How to organize your messy windows desktop (and keep it that way)

If a variety of files and program shortcuts are taking up your desktop, perhaps you should take some measures to organize your messy desktop. In today’s article, MiniTool will tell you how to organize desktop icons and some free desktop organizers.

The Windows 10 desktop enables you to store all kinds of files and program shortcuts, but sometimes you may be troubled by the messy desktop icons. So, how to organize desktop icons? Here are several useful tips that can help you tidy your desktop.

Hide or Delete All Unwanted Desktop Icons

If there are many programs that you don’t use much often, hiding or deleting the unwanted desktops icons may be a good solution. It is very simple to delete the unwanted desktop icons by right-clicking the icon and select Delete.

Here is a quick guide to hiding desktop icons.

Step 1. Right-click your desktop and select View>Show desktop icons. Then you will find an empty desktop.

Step 2. If you want to see all desktop icons again, just click Show desktop icons or open your File Explorer to view these icons.

Perhaps you have found this is a “nuclear” operation. If you want to see the stored files or program shortcuts regularly, this method maybe not so convenient for you. Let’s move to the next solution.

Quickly Organize Desktop Icons Windows 10

This solution can help you tidy your messy desktop quickly with all icons remained on desktop. Here are 2 options that you can refer to.

Option 1

Step 1. Right-click your desktop and select the Sort by menu. Then you can select one from the 4 options. For instance, you can select Name to organize icons on desktop alphabetically or Date modified to sort the icons chronologically. Well, you can also select Size or Item type.

Option 2

If you want to organize desktop icons Windows 10 automatically, you can check Auto arrange icons under the View menu. After that, your desktop icons will be grouped one after another.

Put Your Program Shortcuts into the Start Menu and Taskbar

Usually, program shortcuts are placed on your desktop when installing them, but the desktop may get messier over time. Here you can place them in other locations such as the Start menu or Taskbar.

Right-click the program shortcut and select Pin to Taskbar, and then it will appear on your Taskbar and you can move its position.

You can also place them on your Start menu. On Windows 10 desktop, right-click a shortcut listed in the Start menu and select Pin to start, or just drop the icon to the pinned programs area. Then you can organize the shortcuts into groups and rename them.

How to organize Windows 10 desktop icons more effectively?

Use a Free Desktop Organizer Software

If you want to organize Windows 10 desktop icons more effectively, here Stardock Fences is worth using. This app organizes desktop icons with the fences you created. You can name the fences and move the desktop icons in or out of them. What’s more, you can assign them different colors and resize them.

More importantly, Stardock Fences offers you many advanced features. The app shortcuts can be automatically placed into appropriate fences by configuring the Fence rules. For example, you can create a fence rule that image files will be automatically put into a Pictures fence. You can visit here for more details.

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About The Author

Ariel is an enthusiastic IT columnist focusing on partition management, data recovery, and Windows issues. She has helped users fix various problems like PS4 corrupted disk, unexpected store exception error, the green screen of death error, etc. If you are searching for methods to optimize your storage device and restore lost data from different storage devices, then Ariel can provide reliable solutions for these issues.

Desktop is similar to your wardrobe, room, and work desk. It can get messy easily if you aren’t practicing some good habits to keep your desktop organized. A messy desktop will decrease your productivity and affect your mood. I always practice some simple rules that keeps my desktop clean and neat, as I will get irritated whenever I see a cluttered desktop.

Here are some extremely simple yet effective tips to organize your Windows desktop. You don’t have to install any software or tools to implement these steps. Let’s have a look on my Windows 8 desktop before we begin:

1. Pin Daily Used Software To Taskbar

Is there any applications or tools that you use almost everyday? Drag or pin them to your taskbar now. It only requires a single click to open applications on your taskbar. Imagine how many clicks you will save in a year if you follow this step.

You should also read:

2. Remove Anything That You Use Less Than Once A Week

Scan through all of the icons on your desktop and ask yourself: Have I use any of them on this week? Remove them immediately when you answer is no. There are 3 ways to remove shortcuts and files from your desktop:

1. Completely Useless? Delete them.
2. Still useful occasionally? Pin them to start menu.
3. Files from the different categories (music, documents, games, etc)? Sort them into folders.

3. Choose A Clean Wallpaper

Choose a wallpaper or theme that will cause least distraction to you. Here are some great sources of wallpaper/theme that you should check out:

• Love stunningly beautiful graphics or landscapes? Here are some gorgeous Windows 7/8 Themes.
• Looking for distraction-free images? Here are some awesome minimalist wallpapers.

4. Auto Arrange Icons OR Sectionize Them

If you have more than 2 columns of desktop icons and you wish to separate them into sections, you may consider to sectionize icons by dragging them into groups (refer to the image below).

Else, simply right click on your desktop -> View -> Auto arrange icons.

5. Deselect “Create A Desktop Icon” During Installations

Always remember to deselect “Create a desktop icon” when you are installing a program, unless you need to use the program frequently.

6. Hide Unwanted Icons

You can hide unwanted icons such as Recycle Bin and Computer from your desktop. Right click on your desktop -> Personalize -> Change desktop icons -> Deselect any desktop icons that you wish to hide.

7. The Extreme Way: Hide All Desktop Icons

Find desktop icons annoying? Simply right click and deselect “Show Desktop icons“. Now you can only see your beautiful wallpaper and taskbar at the bottom of your screen.

Remember to share (Facebook and Google+) and retweet this article to your friends and family so that everyone can create beautiful photo collages easily!

Microsoft Windows can get messy. It’s not (always) the operating system’s fault. You download tons of apps and files, and create new content stuff of your own, until your “Downloads” directory looks like a landfill for old content. Your desktop is so full of icons, you can’t see your pretty wallpaper. Your Start Menu looks like an app buffet. In short, your operating system is a mess, but it’s not unfixable.

We take spring cleaning very seriously at Lifehacker. Far be it from us to let an opportunity to refresh, reorganize, and declutter our homes lives pass us by. We’re also pretty psyched to hit the reset button on our tech usage, take a close look at our finances, and give the heave-ho to the day-to-day habits that have gotten a little musty. Welcome to Spring Cleaning Week , wherein we clear the cobwebs of winter and set the stage for sunny days ahead. Let’s clean things up, shall we?

There are a few free apps you can use to add some much-needed organization to your Windows world. Here are a few of our favorites:

DropIt

We covered this app a long time ago , but it’s worth resurrecting. DropIt is a great utility that can help you stay organized if you’re the kind of person who dumps everything you download (or copy to your PC) into a single folder—one giant, sprawling hub that many files enter, but rarely leave.

DropIt allows you to set up a ton of different rules that fire off whenever you drag files onto the utility’s little icon. For example, you can set the app to always move image files into your primary photos folder, video files into your videos folder, and Word documents into—you guessed it—your documents folder.

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That’s just the start. If you want to get more advanced, DropIt can automatically scan folders (like your Downloads folder) and apply more advanced filters to anything it finds, like automatically unzipping archives, renaming files based on your parameters, or compressing large batches of files that are otherwise taking up a bit more space than you want.

Automation is a great way to help you stay organized in Windows, and DropIt practically gives you a virtual helper at your fingertips.

digiKam

If your sprawling photo library needs some serious organization but you don’t want to pay for something like Adobe Lightroom, the open-source app digiKam is a great alternative.

Use this app to sort your photos and create (or edit) metadata so you can find exactly what you’re looking for in one easy-to-access library. If you’re also a bit of a photo perfectionist, you can use digiKam to edit your regular and RAW shots to make them picture-perfect.

This app is a much better solution for organizing shots than just dumping them into arbitrary Windows folders. Your disorganized hard drive will thank you, and you’ll be much less likely to lose (or forget about) images going forward.

LaunchBox

We’re not going to ask why you have a bunch of emulators installed on your system, and we’re going to assume that all the ROMs spread across that nightmare of a folder structure in the “Games” portion of your hard drive are completely legal. Right? Regardless, if you just spent the last day getting your nostalgia kick by downloading archives of thousands of different retro games to play on your modern-day PC, keeping these games under control is going to feel overwhelming.

We suggest grabbing LaunchBox , which is a great “game organizer” utility that allows you to quickly find and play titles in your giant library. You can tap into the app’s crowd-sourced database to pepper your titles with useful information, like release dates, genres, publishers, and images, and you can mark certain games as favorites to make theme easier to hunt down when you have a little time to kill.

LaunchBox also makes it (somewhat) easy to import games from your favorite distribution services, like Steam , Battle.net , and GoG (to name a few). If you’re the world’s biggest gamer who plays everything you can download and always grabs new titles to try from all the major services, LaunchBox is a great way to organize your games under one digital roof.

AquaSnap

Everyone knows Windows’ Aero Snap shortcuts, right? Hit Windows Key + one of the arrow keys on your keyboard to send your active window flying all around your screen: minimizing, opening, shrinking to fill a quarter or half of your display, and bouncing off your primary display entirely (if you have a multi-monitor setup).

AquaSnap takes this concept and supercharges it. You can snap your windows to different parts of your display, just like with Aero Snap, but you can also do so much more.

For example, if you have three windows open in a lovely tiled configuration, you can resize all three on the fly just by dragging your mouse around—each expands and shrinks as needed. Your windows can now snap to each other, not just the corners of your display, and you can move connected apps around as one large chunk of a group.

Double-clicking on the edge of a window allows it to expand in that direction to fill the entirety of your display, a handy trick. Grabbing a app’s window and shaking it around with your mouse—yes, shaking it—turns the window transparent and sets it to sit “always on top” of any other windows you have open. That’s a great little feature if you need to access something like a calculator, but don’t want it getting too much in the way when you aren’t using it.

And if you want to get crazy, you can manage your Windows wizardry using AquaSnap’s keyboard hotkeys. Your coworkers and friends will be in awe of your mad window-moving skills.

TileIconifier

If you’re the kind of person who arranges your smartphone apps by color , you’re going to love TileIconifier . Though it’s going to demand a bit of your time if you’re crazy about how your Start Menu looks, this utility allows you to customize your apps’ tiles.

For example, if you love a particular color (green), and are upset that the background color of your favorite app’s tile doesn’t align with your chromatic preferences, you can fix that. You can either upload your own custom image to use as a medium or small tile—sorry, large or wide tiles aren’t supported—or you can simply use the app’s existing icon (scaled to any size) with any background color you want. You can make both light and dark versions of the icon, too, in case you ever feel like switching Windows themes.

Of course, most of your icons’ backgrounds should just switch to whatever color you select as an accent in Windows 10 (Settings > Personalization > Colors). TileIconifier is a great way to bend the more stubborn icons to your will—or, worse, to replace every official icon on your tiles with a different image of a cute animal. (And do send us a screenshot if you go that route.)

BubbaMac, whose “messy Windows Desktop [has] all sorts of icons scattered all over the place,” asked the Answer Line forum for help.

An out-of-control desktop is not a pretty sight. Nor is it a practical one. The document, folder, or shortcut you need is inevitably hidden behind an open window. And when you hold down the WINDOWS key and press d to minimize the windows and make the desktop visible, you still have trouble finding it amongst all the other icons.

I can recommend two remedies if your desktop is getting out of control: Either don’t keep stuff there, or download and install Stardock’s Fences. Both solutions are free.

The best way to keep your desktop clean is to not leave a lot of stuff on it. I tend to use it as sort of an extra temporary folder for files I will need handy in the very short term. Because the files are right there, in my face, I remember to either delete them or move them to someplace less annoying when I’m done with them. Most of the time, the desktop is near empty.

If you don’t want to take that advice, go with Fences. This free program allows you to organize the stuff on your desktop by “fencing” off sections of it. For instance, you can have one section (the program calls them fences even though they’re more like boxes) for application shortcuts, another for utilities, and another for documents.

You can name the fences, resize them, drag them across your desktop, and drag items into them. If you put more items into a fence than can be displayed, a scrollbar appears. If you double-click a blank spot on your desktop, all of your fences and everything else on the desktop–except open windows–disappear. Double-click again and they reappear.

If we usually use many programs at the same time, both personally and at work, there may come a time when we get stuck, saturated and don’t know where each program or window that we are using is located. Windows is a multi-tasking operating system, that is, it allows you to run several programs at the same time. However, once opened, moving from one to the other is not exactly the most intuitive. Therefore, if we want to be productive, it is necessary to know the best tricks to organize the windows that we are using.

Each user can have the table as they like and work in a more or less organized environment. However, it has been shown that clean, tidy and minimalist environments tend to be much better when working productively. If we know how to organize the windows we can even have two, three or more open at the same time and interact with them without having to change from one to the other.

Organize windows using Windows tricks

Windows has a series of functions designed to help us be more productive and allow us to organize the programs and windows that we have open without having to resort to third-party programs and tools.

Keyboard shortcuts

The keyboard shortcuts of the operating system help us to carry out certain tasks in Windows without using the mouse. And, of course, some of them are designed to help us work better with the windows of the programs we are using.

ALT + TAB

This is one of the best known keyboard shortcuts in Windows. With it we will be able to move quickly through all the windows that we have open on our computer. We can launch it at any time by pressing the two keys, and all we have to do is hold Alt. Each time we press Tab we will select other windows. When we release Alt the window that we have selected will come to the foreground.

WIN + TAB

This keyboard shortcut is similar to the previous one, but much more complete in Windows 10. By pressing it we will be able to open the activity history of Windows 10. In the upper part we will be able to see all the windows that we have open, and in the lower part all the programs and files that we have been opening and closing over time. We must use the mouse to move between all activities. And, in addition, from here we can create virtual desktops.

WIN + ARROWS

Another keyboard shortcut that allows us to move our desktop windows easily is the WIN key next to the left, right, up and down arrows on our keyboard:

• Win + Down: Minimize the current window.
• Win + Up: Maximizes the current window.
• Win + Right: Places the window on the right side of the screen.
• Win + left: places the window on the left side of the screen.

If we want to minimize all the windows at once and be able to have our desktop in view, then what we should do is press the Win + M keyboard shortcut.

View types

Windows is able to automatically organize our windows without having to do anything to always have them in view. To do this we just have to right-click on the PC taskbar and choose one of the following options:

• Show cascading windows – It allows us to see all the windows that we have open on the computer, one on top of the other, in the form of a staircase or, as the name implies, a waterfall.
• Show stacked windows – Places all windows on one side of the screen, one on top of the other, but all visible.
• Show Parallel Windows – Similar to stacked window mode, but don’t place any on top of each other.
• Show desktop – It allows us to directly show the desktop of the PC.

Docking Windows (Hot Corners)

Finally, another way to organize and position the windows of our Windows is by dragging them directly to the corners of the screen. Depending on where we place the window we can place it in 8 different ways:

• Up, down, left, right: the windows that we place on the sides will occupy the entire width or length (depending on the chosen side) and half the opposite. Thus, for example, we can place a total of two windows at the same time, vertically or horizontally, without overlapping.
• Corners: allows us to place the window directly on the selected corner, occupying half both vertically and horizontally. We can place up to 4 windows at a time in perfect harmony.

Virtual desktops

In addition to all of the above, Windows 10 has a feature designed to help us improve our productivity: virtual desktops. The virtual desktop of Windows 10 allows us to have several desktops, placing in each one of them the programs and windows that we want so that we can have each workspace dedicated to a specific thing.

Shake a window

This trick is very fast to use and, although it does not allow us to organize the windows on the desktop, it allows us to minimize them all at once. To do this, all we have to do is grab a window (whatever it is, whatever the program is) by the top bar and, keeping the click button pressed, shake it.

The Aero Shake feature of Windows 10 will minimize all other open windows, and only the one we’ve shaken will come to the fore.

Programs to organize windows

In addition, there are programs designed to allow us to be much more productive, helping us to organize our computer windows much better.

Microsoft PowerToys (FancyZones)

One of the tools that are included within the Microsoft PowerToys is FancyZones. This tool allows us to divide our desktop into several virtual parts so that we can place the windows that we want automatically in each one of them.

This program allows us to configure the workspaces to divide the desktop into the parts that we want, and give each one the size that we want equally. We can then place the windows in each of the parts (it will adjust to it automatically) using keyboard shortcuts or the mouse.

We can download the Microsoft PowerToys from this link . PowerToys will allow us to have, along with this tool, Run, another additional tool that we can launch by pressing Alt + Space and with which we can run programs in seconds.

Shutter Split Screen

This program also offers us a large number of possibilities to order and personalize our virtual desktops. This program has up to 9 different configurations to organize our windows and divide the desktop into the parts we want.

Broadly speaking, it is very similar to the PowerToys function, but simpler, faster and with less customization options. We can download Shutter Split Screen from here .

AquaSnap

This is a widely used window manager among programmers and designers. It allows us to divide the desktop into 2, 3 or even 4 areas so that we can adjust all the open windows to each one easily. Each area is “magnetized” so windows will automatically snap to edges seamlessly.

We can download AquaSnap from this link .

Messy desktops are not only hard to navigate, but they can also hinder your productivity. That’s why it’s important to regularly declutter your desktop so you’re not stuck wondering where everything is saved. Here are some useful tips you can follow.

1. Arrange, sort, and prioritize

Before you delete everything from your desktop, think about what you really want to keep. This will vary from person to person, but most people use their desktop for storing files, folders, and apps that they want to access quickly.

Take the time to sort your files and folders. An easy way to do this is to right-click on an empty area of your desktop (where there are no icons), mouse over on View, and select Auto arrange icons. This will organize your icons into a grid format. Then, right-click on the empty space and hover your mouse over Sort by and select Date modified to arrange the icons by the date they were last opened, with the latest on top.

2. Create a folder for holding files and another for keeping app shortcuts

People often use their desktop to store downloaded files, photos, screenshots, and even email attachments, which can lead to a messy desktop.

However, you don’t need all these on your desktop. Instead, create a folder on your desktop that will serve as your dumping ground for all your nonessential files and folders. If you don’t intend to keep a file, icon, photo, etc. for long, put it in this folder. Revisit this folder every once in a while to delete the files you no longer need.

It also helps if you create a shortcut folder. When you install new programs on Windows, a shortcut icon is often automatically added to your desktop. But these desktop shortcuts should be for frequently used programs only. Create a separate folder for programs that aren’t used that often.

3. Clear out unnecessary files

Once you have your folders set up, it’s time to get rid of the clutter. If you haven’t used a file, folder, etc. in the past two months or so, get rid of it. Examine your desktop and uninstall programs you no longer use. You’ll also want to delete outdated files you no longer need and place the rest in relevant folders.

4. Use the taskbar or Start menu for apps

In Windows 10, you can pin apps to the Start menu and the taskbar. This is a great alternative to having program shortcuts on your desktop. To pin apps, open your apps list (i.e., click the Start button at the bottom-left corner of the screen) and right-click on the application you would like to pin. Select Pin to Start or Pin to taskbar for the option you want.

5. Choose a wallpaper you love looking at

An interesting way to minimize clutter is to pick a wallpaper that you enjoy looking at — whether it’s your favorite motivational quote, a photo of your family, or a picture of your dream house, car, or destination. Having an image you like serves as a reminder to keep icons to a minimum, so if you can’t see the image anymore, then you have too many icons, and it may be time to get rid of a few.

If you are looking to learn more about how to use Windows more effectively, contact us today.

If you have a messy computer desktop with all sorts of icons everywhere, I’m here to show you how to organize your computer desktop! I know it’s easy to save something there temporarily, and then forget to move it. Fortunately, I’ve found a great solution.

I’ve found the best solution to create something like this where I can move icons into appropriate categories:

Then I just move the icons around to the appropriate boxes. I try to clean up my desktop weekly, which really helps it stay organized. It only took me 10 minutes to create this graphic for my screen. I used Picmonkey.com which is completely free to use (and you don’t even need to sign up for anything or download anything). In this video, I show exactly how I created this, so you can create something similar with your own titles and style.

That’s all there is to it! It’s really that quick and easy to get your computer desktop organized.

Hi, I’m Laura.

I love planners and organizing! I believe organizing systems should be beautiful, practical, and functional, and I’m here to help you with that.

Get organized today!

The Sticky Note Productivity Method

Is an overflowing to-do list an all too familiar companion? Is the phrase “so much to do, so little time” the mantra of your current season of life? I’ve been there, friend. When there’s task upon task demanding your time it become vital to learn how to prioritize. You CAN turn that mountain into a molehill, and I’ll show you can easy way to do that with my Sticky Note Productivity method!

Yet, we constantly neglect them — we litter them with old documents, photos, and folders we no longer need, and fail to clean them up as often as we should.

The problem with having a messy computer desktop is, it can negatively affect our productivity, says psychologist Pamela Rutledge, director of the Media Psychology Research Center in Newport Beach, California.

“A clean desk or desktop can be like taking a deep breath, allowing you to focus,” Rutledge says.

On the other hand, when your computer desktop is cluttered, it takes more time to find important documents and locate icons, which slows down your workflow. Staring at an overwhelmingly disorganized desktop all day can also affect your mood — it can make you anxious or frustrated — which, of course, also impacts productivity.

If you want to give your computer an end-of-the year clean-out that will help you achieve optimal productivity, follow these five tips from Rutledge:

1. Select the right wallpaper

Leave the default background or personalize it?

Rutledge says a desktop wallpaper photo should meet these three criteria: it doesn’t camouflage desktop icons (no highly active or busy wallpapers); it’s visually pleasing to you (think mountains or subtle patterns); and it doesn’t strain your eyes (no highlighter colors). “Most of the standard wallpapers do not fit this category,” Rutledge says.

While research shows that the color red is energizing and stimulates analytical thinking and blue is calming and enhances creativity, Rutledge says that a small desktop screen is “unlikely to have that profound effect.”

2. Delete (or hide) every desktop icon you don’t use on a regular basis

We all have that one coworker whose desktop makes us openly cringe (or maybe that person is you) — and it’s usually because they don’t clean out their desktop files.

Rutledge says having too many files on your desktop can make them harder to find, which can slow you down and increase your frustration level. Plus, it uses up your computer’s resources, which slows its processing speed down.

Delete (or remove from your desktop) any old files you don’t use on a regular basis, or won’t ever need again.

If you like having your files — even the old ones — in an easy-to-access location, Rutledge suggests creating a “filing system” by grouping them into four quadrants: folders, documents, apps, and things to be filed into your documents.

Rutledge says you can also use aliases, or tiny files that can be saved in more than one place and that automatically open up another file, and organize them into “buckets.”

3. Limit the number of web browser tabs you have open at once

If it takes you longer than 10 seconds to close out of all your tabs or internet windows, then you may have a problem.

Like icons, too many tabs or windows can also drain your computer’s processing power and make locating a specific page difficult, Rutledge says.

She suggests creating bookmarks on your browser or clipping pages to create a notebook in Evernote, a note-taking app, which can ease your anxiety about not being able to find a certain tab again, while also clearing out the unneeded ones.

4. Don’t leave your email or social media sites open on your desktop all day

Leaving your email open so you can impress your recipients with your lightening-speed response time is not the best use of your skills — or your time.

Our brains are “hardwired to be social and to notice something new,” Rutledge says, which means that every new notification that we see on our browser is going to distract us from our work and tempt us to check it.

She says that our brains are “lazy” and would rather perform an easy task like answering an email and receive an immediate feeling of accomplishment rather than making a spreadsheet or writing an article or a report and having to wait for that rewarding feeling.

“In the long term, the report will be more rewarding because you will be doing your job better (or keeping it),” Rutledge says.

Social media can also be distracting — and addictive — because making social connections “triggers the release of dopamine in the reward center of the brain,” she says.

To determine whether communication tabs are too distracting for you, Rutledge suggests working without them for a while, and when you feel the urge to check them again, ask yourself why you want to.

“For me, it’s usually because I’m working on something difficult, and I’m trying to escape the task,” Rutledge says.

While social media can be distracting, Rutledge admits that everyone needs a periodic mental break. “Just balance the mental vacations so that they are supporting your productivity, not hurting it,” Rutledge says.

Most people find it challenging to organize their computer desktop in a meaningful, intuitive way. Here are seven strategies you can use to get organized.

If your computer is cluttered with disorganized files and unnecessary apps, it’s tough to get any work done. Not only will you find it harder to find the content you need when you need it, but you’ll also feel additional stress, and may also be more easily distracted.

Still, most people find it challenging to organize their computer desktop in a meaningful, intuitive way.

You can start by acknowledging the main challenges that get in the way of an organized desktop:

• Choosing a standard. If you don’t have an idea for how to organize your files, you’ll never get started. The analysis paralysis on deciding on an organizational method can kill some efforts before they even begin.
• Clearing the clutter.Clutter has a powerful effect on your stress and emotional well-being, but it’s hard to delete files if you think there’s a chance you’ll use them again in the future. It’s very easy for a computer to become cluttered with unnecessary items.
• Finding the time. It’s almost impossible to automate the process of organizing your desktop, which means you’ll need to make time to do it manually–time many workers feel they don’t have.
• Staying consistent. Once you decide on an organizational standard, you’ll need to consistently apply that standard in the future. This is where most people fail.

Now let’s focus on strategies you can use to get–and stay–organized:

1. Consolidate your most important apps.

First, take inventory of the apps that are most important for your position. You might have three or four that you use on a daily basis, or a subscription suite of software programs that provide you with most of the functionality you need. For example, you might be able to merge functions from multiple apps with a single, comprehensive solution, or use a single suite of apps to replace the hodgepodge collection you accumulated over time.

2. Delete or tuck away what you don’t use at least weekly.

Next, start decluttering whatever you can. If you can’t remember the last time you used an app, uninstall it. If you can’t imagine a scenario for which you’ll need a specific file, delete it. If it seems like it might be unnecessary but you’re struggling with the decision, create a folder where you can store these rarely accessed files and apps–and then tuck that folder out of the way.

3. Decide on a file-naming convention.

Next, decide on a naming convention for your files that you can use consistently. For example, you might code each file with the date, so they’re listed in chronological order, and then include the name of the client each file pertains to, so you can quickly search by client. Start renaming any files that don’t already adhere to this convention, and make notes so you can use it consistently in the future.

4. Create a system of folders and subfolders.

Try to keep every file on your computer or in your cloud storage account in a strictly organized system of folders and subfolders. You should have a handful of “main” folders (like Documents, Artwork, or Templates), and several subfolders within those main folders based on clients or the specific types of files contained within. There may be some files that belong in multiple categories; for these, you’ll need to make an individual judgment call. Remember, you can always run a search if there’s something you can’t find.

5. Customize your background.

If you want your desktop to be even more intuitively organized, consider creating a custom background, divided into clear sections. For example, you might designate the left side of your screen for your “most used apps” and the middle for “frequently accessed files.”

6. Take the extra time to sort new content.

It’s tempting to dump new files onto your desktop haphazardly when you’re in a rush, but if you want to stay organized, you’ll need to commit to making the time to keep all new files and apps in the proper order (and with the proper naming conventions). It takes a few minutes at most, so it shouldn’t be much of a commitment.

7. Schedule a recurring cleaning session.

As long as your calendar isn’t already packed with reminders and to-dos, schedule a recurring session to clean your desktop to keep it from overflowing. Scheduling something once a week, or even once a month, can prevent your desktop from becoming cluttered again.

Once your desktop is sufficiently organized, you’ll find it much easier to find what you’re looking for, you’ll feel revitalized, and you might even find yourself in a better mood throughout the workday. It might take an investment of time to get organized, but the end results are worth it.

I try to keep the desktop of my Windows PC as clean as possible. What I mean by that is that I try to avoid adding shortcuts or files to it.

I know enough users on the other hand who save downloads and new files they create on the system to the desktop by default, and that is certainly convenient as the desktop is probably the most accessible location on the system when it comes to file locations.

The result is a messy desktop full of icons, files and shortcuts. While some users may not mind, it is difficult to keep it organized, especially if new files and shortcuts are added regularly on top of all the items that are already on it.

There are two main methods of dealing with the issue:

The first method moves all files and shortcuts that are currently on the desktop to another location, the second uses a system, usually in form of a program, that helps with organizing the items.

Fences is a program for the second method and while it does a good job, it is not free and needs to be purchased before it can be used after the 30 day trial period.

Nimi Places

Nimi Places is in many regards like Fences. The free program handles things a bit different and while it takes longer to organize everything properly, it is offering the same result in the end.

Note : The program requires the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0.

When you first start the program you can pick a template that it ships with or select to start without special folders that the program will populate automatically.

If you select a template you will notice a difference right away between Nimi Places and Fences. Nimi uses so called places (folders) or rules to populate folders on the desktop.

If you select a template, it will populate folders with data from My Documents and other locations. While you may find that useful, it is often better to start without selecting a template as you remain in full control then what is placed on the desktop and what is not.

You create a new folder on the desktop with a click on the system tray icon and a second click on the plus icon. There you can select to create a new place or a rule.

• Place – This displays all files and folders of a folder on the desktop.
• Rule – This creates a rule consisting of an action as well as destination and source folders. It allows you to move, duplicate or link all files of the source folder in the destination folder and display those activities on the desktop.

All folders that the program displays on the desktop highlight files in it. You see file and folder names, and thumbnail images as well if pictures are stored in a folder that is displayed on the desktop.

You can resize the folder, to display more or less contents, and scroll with the mouse wheel or mouse button.

A right-click on a file or folder opens a context menu with additional options including delete, print and open, but also an option to label files which highlights them on the desktop in different colors.

As mentioned earlier, it may take a bit longer to organize your desktop. One option for that is to create folders in a different location, for instance under My Documents, and move the files on the desktop into those folders. You could create a folder for program shortcuts, one for media, and another for documents.

Once that is done, create the folders using Nimi Places so that the files appear listed again on the desktop.

Nimi Places supports quite a few interesting features besides the main functionality that it offers. It can display media files directly as previews instead of file links for instance (including video thumbnails), supports resolution changes, and the generation of thumbnails for Internet shortcuts.

Closing Words

Nimi Places may not be as comfortable as Fences to set up but it gets the job done just like it and offers a couple of interesting features of its own such as options to create rules to move or link files automatically. Plus, it is free and ships with a bunch of extra features that you may find interesting such as using labels, fast note taking, or media previews.

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Almost everyone today has a high-powered camera in their pocket, so it’s no wonder photography in the U.S. is booming. According to InfoTrends, more than 1.44 trillion digital photos are expected to be taken in 2020 alone.

Today’s photo editing software is easier to use than ever, too, and there are free options just as good at expensive Photoshop. Tap or click here for a list of free alternatives to Photoshop that have all the features you want.

For most of us, taking and editing all those photos isn’t the issue. It’s sorting through the endless folders and galleries spread across our devices.

If you have a mess on your hands, you’ve come to the right place. Organizing your photos takes patience and time, but you’re only a few simple steps away from setting things up the right way. Here’s what you need to do to make your photo library easier to navigate.

1. Where are your pics?

You probably aren’t taking photos with your phone exclusively. The first step is to gather all your devices — your phone, tablet, camera, laptop, old thumb drives and hard drives, and any old phones that still power on.

Tech news that matters to you, daily

Privacy, security, the latest trends and the info you need to live your best digital life.

Then move on to digital storage. Raid your email and social media accounts for photos from friends and family you don’t want to lose track of. Look through cloud storage services you subscribe to like Google Drive, iCloud or Dropbox to make sure you’re not missing anything there, either.

Once you’ve found all the files you want to keep, move on to physical pictures. Scour your home for any place you might have old photos stashed away, such as photo albums, storage boxes, frames and scrapbooks. Don’t forget about those undeveloped rolls of film that have been hiding in the back of your drawer for years.

Now that you’ve collected your physical media together, it’s time to convert it into a digital format you can work with. Tap or click here for a step-by-step guide to preserving your old photos and videotapes.

All of this is a bit of work, but it’s also a fun walk down memory lane. We can guarantee you’ll find photos you totally forgot about.

2. Storage matters

Storage space on your phone is valuable. You don’t want to run out of real estate storing thousands of photos. Your best bet is to store them digitally using an online photo service.

Not all of them offer all the space you’ll need without charging hefty fees.

If you’re a serious photographer, check out Adobe’s Creative Cloud. Its Lightroom plan with 1TB of cloud storage gives you everything you need to edit, organize, store and share photos across desktop, mobile and the web.

Lightroom Classic allows you to organize photos based on file type (your original RAW images, JPEGs and PSDs), rating, metadata, camera or lens used and so much more for $9.99 per month.

If you prefer a free option, Google Photos is the way to go. This handy tool offers free, unlimited storage for photos up to 16 megapixels and videos up to 1080p resolution.

Google Photos lets you easily organize your collection into various subjects such as People, Places and Things. This makes finding photos easier and faster. It’s very simple to use, too. You can add images to your Google Photos account from your computer, tablet or smartphone and set up automatic syncing.

There’s a Google Photos app available for both Apple and Android gadgets that makes managing and sharing your collections easy, too. Tap or click here for 5 Google Photos tricks only the pros know.

3. Stop hoarding

Now that you have all your photos stored in one place, it’s time to clean things up. A few duplicate photos here and there isn’t a big deal, but having hundreds or even thousands of duplicates is a waste of time and storage space.

Hunting down duplicates manually is miserable. There are apps for iOS, Android, Windows and Mac that can do the hard work for you.

Apple and Android gadgets

Remo Duplicate Photos Remover is an app that scans your phone for duplicates and deletes them for you. You can also use it to quickly remove duplicates created by messaging and social media apps.

For Mac users

Photos Duplicate Cleaner easily locates and removes duplicate photos from your Mac. It’s available as a free download from the Mac App Store.

PDC creates groups of duplicate photos, so it’s easy to find the number of occurrences of similar images. All copies of a photo are deleted except the original. This can save you plenty of disk space on your Mac.

Once you’ve downloaded the program, follow the instructions found on the download page to use it.

Removing duplicates on Windows machines

For Windows users, Duplicate Cleaner helps you locate and delete similar photos, and it works for other file types, too. Search for and delete multiple copies of documents, pictures and music quickly and easily.

It displays potential duplicates side by side for easy comparison. You’ll find photos that have been edited or saved in a different format so you can delete the duplicates you don’t need.

Follow the instructions on the site to use the program once it’s installed.

4. Sort through the mess and make sense of it all

Now that your collection is free of duplicates and all in one place, your next step is to actually sort through the mess so you can easily find the photos you want. If you have hundreds or thousands of photos, how can you speed that process up?

A smart photo organization app is your secret weapon. We recommend digiKam, a free, open-source program with powerful tagging tools you can then use to sort through your photos quickly.

This free app lets you work directly with your photos’ metadata, or all the info stored within the photo file like when it was taken, the camera details and even location.

Not only can you edit your library’s metadata, but you can also edit batches of photos in one go. You can also search through metadata to find specific items you’re looking for.

You can add tags and geographic coordinates to your photos that make them simple to search for. You can also scan for specific faces in photos and label them, which will help you group photos by the people they feature.

Imagine a workstation with papers, folders, food, and electronics strewn all around, then having to scour through everything to find an unlabeled thumb drive containing an important sales report. This is practically the same hassle you and your staff suffer when you have cluttered desktops. Fortunately, there are a few simple things you can do to get organized again.

1. Arrange, sort, and prioritize

Before you delete everything from your desktop, think about what you really want to keep. This will vary from person to person, but most people use their desktop for storing files, folders, and apps that they want to access quickly.

Take the time to sort your files and folders. An easy way to do this is to right-click on an empty area of your desktop (where there are no icons), mouse over on View, and select Auto arrange icons. This will organize your icons into a grid format. Then, right-click on the empty space and hover your mouse over Sort by and select Date modified to arrange the icons by the date they were last opened, with the latest on top.

2. Create a folder for holding files and another for keeping app shortcuts

People often use their desktop to store downloaded files, photos, screenshots, and even email attachments, which can lead to a messy desktop.

However, you don’t need all these on your desktop. Instead, create a folder on your desktop that will serve as your dumping ground for all your nonessential files and folders. If you don’t intend to keep a file, icon, photo, etc. for long, put it in this folder. Revisit this folder every once in a while to delete the files you no longer need.

It also helps if you create a shortcut folder. When you install new programs on Windows, a shortcut icon is often automatically added to your desktop. But these desktop shortcuts should be for frequently used programs only. Create a separate folder for programs that aren’t used that often.

3. Clear out unnecessary files

Once you have your folders set up, it’s time to get rid of the clutter. If you haven’t used a file, folder, etc. in the past two months or so, get rid of it. Examine your desktop and uninstall programs you no longer use. You’ll also want to delete outdated files you no longer need and place the rest in relevant folders.

4. Use the taskbar or Start menu for apps

In Windows 10, you can pin apps to the Start menu and the taskbar. This is a great alternative to having program shortcuts on your desktop. To pin apps, open your apps list (i.e., click the Start button at the bottom-left corner of the screen) and right-click on the application you would like to pin. Select Pin to Start or Pin to taskbar for the option you want.

5. Choose a wallpaper you love looking at

An interesting way to minimize clutter is to pick a wallpaper that you enjoy looking at — whether it’s your favorite motivational quote, a photo of your family, or a picture of your dream house, car, or destination. Having an image you like serves as a reminder to keep icons to a minimum, so if you can’t see the image anymore, then you have too many icons, and it may be time to get rid of a few.

If you are looking to learn more about how to use Windows more effectively, contact us today.

Disinfecting. Filing. Decluttering. Scouring. It all sounds exhausting—because it is.

Think about this: The average American spends about six hours per week cleaning and organizing their homes—but the average worker spends nearly twice as much time responding to and organizing email .

That’s a whopping one-third of the work week.

Luckily, when it comes to your inbox, cleaning house can be a lot easier—and it doesn’t require any elbow grease or expensive housekeeping.

How to organize email without breaking a sweat

Cleaning up your inbox is as easy as getting down and dirty with some often-overlooked email tools that are right at your fingertips. Here are just a few simple tips and tricks for managing, organizing and cleaning up that email:

1. File away the clutter.

If you have a messy workspace, you file stuff away. Same goes for a messy inbox. That’s where folders come in handy. And while everybody knows about them, not everyone uses them to their fullest potential. Be warned, however, the initial process of creating folders is not fun, but once you’ve done it, life will get a lot easier. Everyone’s system will be different. Some will organize folders by client or project name. Others will do it by priority level. If you’re managing a household, you may have one folder for bills and another for kid-related events. Students may organize by class, project or due date. Once you figure out what works for you, be sure to put each email into its proper place as it arrives.

2. Take out the trash.

While email technology has gotten a lot better at recognizing junk email and filing it away as spam, some still gets through. That’s where a simple setting change can make a big difference. Most email providers let you choose some type of junk email options , like the ability to block individual senders, domains or even certain countries from getting into your inbox. One easy way to do it is to right click on the junk mail and block it, or mark it as spam. You can also set different levels of spam filtering based on personal preference: low, medium or high.

3. Save the strings for laundry day.

So, you deleted that huge string of emails and now you’re left with one long email to scroll through. Many email providers let you simplify those email strings by instead displaying them as conversations . It makes them a lot easier to read since they’re now condensed into one simplified view. Depending on your email provider, you can usually activate this feature under View or Settings.

4. Make a chore list.

Lists help keep everything top-of-mind so things get done in a timely manner. Same goes for cleaning up your inbox. Instead of saving emails, notes, calendar events and other items in your email—you can save them as files on your desktop. This keeps your to-do list front-and-center, while also keeping your inbox tidy and clutter-free. With Outlook, you can easily drag the item from Outlook right on to your desktop—with other types of email, you should be able to right click, select File then Save As to your desktop.

5. Dust off some tried-and-true tools.

There’s nothing worse than coming home from vacation to a dirty house. The same rings true for a messy, overflowing inbox. One obvious way to cut down on the clutter is by setting up an automated out-of-office reply or by posting your time-off on a shared calendar. That way, everyone knows not to bother emailing you (in theory). Of course, depending on your situation, you may end up with lots of email anyway. That’s where your email’s clean-up function can come in handy. This removes all the duplicated email replies, and gives you one, simple thread instead of several individual emails.

6. Hang the “keep out” sign.

Chances are, your house has certain sanctuaries that are off limits (like your home office, man/mom cave, bedroom, etc.). These areas offer a bit of a refuge from everyday life, so you strive to maintain them as stress-free zones. The same should go for your email. Getting constant pop-up email notifications to your desktop when you’re trying to concentrate or work on something else is a major distraction. Luckily, you can adjust your desktop alert settings by creating custom rules that only allow certain messages to come through. For example, you can choose to only allow certain contacts, domains, etc. to get through. While this feature won’t keep your inbox clutter free, it gives you extra time to “clean house” in other important areas without being disturbed.

7. Delegate duties.

You have an email ready to go but you don’t want to send it right away. Maybe you wrote it at midnight and don’t want it to arrive after hours. Perhaps you’re negotiating a sale and don’t want to appear overly eager. Most email providers give you the option to compose your message now and send it later using a delay delivery option . You choose when it goes out—and then it’s out of sight, out of mind. This helps you clean up your email to-do list and get on with your day or evening.

Now that you know a little more about the email tools available, don’t be afraid to try them out. Once you do, you’ll find that cleaning house is a lot easier than you might think… no mops, vacuums or feather dusters required.