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Mine overflow off my two monitors even on the smallest size, so this wouldn’t change much for me. :-)

I’ve been using the largest icons possible for about a year now and most days I’ve kept my desktop to only a single icon (Recycle Bin… Windows…). Attaining Desktop Icon Zero is almost as refreshing as Inbox Zero.

I agree completely. I keep mine at 128 pixels and I love it. This way the important ones are super fast to click. The less important ones seem more in the way, so I deal with them sooner. Plus they look great!

Go the whole hog: Camoflage – hide your icons completely. No clutter. I love it.

This might be the solution to the wrong problem. The problem is that a lot of us use the Desktop as a dumping ground for things that are sort of important and we don’t want to forget about. Just like the person who has an inbox with thousands of emails, you just can’t put the message in a folder or delete it because then it loses its urgency.

For shortcuts to programs, either Quicksilver (Mac) or Start Menu search (Vista) are much faster than showing the desktop for me.

Or, use your desktop like an actual desktop and clean up after your done working.

Or after you’re done working, either way.

I agree with Mike Piontek.

@ceejayoz The point of making them bigger is that you will deal with them faster and get organized. If you can fill up 2 monitors with small icons that’s a problem.

@stephen camoflage seems like all it does help you pretend you’re getting done with everything. It’s still all there though.

I really enjoy using fences (http://www.stardock.com/products/fences/). Just a double click on the desktop and your desktop is clutter free. It is also nice to group icons together for more organization.

On the mac, I lock my desktop so nothing can write to it. The only app this has caused a problem with is the built-in screen capture, but a quick terminal command started it saving to “Pictures\Screen Captures” (which went right on the Finder sidebar) and all was well. Try it sometime!

Analogous to getting a small desk that fits your computer and very little else, I suppose. Would encourage you to put things back in their Right Place.

Buy a 2nd monitor just for icons. Then a 3rd, a 4th…

Thanks for the tip,

As soon as i did just that, a big bunch of my icons seemed not to have their place there :)

Simple but efficient.

PS : On vista and windows 7 simply click somewhere on the desktop background to give it focus, and then hold the control key(ctrl) and turn your mouse scrollwheel to resize at your convenience.

I use BumpTop (www.bumptop.com). Very cool. Easy and fun way to organize your desktop. Its got things like 3D piles so you can toss files/icons on to them like you would on a real desktop.

Better yet: 1. Put only the vital icons in your quick launch bar 2. Uninstall all other programs than the 100% necessary ones 3. Hide All Icons from desktop. Properties- >Arrage Icons by -> unselect Show Desktop Icons

This will save at least 5 hours each month. Having all icons is like a license to click them and to waste time.

@adi absolutely. I just hide all icons from the desktop as well.

Don’t see any reason to have desktop icons/files.

Downloaded files go to the “Downloads” stack. Documents—to the… you know, “Documents”. Apps in the Dock.

Desktop is clean and uncluttered.

Fuck desktop icons, and the Dock. I use the desktop for temporary files, just like a normal desk.

Keyboard shortcuts.

@Sara glad you find BumpTop useful!

Totally agree with this, and its super easy to do in BumpTop (Ctrl+scroll wheel up) to increase the size.

I did this 1 week ago. And it works wonder. It’s so much easier to file big stuff to the bin or archive than all those tiny noisy bits.