How To Clean Your Virtual Desktop
It’s Clean Your Virtual Desktop Day! A fine celebration.
In my opinion, the nicest desktop is an empty one.
In the bad old days, computers didn’t even have colour monitors, let alone customisable desktops. Nope, you had green text and a black background.
Nowadays it’s easy for us to find wonderful art and amazing photographs to use on our desktops. Yet too often, we hide all that imagery behind a mess of files and unused apps. It’s like throwing mud at a window just as the sun is rising.
It’s time to take the desktop back – and you only need a few tips to do it.
1. Get shot of shortcuts
Most shortcuts are like the vestigial tails of your #virtualdesktop; they might have been useful once, but you don’t need them anymore. Shortcuts should be for things you need all the time. If you haven’t clicked one for a couple of weeks or longer, get rid of it. Free up that screen real estate.
2. Get folding and holding
Look at the desktop and see what kinds of files you have, then create folders for each type and also one called ‘holding’. Open each file and decide whether it goes into a specific folder, into holding or gets trashed. When you’re done, take a break and then repeat that process with the holding folder.
Once everything is cleared away, move those folders off the desktop and put them in a directory where they’re still easily accessible.
3. That’s it.
No, really. That’s it for clearing your desktop. Get rid of your short cuts and file away objects and you’ll end up with a much clearer screen. The only thing it takes from you is a bit of time and effort. Make it part of your weekly routine.
You might be tempted to download software that can do it all automatically, but what if it makes a mistake? Do you want to risk losing something irretrievably for the sake of a few minutes’ work?
If you want to go to the next level…
The desktop represents a tiny fraction of everything stored on your computer. If you want a tidy machine and the chance to see an increase in responsiveness, then why not go through all your files and applications?
Cleaning up your laptop in this way can be almost meditative – a bit like pottering around the garden on a sunny day. Put on some classical music, get yourself a drink and settle down to a bit of digital pruning.
But wait, there’s more! Have a look at this other blogs about cluttering, purging and filing: