A desktop customization question

Hi,

Say I want to put shortcuts to all the 'ware I use on the quick launch bar and chunk all the other icons on my desktop somewhere where they don't mar the serene beauty of my wallpaper image, (pant pant...), can I do it? How? Is there a way to make icons of programs that reside on the desktop invisible? Or can I move stuff like 'my network places' somewheres else?

Thanks,
Daniel.

 

You can right click the shortcut icons on your desktop and delete them.

 

If you have a lot of programs, they might not all fit very well on the taskbar. You might want to put up folders for groups of different types of programs (Office, Graphics, Internet, etc.). Then put the individual applications in those folders.

 

If you're running win98se, you can make your desktop icons invisible. (I don't know about the other versions of windows, as I only have 98)
Right click and go to properties, click on the effects tab, and check Hide icons when desktop viewed as webpage. Then click web tab, and put a check in View My active Desktop as a Web Page.
Of course, the you'll have to uncheck the hide icons again if you want to be able to see them.
JustMe2

 

RIGHT click your Desktop and click on "Arrange Icons by..." and UNCHECK "Show Desktop Icons". Every icon will disappear on your Desktop. To recall your icons, do the same thing only putting a check by "Show Desktop Icons". You can put as many icons as you want in the Quick Launch Bar and you can hide most of these by sliding the little bar to the left. (assuming your Taskbar is not locked) Then a >> will appear and when clicked on, your icons will rise in a menu like the START menu does.

 

Emtronics, I just followed your instructions and they do not work for me in W2K. In fact, I don't see any option for "show desktop icons" or similar in the context menu. Perhaps you were thinking Win 9.x

Blackhorse, here's an easy way to do it if you are running W2K. If you have Win XP, the steps should be similar.

Go to your Start menu and type "gpedit.msc" in the run command line w/out the quotes. This will open your Group Policy Editor for W2K.

Click on the "+" symbol by User Configuration and then select "Administrative Templates" folder. Under it you will see several subfolders; highlight (or select) "Desktop" subfolder. On the right panel, you will see "Hide all icons on Desktop". R-click on that and select Properties.

Select the middle radio button that says "enabled". Once you've applied that setting, close out the group editor.

If you are running Win XP, lemme know if that works as I have not tried it out on Win XP yet.

As for putting all your icons on the Quick Launch Bar, there is no problem with that. I do that myself as I prefer a clean looking desktop. Once you start to fill up the first row, you'll see two chevron arrows indicating there are more to follow.

 

Tushman, those are the instructions for WinXP. Another reason when posting in a multi-operating system forum, one should list their O/S.

 

There is a registry edit that may work.

Start Regedit
Go to HKey_Current_User \ Software\ Microsoft \Windows \ Current Version \ Policies \ Explorer
Right click on the right panel and add a New / DWORD
Name it NoDesktop
Give it a value of 1
Logoff or Reboot the computer
Now all icons are hidden on the desktop.

 

My bad Emtronics and yes I agree.

As for the registry hack, there's nothing wrong with it but not everyone feels comfortable making changes to the registry.

I always prefer the lease complicated / non-invasive method for such things and that's one reason why I wouldn't do it in this case. Especially if Windows OS provides the GUI for it, why hack the registry?? In my opinion that's only necessary for cases where Windows doesn't provide the option for it via user menu option(s) or trying to fix a system problem.

 

I guess such minor changes to the registry never bothered me that much. This simple change shouldn't be that scary. Many things can't be changed any other way and you also begin to learn your way around.

It also gives you a chance to look at how much is left over when you uninstall programs. Sometimes entire sections are left behind. It gives a good opportunity to remove them and compact the registry every so often. Most registry cleaners don't remove these types of problems.

 

Hola guys,

First: Thanks for all the help and good/interesting/useful/quaint-)) advice. Second: sorry for forgetting to indicate the type of OS I'm using.

Now let's get down to business.

I have a dual-boot system, Win98SE (which I really hate using) and Win2K SP II, which is the one I use almost exclusively (NTFS).

John: Yeah, I either delete shortcuts or drag them into a folder named HIE (Hardly If Ever ) after making a copy of them in the quick launch, but some are not shortcuts, but full programs or somesuch. I believe that deleting them would be unwise.

Bob: Can I just drag 'My Network Places' or the IE icon to a different folder without experiencing adverse side effects?

JustMe2: I'll try it on 98, but there no such checkbox in 2K.

Emoticons & Tushman: Right click on the Desktop, then goto Active Desktop, check 'Show Web Contents' and uncheck 'Show Desktop Icons'. It works just fine.

Now, just for the sake of experiment, I tried doing it through the Policy Editor. I've found all the stuff in you mentioned, changed it, closed the editor, and nothing happened. I tried refreshing the 'top, but to no avail. I guess logging off & then logging back on again would do the trick, so I'll try it after going offline.

Bob & Tushaman: well, I just LOVE fiddling with the registry, and it's always good to know as many ways to do the same thing as possible. I guess with MS there is no a straight solution to any problem.

And YES, I am gonna install Linux soon. Very soon. Very very very soon...



Thank you all,
Daniel.

 

post deleted for brevity.

 

Hi Tushman,

Sorry for confusing you. I have managed to clean my desktop. It's simply that I get over inquisitive at times . Always curious to find out what happens if...

Thanks again,
Daniel.

 

No problem Blackhorseman, i thought you were still struggling to clean it up. At any rate, yes being inquisitive is not bad. When i was gainfully employed i used to talk w/ the PC tech support guyz and ask all sort of questions.