Today we will talk about how to clear the desktop in Windows XP. The Windows XP operating system has the ability to clear the desktop of shortcuts that we rarely use. However, the shortcuts and the programs they link to are not deleted.
Some programs send a shortcut to the executable file to the desktop during installation. If you install programs frequently, there may be a lot of shortcuts. In addition, some programs are used very rarely, and it turns out that their shortcuts are in vain take up space on your desktop.
The operating system developers took this fact into account and created Desktop cleaning wizard. I note that this component does not delete, change or move any programs, it simply moves rarely used shortcuts to a special folder called Unused Shortcuts, from which, if desired, you can extract the shortcuts back.
We right-click on any place free from shortcuts, folders, files and other objects. In the context menu, select “Arrange icons” and click on the “Desktop Cleanup Wizard” row.
Fig 1. Calling the Desktop Cleanup Wizard.
The corresponding utility will open.
Fig 2. Desktop Cleanup Wizard.
Vladimir Pavlovich is the owner of a modest business producing earplugs, but looking at the desktop of his laptop, you could mistake him for some kind of secret agent. The entire screen is literally covered with a multitude of files and shortcuts - a real control center for undercover operatives. Behind the huge accumulation of icons, it’s not easy to guess the outlines of a blue BMW, but finding something you need among this pile of information is real torture. Just looking at a screen is enough to raise your blood pressure. But Vladimir Pavlovich is not an agent at all. It's just that his computer is a real funnel of entropy.
It is impossible to say for sure whether there is a connection between Vladimir Pavlovich’s professional activities and the disorder on his computer desktop, because from time to time each of us accumulates a lot of junk or simply materials that are not properly sorted on our screen. Meanwhile, such an environment does not bode well for you: you may not notice it, but according to research, a cluttered computer has a negative impact on your productivity, preventing the normal distribution of time for performing certain tasks and reducing your concentration.
One day, Vladimir Pavlovich decided that enough was enough, and if he wanted his business to prosper, he would have to clean up the mess in his computer and develop principles that would not allow this madness to happen again.
Read today's article about the dangers of desk clutter and how you can deal with it.
The price of disorder
Having a computer cluttered with information is an expensive pleasure. Of course, we are talking about mental costs. Researchers from Princeton University have experimentally proven that people whose desktops are in disarray perform much worse on cognitive tasks than those who have all the necessary files arranged systematically, in a certain order.
The finding that our brains take longer to find the files we need when they're scattered isn't really surprising at all.
Moreover, the additional distractions that probably abound on your desktop act as triggers that force us to solve unimportant tasks - which leads to poor concentration and unnecessary loss of time.
Every icon, browser tab left open, and program minimized to the toolbar is like an annoying reminder of unfinished business and unresolved tasks. As a result, this merciless onslaught of triggers easily leads to the fact that instead of solving the current problem, you are moving in a completely “different direction”.
This kind of jumping from problem area to another, according to Sophie Leroy, a researcher at the University of Minnesota, causes irreparable harm to our productivity, since any problem grabs a piece of our attention, making it difficult to return to the point where , in fact, a distraction occurred.
Removing unnecessary triggers frees up our minds and allows us to focus all of our power on the tasks at hand. Whereas loss of concentration and chaotic surroundings put heavy psychological pressure on us and prevent us from solving problems in the best possible way.
If you need additional arguments in favor of order, keep in mind that in addition to additional cognitive waste and unnecessary waste of time, you also lose in computer performance. Each open tab is an additional load on the processor and RAM. Of course, now there are technologies that allow you to automatically stop the consumption of resources to maintain unused programs and processes, but these are, metaphorically speaking, those drugs that eliminate the symptoms, but not the disease itself.
Removing triggers
So, the first thing you can do to somehow unload your workspace is to create a folder and move into it all the files that are currently on the desktop. Of course, this will not solve the whole problem, because you will simply move the mess from one place to another, but it will still stop being an eyesore.
“Search” (or Spotlight - the built-in search function in Mac OS) will help you quickly find this or that file, so it makes sense to use it, and files that you access every day (for example, a Word editor shortcut) can be easily found in "Recent Documents" tab (or place it on the taskbar).
You can listen to the advice of Vladimir Pavlovich and change the background image of your desktop to some plain wallpaper. If you own an Apple product, you can also use Bartender 2 to put all your running apps at the top of your screen. After all the procedures done, you will start every day with a “clean slate”.
To keep your attention on current tasks and not get distracted, you can turn off all notifications (alerts) from programs:
Caption: “Turn off notifications”
Use the Do Not Disturb feature. Set the time interval from 7.00 to 6.59 am (day):
Once you've turned off all those annoying notifications and tidied up your desktop, you'll need to deal with the biggest enemy of your productivity: your browser.
The first problem is what to do with all the open tabs? First, they need to be divided into several categories. For example, it might look like this:
Sorting tabs will help you quickly bring order to your browser. For example, the URLs of sites that you use daily can be entered into a special sheet, a kind of database. If necessary, you open this sheet (for example, a document on Google Drive) and select the resource you need.
Next, what to do with the articles? The truth is that articles you put aside for later are usually never read. But now we are not talking about this, but trying to figure out where to save all these materials. To protect yourself from clutter, you can use the services
Pocket was created in 2007 by Nate Weiner to help people save interesting articles, videos, and more from the web and enjoy them later. After registration, an active button will appear in your browser, when clicked, the current page will be saved in your account:
This is how this button will be displayed in the Yandex browser
Evernote's web clipper also offers more advanced functionality. By clicking on the icon in the top sidebar of your browser, you can choose in what format you will save the page: completely, as a snapshot, as an article, etc.:
If it seems to you that all these tools are nothing more than a way to transfer information noise from one place to another, but not solve the very cause of this noise, know that the abundance of information today is not a problem at all. The challenge is to organize the incoming material so that it does not affect your productivity and clarity of thought, and at the same time is easily accessible when needed.
Another source of chaos in your head and computer is email and social media. These guys are constantly trying to grab a piece of your time and attention, so the best way to deal with them is to turn off all notifications and not keep the pages with these services open while you are doing something that requires strong concentration. Social networks are like jelly - try it once and you will get stuck in it for a long time, reading an endless series of posts from the news feed. You will think that you are busy, although in reality it is just an illusion of activity.
You can also use tools like StayFocusd or Freedom to block yourself from visiting certain resources while you're busy.
Once you've put everything in order on all possible fronts, it's time to set aside time in your schedule to "take out the trash" from your computer and browser and not let the abundance of information overwhelm you. Just 15 minutes a week will be enough. If you do it right, you will experience an increase in efficiency and mental clarity.
Conclusion
You may not think much of it, but chaos in your environment means chaos in your head. Clean up your surroundings and you will feel energized and increase your productivity. The main conclusions of the article are below:
The topic of maintaining order on your computer desktop can be called eternal...
The topic of maintaining order on your computer desktop can be called eternal. For the vast majority of users, the desktop is “cluttered” with shortcuts with enviable regularity.
Sometimes, you can’t really see the splash screen image behind them. And even after establishing some order, after a few days you can observe the same picture.
It's good if these are really just shortcuts. Quite often on desktops you can find all kinds of audio and video files, simultaneous presence of both a shortcut and a boot file, etc. In addition to the unaesthetic appearance, this can have a negative, “inhibiting” effect on the operation of the computer. The fact is that the desktop folder is located on the system disk, and if you save large files in it, this, accordingly, reduces the volume of the system disk and does not allow the system to “breathe freely”.
Therefore, we recommend that you check the size of your desktop on your computer. The normal size is considered to be about 100Kb, since this indicates that only shortcuts are really located here. If during the scan you find a significantly larger volume, then urgently clean up and move all large files to more suitable sections.
If you find that files downloaded from the Internet end up on your desktop, then you need to check your browser settings and Move the “downloads” folder from the system drive.
So, we have considered the technical side of the issue. However, there is also a purely organizational side, since often the clogging of the desktop occurs from our desire to pull out, as it seems to us, a “VERY IMPORTANT” document closer to quick access. As a result, we still have the same picture of a screen crammed with many shortcuts. We want to offer one, perhaps not very scientific, but well-proven in practice, way of combating this “disease.”
If the number of shortcuts and files on your desktop has exceeded the critical point, then create a new folder (why should we waste time on trifles!), proudly call it “Desktop” and confidently send absolutely EVERYTHING there!
After this, you can calmly begin your working day. If you really need something from the contents of the newly created folder during the day, then take it out and place it on your desktop. But only what you really need right now. By the end of the day, you will be able to see that the screen remains relatively free. Continue in this mode for at least 4-5 days. But after this, you can safely delete everything that continues to remain in that created folder. Just delete it, because if you haven’t needed it for almost a week, then you won’t need it. And in the future you will be able to find similar information in a more up-to-date version. You can use this method with some regularity as soon as you can no longer distinguish the background of your desktop.
And since we are talking about the background for the desktop, we will devote a few lines to this point. Today, the Internet offers simply a huge selection of screensavers, as they say, “for every taste and color.” We must admit that this is very convenient, since it is unlikely that anyone will want to look at the same picture for months or years, no matter how wonderful it is.
However, when choosing a screensaver, you should not always be guided only by your preferences and tastes. For example, if we are talking about an office computer, then it is better to exclude images of girls and boys right away. Moreover, regardless of the degree of their “clothing”. In any case, such screensavers will be regarded as a manifestation of frivolity and may create a false impression of you as an employee. Also try to avoid screensavers with aggressive overtones or in too bright colors. For example, the color red is a natural stimulant and irritant, which can ultimately lead to fatigue and nervousness. It is better to choose a relatively calm screensaver with images of nature or animals, in soft warm colors that set the mood for a certain relaxation.
There is another benefit to choosing a neutral screensaver. We often make our choices on a subconscious level, and such a picture can tell a lot about a person’s psychotype. Do we really want to once again demonstrate our inner world and open our souls to strangers? Therefore, the work computer is not the best place for strong expression of individuality, unless, of course, you work as a creative designer.
Hi all. Today I’ll dedicate an article to a little optimization of the Windows desktop. The need for this may arise if you have a weak computer, but want to use Windows 7. It is also possible that you have Windows 7 installed for a long time, and over time it has taken longer to load, so one of the optimization stages will be to simplify the loading of the desktop. This same article will help you get rid of the ugly quality of the effect when moving a window, when there is, so to speak, a “trail” behind the window, such as the effect of blinds. You will find out that this can be fixed without reinstalling the entire system. I think each of you has already found a reason to read this article, so let’s get started.
The instructions won’t be complicated, so don’t be afraid that you won’t succeed. On the desktop of your computer, there is a “Computer” icon, right-click on it and open “Properties”.
A window will open, readers of my blog will be familiar with it for a long time. In the window "View basic information about your computer" there are basic system settings. Some of which we will need today.
In the left column goes to the item "Advanced system settings", and click on it. The “System Properties” window will open.
Now on the “Advanced” tab we will need to click the button "Options" in the “Performance” block.
And again a new window awaits us. Now with the title "Performance Options".
By default, you are immediately on the tab "Visual effects" Here we stay. See the whole list of settings below? These are what we need now. We'll experiment with them. At this point, all the boxes are checked. I can tell you from my own setup experience that out of all this variety we will only need to keep the following:
1) “Using display styles for windows and buttons”;
2) “Display window contents when dragging”;
3) “Smooth out irregularities in screen fonts.”
It will look like this.
We tick the boxes and click “Apply”, the computer will throw out a notification that in order to apply the settings you will need to “End session”, we fulfill the requirement. After which we work and rejoice. I think you will immediately feel the acceleration of your desktop. Thank you for your attention!
Hello dear readers and visitors of the blogSpectr-rv.ru. The topic of today's article will be cleaning the Windows 7 desktop. You will learn how to clean up the desktop, which is to some extent the “calling card” of the computer owner.
As far as I know, many users consider the desktop of their computer as a place for temporary storage of all kinds of files and folders. But, if you do not regularly clear the table of this garbage, then over time it will turn into a real landfill, where it is not so easy to find the necessary materials.
At the same time, numerous folders and files stored on the desktop take up significant space on the system disk, which in itself is not very good, and can also negatively affect the computer's performance and stability.
Look what my desktop looked like before I decided to clean it up.
You can free your desktop from everything unnecessary in a fairly simple way, which we will now consider.
First of all, on any partition of your hard drive other than the system one, create a folder intended for storing desktop contents. You can name the folder whatever you like, for example “Desk”.
Inside the “Desk” folder, create several folders to place in them all the materials on your desktop according to their categories.
For greater clarity, you can change the folder icons. This is done like this: right-click on the selected folder and select “Properties” from the menu. In the window that opens, go to the “Settings” tab, click the “Change icon” button and select the appropriate icon for your folder.
Now move all files, folders, program shortcuts, etc. from the desktop to the folders created for them.
Right-click on an empty area of the Taskbar and select " Panels" - "Create a toolbar...».
In the window that opens " New Toolbar - Folder Selector"Locate and select the folder you created "Desk". Click the "Select folder" button.
That's it, the job is finished.
A new “Desk” panel should appear on the right side of the Control Panel. By clicking on the quote located to the right of the panel, you will open the “Desk" folder and you can select the Desktop element you need.
Thus, by completing the specified settings, you will not only free up your desktop and space on the system disk, but also make it easier and faster to find the materials you need. After all, now all the folders, files and shortcuts that were previously on the desktop are sorted into their own folders.
To insert a new file from any folder, just open the “Desk” panel, right-click on the desired folder icon and, in the menu that opens, select “Insert”.
That's all I wanted to tell you about putting your desk in order. Now you know how to clean the Windows 7 desktop and, if desired, you can apply this method on your computer. Thank you for your attention. Good luck!
