A Few Clicks — No Clutter

CONNECTIONS | by MOLLY MARTIN

JUST AS CLEARING OFF YOUR KITCHEN COUNTER or tidying up the top of your desk can create a little peace and satisfaction in a chaotic world, a cleaned-up computer desktop can make at least that part of life a little less cluttered.

Since many downloads and programs automatically save to the desktop, it’s quickly crammed with files and folders. But did you know they don’t have to be visible? It’s easy to hide those icons from view:

On Windows XP:
Right-click on your desktop background

1. Hover over “Arrange Icons By”
2. Select (left-click) on “Show Desktop Icons” to clear the check mark

On Windows Vista:

1. Right-click your desktop
2. Hover over “View”
3. Left-click “Show Desktop Icons” to clear the check mark

Your files and folders are still “on your desktop”, just not visible. You can of course make them visible again by repeating the above and clicking on the “Show Desktop Icons” to check the box. You can also find them on Windows via Windows Explorer (Start > All Programs > Accessories > Windows Explorer),

On a Mac:

1. Click on your desktop to switch to the “Finder”
2. Click Finder > Preferences > General
3. Uncheck the boxes under “Show items on Desktop”

Note:  This hides hard disks and other media. To get rid of user-added icons on your Mac desktop, you must unless rename them beginning with a dot or move them to another folder (or delete them).

If only cleaning my actual desk’s top were so easy.