Jan. 25, 2006

Hi, All!

This Week: Cleaning Up Your Desktop

I wonder who in Microsoft thought this would be a good idea. In Windows XP, a program named "Desktop Cleanup" runs every sixty days. It examines the icons on your desktop, if the program finds an icon not used in the last sixty days it wants to remove it from the desktop for you. The program does ask if (1) you want to run it and (2) gives you the option to not remove the icons that it finds, letting you click a check-box. I had a client call me about this; they clicked "ok' to both running the program and to removing the 'unused" icons from the desktop. This choice removed most of their icons, even ones that they use often but had not used in the last sixty days.

Fortunately, the programmer who wrote this program did it correctly; putting removed icons in a new folder on the desktop named "Unused Desktop Shortcuts." To restore the icons back to the desktop, just Left-click the icon(s), hold the button down, and drag them back to the desktop.

If you do not want XP to help you out when no help is needed, you can turn off the sixty-day run schedule by placing your cursor on your desktop but not on any icon. Right-click and a menu will pop up. Click on "Properties.' and a "Display Properties" window will open; Left-click on the "Desktop" tab at the top of the window. At the bottom of the new window there is a "Customize Desktop" button. Left-click on it and a new window will pop up. Three-fourths of the way down in the window is a section named 'desktop cleanup;" Here is a check-box next to "Run Desktop Cleanup Wizard every 60 days." Uncheck this box, and you will not be bothered with this Wizard again.

'Til next week,
(ComputerFAQ#276)

Robert

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