Organizing Your Desktop?

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LazyD

LazyD

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Dec 7, 2006
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Anyone got any tips for organizing your desktop?

I run Windows XP - I constantly find myself searching for applications and or files and generally dealing with the mayhem of having my desktop being packed with icons/files.

Besides general due diligence in moving/deleting things, what applications or techniques have helped you keep your desktop clutter free?

I am a web developer, so I tend to accumulate shit really quick. For any other web designers out there, what kind of file/folder setup do you use for your sites and re-useable assets such as icons, javascript, etc?
 


LazyD said:
Anyone got any tips for organizing your desktop?

I run Windows XP - I constantly find myself searching for applications and or files and generally dealing with the mayhem of having my desktop being packed with icons/files.

Besides general due diligence in moving/deleting things, what applications or techniques have helped you keep your desktop clutter free?

I am a web developer, so I tend to accumulate shit really quick. For any other web designers out there, what kind of file/folder setup do you use for your sites and re-useable assets such as icons, javascript, etc?
Click to expand...

Objectdock. I don't use it anymore on Windows 7, but it was a must with XP.

A couple of shots... it can really help you clean up a desktop:



 
Staying organized and reducing clutter on my desktop has always been a pretty big thing for me and some of the things I can recommend are:

- Get a 'dock' program of some kind. There's plenty of these available and a simple Google search should bring up at least a handful. One that I can recommend is ObjectDock - works great and I found it was pretty low resource, too.

- Work at organizing your files. If you want to have quick access to files, something I would recommend is categorizing everything you have into separate folders. For example, instead of having all kinds of design files scattered over your desktop make a folder titled 'Clients' and then make individual folders for each client within that folder. Next time when you need something, you'll know where to look.

- Archive old files to other sources. Moving files off your main hard drive and/or computer could help, too. Maybe when you finish work for a client you can zip up their contents, email them, and move the files to an external hard drive or online file storage service. Granted, it's not bad to keep old work but it could just be adding to your disorganization.

Pretty basic stuff I guess, but even doing the smallest things like effectively naming folders/directories and intelligently placing your files can make a huge difference. Personally, I would much rather spend 10 seconds looking for a specific file than 10 minutes.
 
Everything goes in my start menu sorted by type of program (Audio Programs / Video Programs / System Utils / etc ).

After that, right click your desktop & under arrange - "Hide Desktop Icons"
 
Have seperate folders for your clients, PPC, etc...

Each time you start new site or new project, create new folder within clients/projects. Have one folder on your desktop called Shits or something like that for unnecessary files/zips you found online.

At least that's how my Ubuntu goes...:)
 
Thanks for the tips on file system setup.. My current shit looks like...

C:/Workspace
C:/Workspace/Projects, C:/Workspace/Assets

C:/Workspace/Projects/(Client or Sitename)/assets, C:/Workspace/Projects/(Client or Sitename)/site <-- VHost DocumentRoot

C:/Workspace/Assets/Graphics, C:/Workspace/Assets/Javascript, C:/Workspace/Assets/PHP, C:/Workspace/Assets/Reference <--- Manuals

I guess its a matter of diligence to make sure everything gets moved or created and kept up to date.
 
If you've got a wide screen monitor move your task bar to the side and set you icons to small. Your tasks will stack up nicely instead of being in a long horizontal bar.

Add "My Computer" to the task bar so you have quick access to your drives, my documents, etc.

I have 6 drives in my main rig, the main drive for OS and programs, a drive that is exclusively a scratch disk for Adobe, a drive for work, a drive for resources, a backup drive for work and a backup drive for resources.

Then it just comes down to how you want to organize your folders. I have an "Internal" folder on Work for my own stuff, and an "External" folder for client's stuff for example. You just need to figure out the most efficient way that suits you.

I have a few bits and pieces on my desktop usually, but I try to make a point of cleaning it up every week or two.
 
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