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Desktop Wallpaper Boosts Productivity
January 23rd, 2008 · by David Bradley >> 22 Comments
How organized is your computer desktop? Not very? Same here! I install and test programs almost on a daily basis and they litter my desktop with new icons. I also save some files to my desktop for really quick access. By the end of the week, it usually messier than the offline desk in my home office.
Having an untidy desktop doesn’t make for great productivity, hunting and pecking for that crucial file or program usually takes several seconds. Repeat that operation many times over the course of a week and you’re starting into eat into your coffee break just finding stuff that should be obvious.
So, what’s the answer? Well, redecorating is the way to go.
First step. Minimize all open windows (hold down the Window-key and hit the M). Delete icons for any programs you don’t use at all and move the rarely used to a separate folder. Windows can automate this process for you.
Second, this is the slightly tricky bit. Open your favorite graphics editor and create a file to fit the dimensions of you monitor at the resolution. In my case it is 1440×900 pixels, but you may have a 1280×800, 1024×768, or even 800×600 desktop. At this point you may want to overlay a nice plain scenic shot but I choose to have a near-black background. Save the file as a Windows BMP, call it new-desktop.bmp or something similar.
Next, think about what categories your programs and files might slot into: System, Tools, Entertainment, Internet, Docs and Files etc. And count how many you have.
Now, draw a grid with a 1-2 pixel width line on to your BMP so that there are as many boxes as there were categories.
Choose a nice clear font, at a suitable size (14pt say) and add labels at the top left of each box on your grid corresponding to each category you are going to use. Once you’re happy with the results save the BMP.
Now right click on your Desktop and choose Properties from the drop-down menu, click the Desktop tab and then browse for the BMP file you have just created and select it as the new wallpaper. Select Stretch, although it should fit perfectly anyway if you got the size right. Click okay. Your grid with categories should magically appear as your redecorated desktop.
At this stage, all your many icons will still be arranged as they were before. So, right click a blank space on the desktop again, choose “Arrange icons by” and make sure Autoarrange is unchecked and that Align to Grid is checked.
It’s very easy to inadvertently trigger an autoarrange of desktop icons in Windows XP so you need to find some way of saving the new layout you will make in the final step. Download this file. Unzip it and copy the file layout.dll to the /system32/ folder in your Windows folder. Then double click the file layout.reg and when asked if you are sure you want to add the information to the registry click OK. Restart your computer.
Now, you can start re-arranging your icons according to their categories. Drag the My computer, Recycle Bin icons etc into the area bounded by the System box, Word, Notepad, Winzip etc into Tools, Firefox, Thunderbird icons into Internet, last.fm, iTunes, Picasa etc into Entertainment, and any files and docs into the files and docs box. Continue until you have everything just as it should be. Finally, right-click the Recycle Bin and click the new menu item Save Desktop Icon Layout.
Other people have done similar things with their desktops, if you’d prefer something more aesthetic you might want to check out this guy who has some readymade BMP files for download with colored regions and standard Windows backgrounds. In fact, now that I’ve found that site, I’ve redone my desktop (took a couple of minutes).
UPDATE: I’ve created a new organizer wallpaper inspired by my new tumblr theme. Download the raw desktop jpeg file here, resize to fit your screen, tidy up the rough edges and edit in your own categories and convert to BMP to load as wallpaper. (I have this in Photoshop format if anyone would like to play around with colors and layout more precisely).
22 responses so far ↓
Ben // Jan 23, 2008 at 9:25 pm
That’s a good concept. But I prefer to just make separate folders on my desk top. Then I simply drag and drop the icons in to their respective categorized folder.
Keeps my desktop nice and clean.
Ben’s last blog post..Improve your site with Robot Replay
Hsien Lei // Jan 24, 2008 at 2:09 pm
David, You are truly the master of wasting time (even it if IS disguised as a productivity booster).
Hsien Lei’s last blog post..Eye on DNA Headlines for 24 January 2008
David Bradley // Jan 24, 2008 at 2:15 pm
Hsien, could you tell I had a pressing work deadline…am I that transparent?
db
Wayne Liew // Jan 25, 2008 at 3:42 am
I am already using it on my desktop and everything is great.
From now on, I can find my stuff easier and will not have the fuss of choosing a nice desktop background.
Wayne Liew’s last blog post..Action Plan For A Successful Blogging Style Change
David Bradley // Jan 25, 2008 at 8:12 am
Glad you found the tip useful Wayne, I’ve been keeping count, it’s saved me 37.24 seconds today already
db
Andrew // Jan 25, 2008 at 1:57 pm
I came at the problem from a different direction. First I organized my desktop the way I liked it — apps here, “places” there, current docs there, etc.
I took a screenshot of it.
I pasted the screenshot of the desktop onto a blank Photoshop image, but set the opacity low.
This way I could make the colored boxes fit nicely with my desktop, and take into account the grid settings (I like using “Align to Grid” on my desktop.)
End result is almost the same, but rather than create the boxes and adjust my desktop to fit them, I created the boxes to fit my style of working.
David Bradley // Jan 25, 2008 at 3:04 pm
Andrew, that’s a great way of looking at it! As you can see from the first screenshot above, my desktop was a mess, icons were just randomly arranged, by the time I got to the final screenshot at the foot of the post, which is what I’m currently using things looked a whole lot better, and it really is saving time. I’m thinking about doing a mock iPhone type layout bmp as a freebie for this site.
Aseem Kishore // Jan 27, 2008 at 7:36 am
This is a pretty neat idea. People who don’t like make icons on their desktop may not be very impressed, but it is cool nonetheless.
Thanks.
David Bradley // Jan 27, 2008 at 9:34 am
Thanks for the thought Aseem. I guess there are a few people who keep all their applications off the desktop, but most average users will probably accumulate at least a dozen or more by default when they install software. This tidy up approach just means they have a way to control the accumulation.
db
Goran Web Design // Jun 5, 2008 at 8:57 pm
In theory it looks great, but to keep them all aligned is really difficult. Also it will be difficult to have my cool design “desktop”
David Bradley // Jun 6, 2008 at 7:52 am
Goran, it’s not that hard to keep the icons aligned. I find that sometimes a few go astray, but you can always hook them back into line like wayward sheep, excepting using a mouse rather than a border collie
Louise // Jun 16, 2008 at 5:52 pm
My husband does all of the IT work for our company and he kills me if he sees my desktop loaded down with programs. He says it can slow down performance, but I really think he wants me to stop trying out new programs. We compromised by setting up a desktop and a laptop that I view on dual screens- the laptop is supposed to be clean of “new” programs but sometimes I cheat.
Louises last blog post..Grilling Lobster Step 3: Lobster Tails on the Grill
David Bradley // Jun 16, 2008 at 6:33 pm
I know where you’re coming from Louise, even though I use this organisational tip, I still end up with clutter everywhere. But, your husband’s point about having too many programs isn’t about the desktop, it’s about what you have running in memory while you’re working with another program. If you’ve got lots of tray applets running while trying to edit an image in Photoshop or Movie Editor you could end up running out of resources.
Grace // Nov 18, 2008 at 6:51 pm
I think everyone has their own prefferences for organizing the desktop… thanks for the ideas though, but I need something a bit more cheerful to look at everyday.
David Bradley // Nov 18, 2008 at 8:06 pm
Grace…everyone does indeed have their own preferences, this approach is very effective though for keeping everything organised and it would not be beyond anyone with even basic graphics editing skills to overlay a more cheerful picture, or even create backgrounds for each of my sectors…without losing the benefits. But, that said, how long do you spend staring at your desktop except when you’re trying to locate a specific icon? I rarely see my wallpaper as I have applications running that fill the screen.
Aaron // May 19, 2009 at 4:57 pm
You should check out Stardock Fences. It’s a free program that organizes your desktop and allows you to customize, categorize your icons in groups etc.
David Bradley // May 19, 2009 at 5:13 pm
It costs money though, and mine’s a free solution that doesn’t use up system resources either…
Aaron // May 19, 2009 at 5:17 pm
It’s free for personal use, I use it everyday great program.
http://www.stardock.com/products/fences/
David Bradley // May 19, 2009 at 7:10 pm
When I tried Fences earlier in the year, the installation told me it would expire in August, so I gave it a quick try and uninstalled.
David Bradley // Aug 12, 2009 at 1:53 pm
I am now using Fences
http://www.stardock.com/products/fences/
which adds controls and much more to organising my desktop but allows me to create a similar layout to the one I’d grown to love based on the wallpaper approach described above.
Hank // Mar 10, 2010 at 11:54 am
I pasted the screenshot of the desktop onto a blank Photoshop image, but set the opacity low.
This way I could make the colored boxes fit nicely with my desktop, and take into account the grid settings (I like using “Align to Grid” on my desktop.)
David Bradley // Mar 10, 2010 at 2:22 pm
To be honest, I’m now using Fences, which automates all of this icon organization and grouping lark much more effectively albeit with a little RAM/CPU overhead.