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Do you have icons or files on your desktop?

Do you keep icons/files on your desktop?

  • No, clean as a whistle

    Votes: 61 57.5%

  • Yes, packed to the brim with icons/files.

    Votes: 9 8.5%

  • Yes a few, but only until I figure out a place to put them.

    Votes: 36 34.0%
  • Total voters
    106
quietstormSD

quietstormSD

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Mar 2, 2010
1,362
850
San Diego, CA
I was wondering how many people have icons and/or files on their desktop. Personally with the dock, I do not find a need for icons on my desktop, and files on the desktop is just yuck in my opinion. I feel like the only thing that would be on my desktop are open application windows that I am running

As for my windows machine at work. It's cluttered with icons and files. For some reason as hard as I try, I still manage to have a bunch of icons and files on there. Windows 7 has helped a bit, but every time I clean out my desktop on my windows machine, I somehow always end up with a bunch if icons and files on my desktop.
 
I have a few on my desktop, but I generally keep it fairly clean :)

I wish I could say the same for my desk though :p
 
HD icon, shortcut to launch a VM, shared directory for a VM, couple of text documents.

tend to have a lot more on windows boxes (primarily XP, I rarely find myself in front of a Win7 box)

a) cos the 'right click and create new...' option in windows always encourages me to do it

whereas in OSX all I can create by that method is a new folder

b) cos direct desktop shortcuts in Windows XP are preferable to multi-click navigating the windows classic start menu

Whereas on OSX, 2 clicks (one to apps folder then one on the app) is fast enough not to have to bother. That and sticking stuff in the dock is cleaner for commonly used stuff I want to access with one click.

One other reason for my clean(ish) desktop is .dmg files - easier to keep an eye on/find mounted ones if other desktop clutter is kept to a minimum.
 
One Lonely File

My lottery ticket in Word format.....Just in case I forget to renew it...:D Otherwise my screen is empty. I used to clutter my Windows laptop with icon shortcuts, but this 27" really shows off my wallpapers, and there is plenty of room on the dock for my most used stuff:)
 
Yes. A link to signing on to my firm site (citrix), all drives, and a folder with links to all graphics programs. The dock is pretty sparse and I also have a Dock-it dock up top with links to my Sugarsync docs, system prefences. I also have an icon on desktop for a printer-scanner in order to be able to get to the scan functions quickly.
 
I'll put the prompt for a current assignment or reminder on my desktop. Aside from that, there may be a few icons there that haven't been put into folders yet, but sometimes I just place those in the Downloads folder.

I like a clean desktop, but honestly, I almost never have a window closed to look at my deskop most of the time anyway.
 
I have one shortcut to my internet pics folder to simply drag and drop pics from Chrome when browsing certain sites.
 
Only screenshots that I have taken that I haven't messed with yet.

I use keyboard commands for everything (Alfred for opening/finding) so I rarely ever actually "click"; the dock is hidden as well.
 
Ehh, one day I'll clean up my desktop, all the dumb "Untitled XX" folders, and all the stuff in those folders. I mean I've only had a folder on the desktop called Temp Storage for 3 years with all the same funny pictures inside of it.
 
tahoeroscoe said:
no files or folders but i do have my local HDD's and nas volumes.
Click to expand...

Same here. Nothing but mounted volumes.

I use it every once in a while for temporary files, but they don't stay there for more than a minute or two before getting moved to where they belong or deleted.
 
I removed everything from the desktop fairly recently, including the HDD. Wow, what a difference. It's the only way to go. Now the only thing that shows up on the desktop is a mounted drive HD/CD/DVD.
 
I don't keep apps on the desktop. I prefer the dock for my main ones and then Spotlight to use the rest.

I used "Desktop" as a temporary store. So temporary in fact that it's full to overflowing with stuff I can't even remember what it is. I could probably safely delete 90% of the stuff there.

It's like the draw at home where you keep rubber bands and paperclips and bits of string, old buttons and batteries, and spectacles that are three eye tests out of date. You want to clear it out but think some of it might still be useful.
 
iHateMacs said:
It's like the draw at home where you keep rubber bands and paperclips and bits of string, old buttons and batteries, and spectacles that are three eye tests out of date. You want to clear it out but think some of it might still be useful.
Click to expand...

It's funny how, if you compare OS X to actual thought process, it's very easy to agree with what you are saying.

In another topic about whether Windows being programs (WIndows 7) or Windows being like, entities of the program (OS X), I brought up that point. That OS X operates more along a human's line of thought.

When you close your math book, you don't completely stop thinking about math; when you close a safari window (with the x), you aren't "Completely" closing out Safari, even if it's the last window open (your only math textbook)

With that said, the desktop does feel like the desk or drawer with a lot of random junk that just doesn't get thrown away. I would be willing to BET MY CAR that the people who put important stuff on the desktop that they ALSO put important stuff in random folders, and they would never think of throwing that entire folder/drawer away if given the chance.

On the contrary, people like me and you who, just throw random screenshots, saved pics, and whatnot on there, have a drawer or space somewhere that we could care less about, but wouldn't just readily "throw it away" because it's simply work that we can put off.

Thoughts?
 
All I have is my internal drive, two external drives including one that acts as a Time Machine backup, and my USB flash drive. I can't stand clutter on the desktop and even those four items sometimes annoy me. LOL.
 
No, nothing on my desktop if I can. Occasionally store stuff very temporarily.

For those who don't know yet, storing files on the desktop is a performance drain on the computer, and can also lead to corruption of system files. It's highly recommend to keep the desktop fairly clean, or at least use aliases instead of storing actual files there.

jW
 
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