts pointing to the folders etc, and the result has been a dramatic increase in the speed of the startup process. Link to post Share on other sites
bobby12 0 Posted June 9, 2011 Share Posted June 9, 2011 On which version of windows? Link to post Share on other sites
Tubby Beaver 209 Posted June 9, 2011 Share Posted June 9, 2011 so what you are saying JA is that on the Desktop, you should only have shortcut icons, not actual files as this will slow up the start-up process? I'm gonna give that a whirl because I actually have a few folders with photos that are on my desktop, hopefully I'll see an improvement, cheers Link to post Share on other sites
BagOfCrisps 24 Posted June 9, 2011 Share Posted June 9, 2011 Doesn't SantaCruz-san actually work for Microsofts? Link to post Share on other sites
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