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If you’re in the habit of saving files to the Windows desktop ‘just for now’ and then leaving them there, the chances are that it’s a mess.
If you’re always searching for something among a random collection of application shortcuts, documents, photos and other files, it’s time for a tidy up.
So just like a filing cabinet is the best way to bring order to an unruly collection of loose papers, a series of desktop folders can organise all of your computer clutter.
Jun 20, 2017 To create new folders in Windows, right-click on your desktop and select New Folder from the menu. To rename the folder, click on it, enter a new name, and then press Enter. Once you have your folders created, you can begin to divvy up your files. How you choose to organize your folder system will be dependent on your specific role. Oct 12, 2018 How to Organize Your Desk – The First Stages. When it comes to tidying up your desk, the first step is to actually make it look worse! To really give your desk a good tidy up, you need to have a fresh start – and that means emptying your desk as much as you can. Yes, things will seem more chaotic initially, but the results will be worth the.
Step 1: Create a temporary folder
Start by creating a folder to store all of your desktop files in temporarily - although you can skip this step if you don’t have that many files. Right-click somewhere on the Desktop, click New on the menu that appears and select Folder. Type a name for the folder (Desktop files is the obvious one) and press Return.
Step 2: Empty the desktop
Now drag all the files from the desktop into the folder you just created, with a few exceptions - leave the icons for Computer, Network, My Documents (usually named after your username) and the Recycle Bin.
Step 3: Open your Libraries folders
Now that the desktop is free from all that clutter, open a new Windows Explorer window by clicking the icon on the Taskbar. In the left of the window that opens, click the small arrow next to Libraries to expand this folder, then do the same for the Documents, Music, Pictures and Videos folders inside it.
Inside these four folders are subfolders called My Documents, My Music, My Pictures and My Videos - and these are where you should store files of those types.
Step 4: Put the two folder windows side-by-side
Open the Desktop files folder on your desktop and resize the two open windows so that they sit side by side - you can use Aero Snap to do this if you’re using Windows Vista, 7 or 8.
In the Desktop files window, click the More options button at the top-right of its toolbar and select List. This shows files with small icons in a long list, to make the best use of space within the window.
Step 5: Sort your files by file type
Right-click an empty part of the Desktop files window, select Sort by from the menu and then click Type. This sorts the files according to their file type - documents, images, MP3 files and so on.
Step 6: Start moving your files
Now drag all of the documents from the Desktop files folder into the My Documents folder in the Libraries window. This is quicker if you click the first document in the list, then hold down the Shift key and click the last document in the list to select everything in between in one go. Navicat premium 11 2 18 download free.
Do the same to drag all images to the My Pictures folder, music files to the My Music folder and video files to the My Videos folder.
Step 7: Create sub-folders for further organisation
With all your files moved in to the ‘My …’ folders in the Libraries folder, you can now organise them still further. You might want to create sub-folders for Letters, Bills, or Work with the My Documents folder, for example, and then drag the appropriate documents into them. Just open the appropriate ‘My …’ folder, right-click inside it and select New > Folder to create these.
Step 8: Delete unwanted application shortcuts
By now you should have just application shortcuts left inside your Desktop files folder. Since these are somewhere in the Start menu anyway, you can delete these - or just drag the most important ones back onto the desktop and delete the rest. You can then delete the temporary Desktop files folder when it’s empty.
Step 9: Create folder shortcuts on the desktop
If you want quick access to the four ‘My …’ folders you’ve just dragged everything from the desktop into, just drag each one onto the desktop itself. This won’t move the folders, just create a shortcut link to them, making them much faster to open than by opening a new Explorer window.
By getbrowser
China
Nowadays, my desktop is full of icons and files and I have no idea about how to organize and tidy them. What a mess! Could you show me a better way to clean up and organize all icons and files without deleting them. Perhaps a clean desktop software may be available to me? Or do you have an easy way to organize them?
11 responses
@tyronie4cash (928)
![Desktop Desktop](https://www.howtogeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/img_5b6e4417ed2e0.png.pagespeed.ce.LmR-Xn8NEQ.png)
13 Oct 09
Use rocketdock or stardock. ^_~ go to youtube for a tutorial how to install it, it's free I think so don't worry ^_~ It will help you reduce the icons on your desktop and put it all together ^_^ Hope this helps.
•
To be honest, I don't really know why people use specialized softwares to clean up desktop where you can manually delete those unused icons yourself.
• Philippines
That's not for deleting, It's for ARRANGING and keeping your desktop ORGANIZED. The guy ask for how to organize and keep his desktop tidy, so I recommend this one ^_^ I believe what you meant is for CCleaner? That software is for cleaning up and deleting unnecessary files. Similar to 'Disk Clean Up'
@celticeagle (124400)
16 Oct 09
Do what I did! Get a thumb storage drive and upload all your files onto it. Then do a refrag back to manufacture or some back date. Cleans up everything. Then just put back on your computer what you use from day-to-day and keep the rest on the thumb drive. My computer runs so much better.
• China
Sorry, I am not familiar with the way you have saud above, could show me the more ditailed information? Thank you.
• Boise, Idaho
Probably need to have a tech help you with it then. I can't explain it any simpler. A tech could walk you through it.
@victorywp (3526)
13 Oct 09
create a folder & put some of your icons into it. drag the folder to the end of top/left/right. your folder will be fixed there as a toolbar. choose to auto hide it so that the toolbar will only show all the icons when you move your mouse to the end of top/left/right. try it & you will like it. i don't recommend you to use a software for this purpose. your computer will be slow during startup because the software needs to load during startup. also, it will use your memory in which you will experience slow in speed when time goes by.
• China
Although you have said that a softaware is ont the best choice, I will have s try following your tips. Thank you.
@finnyjoysarvodayite (52)
14 Oct 09
i think you can do that manually for which you need to have some patience and if you lack patience go for a desktop cleaning software..and while you install softwares when they ask whether to put a shortcut in desktop if you are not using that quite often then dont put the shortcut on the desktop.
@IMEzekieL (500)
14 Oct 09
I believe there's a program on Windows that can clean Desktop automatically. I forgot what it's called. But I believe you can access it through the Control Panel.
@jules67 (2790)
14 Oct 09
Hi, I may not be able to suggest anything here. I have read some of the responses and tried them out. Thanks for your post, at least I get to be able to use them. Thanks.
@AndrewFreyne (6287)
13 Oct 09
Ah! I feel that I can definitely relate to this one! I used to have a multitude of icons on my desktop and it looked so messy and unorganised. I then decided to try something new and so I created two folders on my desktop. I placed one folder on the right called utilities and the other side I placed a folder called Other Icons. In the utilities folder I like to keep all those programs that relate to computer maintenance and setup files. In the other folder I keep everything else. Every Friday I back up these two folders and everything is fine. I recommend you do this. Create one folder or two or however many you like and just cut and paste everything on your desktop into these folders. Good luck. Andrew
@kutedarsu (254)
13 Oct 09
NOrmally the desktop gets cluttered ith shortcuts and most of us use it a workspace and saving lots of files on it.As the desktop get cluttered very fast its very important to talk about the ways to organize and cleaning periodically..
@ailiwa (20)
13 Oct 09
Create a new folder,and put all things in. Remember, leave My computer,Recyler,and other system icons alone,don't move them.
@xannebull (1800)
13 Oct 09
there are softwares available for free download in the internet, it is a desktop cleaner. and i have deep freeze my drive c so that if i download anything that was saved in my desktop, it will be deleted automatically after restarting it.
@shally_hh (418)
13 Oct 09
Desktop Tidy 2 0 – Organize And Clean Your Desktop Computers
many people have the same problem,in order to find some files or icons easily,we put them on the desktop.but on the contrary,sometimes it is hard to find what we need on the mess desktop.for me,i use the desktop keeper to solve this problem,and this small software,which helps you manage your files and softwares,is very easy to use.now i have only six icons on my desktop.