Icon Shortcuts

I've been doing a great deal of desktop cleaning the last few weeks, moving icons and straightening out folders, so I thought we'd talk about those icons today.

An Icon is a shortcut - a link to any item on your computer, such as a program, file, folder, disk drive, Web page, etc. You can put these shortcuts just about anywhere you want. To create a shortcut, Rick-click on the item you wish to create a shortcut for and drag it to the location for the shortcut. Typically, a shortcut is signified by an arrow in the lower left hand corner. You are always safe deleting shortcuts (since the original is protected) but think twice before removing originals.

One of the most common locations for shortcuts is our Desktop. These Icons give us fast access to our files. However, If your desktop is cluttered, it defeats the whole purpose.

There are lots of ways to organize your desktop. One of my favorites is to create a folder on the desktop that stores icons for common programs or for seldom-used applications. To accomplish this: Right-click on your desktop, Click on New>Folder and then drag the icons into the folder.

Another easy, but not well-known, trick for viewing this folder is to drag the folder to create a new toolbar.
1. Locate the folder shortcut you've placed on the desktop (or select a shortcut to a folder that already resides on the desktop, such as My Computer).
2. Single-click on the folder and continue to hold the mouse button down.
3. Drag the folder to the right edge of the screen and release the mouse button.

You just made a toolbar out of a folder. If you'd like to close the toolbar, right click on the top (right where you see a line) and select close from the menu. Repeat steps one to three to reopen it.

Don't forget if you rearrange your icons and create a mess, you can turn on Auto arrange to clean house: Right-click on an empty part of the desktop and select Auto Arrange. Your desktop icons automatically arrange in orderly rows. If it's currently on, you can turn it off by removing the check mark, you can then move your icons wherever you'd like.

Finally, if you're having trouble reading the fine print that often appears under those icons … Right-click an empty area of your desktop and choose Properties. Open the Appearance tab and Select the style of your choice under Scheme. Notice the schemes that are marked "Large", these are much easier to see. Under Item, you can further enlarge the text just by increasing the Font Size for Icon.

All these features are explained in the Help Menu found when you click on Start … Now is a great time to clean up you desktop.