Save me from poor IT decisions
December 5, 2022 6:51 AM Subscribe
I work for a government organization. Windows 10. Our IT people seem to think constantly adding icons to the desktop is helpful. I hate it. I am seeking some method of hiding SOME (but not ALL) desktop icons. Help?
I do find some desktop icons useful, but in general I hate a cluttered desktop. Attempting to search for solutions (like "force some icons offscreen") results in lots of help to recover hidden icons, which is the opposite of what I want. Because the icons are part of the admin profile I can neither delete them, move them, or set them to hidden. I know that I can hide ALL desktop icons, but I tend to use the desktop as my to-do list: I dislike a cluttered desktop enough that leaving a file there irritates me, serving as a reminder so I don't forget that it needs action.
Is there some trick I can use to at least move selected icons to a place I can't see them?
Local IT can't help. Profile is set by national. Ugh.
I do find some desktop icons useful, but in general I hate a cluttered desktop. Attempting to search for solutions (like "force some icons offscreen") results in lots of help to recover hidden icons, which is the opposite of what I want. Because the icons are part of the admin profile I can neither delete them, move them, or set them to hidden. I know that I can hide ALL desktop icons, but I tend to use the desktop as my to-do list: I dislike a cluttered desktop enough that leaving a file there irritates me, serving as a reminder so I don't forget that it needs action.
Is there some trick I can use to at least move selected icons to a place I can't see them?
Local IT can't help. Profile is set by national. Ugh.
Put your own icons in a folder.
Win10 doesn't like you to drag icons offscreen. You might be able to put the remaining icons in a folder; easy to grab them all, drag & drop. You might have to do this daily.
One alternative would be to create a simple html file with links you want, and an image as a background, and keep that open in a browser.
posted by theora55 at 7:13 AM on December 5, 2022
Win10 doesn't like you to drag icons offscreen. You might be able to put the remaining icons in a folder; easy to grab them all, drag & drop. You might have to do this daily.
One alternative would be to create a simple html file with links you want, and an image as a background, and keep that open in a browser.
posted by theora55 at 7:13 AM on December 5, 2022
Add a second monitor as an extension of your desktop and move the icons there, but don’t actually use the monitor/cover it up/turn the brightness all the way down?
posted by danceswithlight at 7:50 AM on December 5, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by danceswithlight at 7:50 AM on December 5, 2022 [1 favorite]
For no permission:
posted by zenon at 8:13 AM on December 5, 2022 [4 favorites]
- go to desktop (win D), right click and select View
- uncheck both Auto arrange… and Align icons to…
- in a corner stack all the unwanted icons up on top of each other
- the last icon is still visible so create a folder, right click, Properties, Customize, Change Icon, and choose an icon for it- I like using the black clock on black background. Drag that last onto the pile. Plus if you accidentally click on the pile you’ll generally go to this folder and you get some control over its look.
posted by zenon at 8:13 AM on December 5, 2022 [4 favorites]
This might work for your use case...
Hide all desktop items (for future readers' reference right click on the desktop >>> view >>> untick "Show desktop icons")
Right click the taskbar and select Toolbars >>> Desktop
This will put a section labelled "Desktop >>" to the right of the task bar, before the system tray. Click the two small arrows and you'll get a pop-up with the full contents of your desktop, including expandable-on-hover folders. You can drag to re-order most items in here, though not things like recycle bin, onedrive etc. which float to the top.
Even better - if you have permissions for Toolbars >>> New toolbar you can point this to a single folder e.g. TODOs that you create on the desktop, or elsewhere. If you need to have anything from the hidden desktop showing in here, create shortcuts to them by browsing this folder in Windows Explorer, then right click >>> new >>> shortcut >>> browse.
posted by protorp at 12:21 PM on December 5, 2022 [1 favorite]
Hide all desktop items (for future readers' reference right click on the desktop >>> view >>> untick "Show desktop icons")
Right click the taskbar and select Toolbars >>> Desktop
This will put a section labelled "Desktop >>" to the right of the task bar, before the system tray. Click the two small arrows and you'll get a pop-up with the full contents of your desktop, including expandable-on-hover folders. You can drag to re-order most items in here, though not things like recycle bin, onedrive etc. which float to the top.
Even better - if you have permissions for Toolbars >>> New toolbar you can point this to a single folder e.g. TODOs that you create on the desktop, or elsewhere. If you need to have anything from the hidden desktop showing in here, create shortcuts to them by browsing this folder in Windows Explorer, then right click >>> new >>> shortcut >>> browse.
posted by protorp at 12:21 PM on December 5, 2022 [1 favorite]
Help us understand why this is bothering you. When do you ever look at your desktop when using a Windows computer?
posted by turkeyphant at 5:56 PM on December 6, 2022
posted by turkeyphant at 5:56 PM on December 6, 2022
turkeyphant: I used to work help desk and tried not to interfere with how someone set up their work flow, especially if they were using a totally unexpected or different way to visualize or organize their digital work. Just updating software and OS can be very antagonizing for users who are forced to adapt.
The one exception is the user who actively stored email in their trash because they had hit the hard limit of ten thousand messages in a single folder. I got their email back and spent a couple of extra visits setting up a folder system (literally just sent and inbox by year) that they could trust and rely on. That folder limit really really stressed them out.
posted by zenon at 8:46 AM on December 7, 2022
The one exception is the user who actively stored email in their trash because they had hit the hard limit of ten thousand messages in a single folder. I got their email back and spent a couple of extra visits setting up a folder system (literally just sent and inbox by year) that they could trust and rely on. That folder limit really really stressed them out.
posted by zenon at 8:46 AM on December 7, 2022
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edit: sorry, just reread the part where you don't have permission. darnit.
posted by Dashy at 7:02 AM on December 5, 2022