CLEAN UP THE DESKTOP

Whereas Disk Cleanup actually frees up space on your drive, Desktop Cleanup doesn't delete anything. Instead it takes unused icons on your desktop and moves them to a folder, reducing the clutter on your desktop.

How did those unused icons get on the desktop in the first place? Well, many applications that you install place icons for themselves there automatically, and most computers come with unnecessary icons preinstalled on the desktop as part of the computer company's marketing agreements with other companies. (Don't you just hate that?) Also at some point, you may've accidentally dragged icons from a file management window to the desktop.

Every 60 days, a reminder appears in your system tray prompting you to run Desktop Cleanup. If you see such a reminder, you can click it to run the program. Otherwise, you can run it manually:

  1. Right-click the desktop and select Properties.
  2. On the Desktop tab, click Customize Desktop. The Desktop Items dialog box appears.
  3. On the General tab, click Clean Desktop Now. The Desktop Cleanup Wizard starts.
  4. Click Next to continue, and then on the Shortcuts screen, mark or clear the checkboxes for each desktop shortcut. Next to each shortcut is the date on which it was last used; items that have never been used are marked by default, as shown in Figure 5-4.
Figure 5-4: Use the Desktop Cleanup Wizard to tidy up the desktop.
Figure 5-4: Use the Desktop Cleanup Wizard to tidy up the desktop.
  1. Click Next, and then Finish. You're done.

When you finish, a new folder icon appears on the desktop called Unused Desktop Shortcuts. It contains the removed icons. You can open this folder at any time and drag one of the icons back to the desktop.