Clean Up the Desktop

After Windows installation, you'll naturally start installing the programs you need to get your work done. Unfortunately, many of these installation routines also leave a variety of desktop icons in their wake if you're not vigilant with the check boxes. If you're not careful, after a while you can end up with a desktop that's as visually busy as a Pollock painting.

XP automatically combats clutter with a procedure called the Desktop Cleanup Wizard. This procedure is initiated every 60 days by default with a Taskbar balloon that pops up at startup time. The wizard is relatively simple; it displays a list of desktop icons that have not been used for at least 60 days and offers to get rid of this computing flotsam.

You can control how and whether the Desktop Cleanup Wizard runs. To do so:

1.	Right-click an empty area of the desktop and choose Properties, opening the "Display" Control Panel applet.
2.	Choose the Desktop tab and then click Customize Desktop.
3.	As shown in Figure 3-10, you can disable the Desktop Cleanup Wizard by clearing the "Run Desktop Cleanup Wizard every 60 days" check box. Figure 3-10. Disabling the Desktop Cleanup Wizard.

If you want to run the Desktop Cleanup manually, click the Clean Desktop Now button and follow the directions in the Desktop Cleanup Wizard. Note that while cleaning the desktop, the Desktop Cleanup Wizard actually adds a desktop iconunused icons aren't deleted; they're moved to a folder called Unused Desktop Icons.