This is a brief entry to share how I keep my computer’s desktop clean.
I found that I was constantly saving downloaded files to my desktop. Then, when it got messy, I would work out what they all were, and clean-up.
Windows has the answer, but it’s not well implemented. That is, use a temp folder. But, Windows temp folders are not quickly accessible like the Desktop.
So, I have a temp folder on the desktop. You could use a real folder, or shortcut to one of Windows temp folders.
Then, when downloading, if the file will be definitely be kept, it is filed appropriately. If I want to review it, listen to it once, uncompress it or use it to install an update, I save it to the temp folder.
At any time, you should be able to Select All the content of your temp folder and dump in your Recycle Bin.
So, now my desktop only has four icons: the temp folder, the Recycle Bin and shortcuts to the root of the two web servers running on my machine (Apache and IIS).
