Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

pumpudum

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 11, 2013
1
0
I'm tired of tracking what's on my desktop myself. Solutions like Clean app, which simply moves all the stuff somewhere everyday are not good enough since they also hide the stuff I need. I want it to show me what I need and to hide what I don't need automatically. Would be great if I could, say, make a rule to show 5 last opened files if they have certain extensions. So basically, perfect solution for me would be to make desktop a smart folder. Is there any way to do that?
 
No. The Desktop is quite a special case in OS X. Also, Smart Folders aren't really folders, they are just Spotlight searches.

You can of course make Smart Folders to give you the results you are looking for; also "All My Files" may be useful in this regard, though I don't use that myself: the only real question is: where do you actually put your files?

It's worth pointing out that putting loads of files in the Desktop is not a good idea, because each one is treated by WindowServer as a window, and lots of files can make WindowServer ratchet up its CPU and memory usage.

A wise man once told me to get into the habit of asking the question "Where is the ONE place that this file should be?" whenever you save a new file, and also when you need to find it. If you take advantage of well-organized folder hierarchies, you'll seldom have to search for a file on my computer. Because you'll always know where it is. :D
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.