Cleaning Up the Desktop


In addition to cleaning up files, you may also want to tidy up your desktop. Doing so won't necessarily improve the system performance, but it may help your performancethat is, it may help you find and access the icons on your desktop more efficiently. To help you determine which icons you really use and which ones can be deleted, you can use the Desktop Cleanup Wizard.

tip

For information on how to customize the desktop, see Chapter 13, "Customizing Windows XP."


Follow these steps:

1.

Right-click a blank part of the desktop. You'll see the Display Properties dialog box.

2.

Click the Desktop tab.

3.

Click the Customize Desktop button. You'll see the Desktop Items dialog box (see Figure 18.12).

Figure 18.12. You can access the Desktop Cleanup Wizard from this dialog box.


4.

Click Clean Desktop Now to start the wizard.

5.

Follow the steps in the Desktop Cleanup Wizard, clicking Next to move from step to step. The first window displays a welcome that explains the purpose of the wizard. When you click Next, you see a list of desktop icons. You can also see the date the icon was last used (see Figure 18.13). If you do not use an icon, Windows XP checks its box and recommends it for deletion. Check any icons you want to remove; uncheck any icons you want to leave as they are. Click Next.

Figure 18.13. You can decide whether the icon is moved or left on the desktop.


6.

Click the Finish button to finish the cleanup.

If you select to remove an icon, it is not deleted, but moved to the Unused Desktop Shortcuts folder. You can always add back the icon if needed.

The Absolute Minimum

In this chapter you learn how to improve the performance of your computer by using some of the built-in tools in Windows XP. You may not need to use these tools if you have a new computer, but keep them in mind as you use the computer more and more. If you notice a drop in performance, take a look at some of the changes you can make to regain that initial performance. In particular, keep these main points in mind:

  • You can view the disk properties of your hard disk to see how much total space you have, how much space is used, and how much space is free.

  • If your drive is becoming too full and you want to remove files, you can help Windows select some commonly unneeded files for removal. To do so, use the Disk Cleanup Wizard. You can access this wizard from the Disk Properties dialog box.

  • If there are files you want to keep (but don't need immediate access to), compress them.

  • When performance is really slow, you may need to defragment the drive, which involves rearranging the data stored on the drive to optimize the performance. You can start the defragmentation process from the Tools tab of the Disk Properties dialog box.

  • If your desktop becomes cluttered with too many icons, you can run the Desktop Cleanup Wizard to have Windows suggest icons to be removed.




    Absolute Beginner's Guide to Microsoft Windows XP
    Absolute Beginners Guide to Windows XP (2nd Edition)
    ISBN: 078973432X
    EAN: 2147483647
    Year: 2005
    Pages: 176
    Authors: Shelley OHara

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