Clean Up Your Computer!

This is a tutorial to help you organize your computer. I have Windows Vista as my operating system so this explains how to do it for Vista but the basic principles can be applied to most operating systems. This tutorial will clear your desktop of icons and files then re-tool the taskbar as your new place to launch applications. I will also give tips on how to tidy up your files and folders so you can find what you need faster. My hope is by the end you will have a less stressful place to do your computing.

Desktop

Clear your desktop. You don't need files and links to programmes on your desktop. It's just depressing to have a confusing bunch of icons and files all mixed together as the first thing you see when logging on to your computer.

Put the files in their place, like in the Documents folder. For your launch/shortcut icons (the ones used to open iTunes, your web browser, ect.) drag the important ones to the Quick Launch part on your taskbar (Quick Launch is your new desktop) and delete the rest.

Pick a nice desktop background picture. Now that your desktop is all clean put up a nice picture, it will help you feel at home. Pick a picture that is beautiful, relaxing, and inspiring. You will now want to keep your desktop clear (to show off your picture), plus when you get flustered you can just minimize your windows and chill for a minute.

This is my desktop

Taskbar

Now that you will be using the task bar more often we have to optimize it. In your taskbar's properties check off all options.

Quick Lauch

We need to focus in on the Quick Launch part of your taskbar. The Quick Launch is located on the left next to the Windows Start button. Follow these steps to make your taskbar your “computer hub”:

1. Unlock your taskbar
2. There are now dotted bars separating the different parts of your taskbar
3. Grab the right side of the Quick Launch boundary and move it to the right as far as it will go
4. Right click in the Quick Launch section and go to view, select large icons
5. Lock your taskbar

Now your taskbar is ready to replace what your desktop did, with less clutter. You'll have noticed that your windows are all smushed over to the left side. I don't mind this because I usually only have two or three windows open at a time. Furthermore I use alt-tab to pick what window I want to focus on.

Star Menu

Go to the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties for this. Same idea here get rid of what you don't use, organize what you do. Customize your start menu by clicking the customize button under the Start Menu tab. 

Go down the list and choose “don't display this item” or un-check anything you don't use often. If you choose to display recent programs (which I do) display less that 9 (I do 5). 

There is one more thing you can do here if you have decent eyesight. You can un-check “Use large icons” it makes you Star Menu smaller. That option gives more space if you don't have a large display.

Big Icons

Small Icons

Files and Folders

Best practise is to know where all your things are. Lets say you need a photo of your dog when it was just a puppy, how long would it take you to find it? Even looking for your resume should be a simple task, but you need to know where to look.

Cascading Folders

Make folders in folders so you can take a logical path through folders to your file. Your file path should look something like this:

    Pictures/2010/hike_to_falls/img_102.jpg

So, when I want a picture of a waterfall I would: click on Pictures folder, then 2010 folder (because I know I have been to a waterfall in 2010), click folder named hike_to_falls and finally find the picture I like.

You can use a program like Picasa 3 to help you tag your photos. Picasa also has a face recognition feature and search. If you spend some time tagging and labelling faces of people in Picasa you can do a quick search to find what you are looking for.

For your Documents folder you might want to separate by category like this:

    Documents/Ryerson/FND/FND_101/final_paper.rtf

Here instead of just throwing all text documents into one folder, I use cascading folder structure as a logical path to the information I want.

When Finished, Back Up

Now that you know where everything is, back it up. Use an external hard drive, an online solution or both.

Now you will have no worries when working on your computer, you'll have a nice place to go to when its time to think, work or play.