OT: Desktop Shell

Posted by Stephen Zeoli
Jun 4, 2007 at 07:33 PM

Wes,

Thank you for the detailed reply. It is helpful to learn what others do. Here’s my situation: Being a software junkie, I have way too many applications installed on my machines (mostly my home machine, because I have a little more discipline at the office). But even though I have more applications installed than I use, there are several applications I need frequently. I don’t like using the Start button menu… too cumbersome, and I’ve tried limiting the number of icons in the quick launch bar (but maybe I should rethink this). So I’ve had icons all over my desktop. I do organize them, keeping application launch icons in one section, documents (usually items I’m currently accessing frequently at the moment—once I’m done with them I move them to other folders), and various folders. Recently I’ve just felt like this all is too much of a mess, so I’m hoping to find an application that helps me organize it a bit, keeping the desktop neat, but continuing to provide quick access. I have found one nifty little program called Approach—when it is running, if you click on a folder and keep the button depress a few seconds, instead of the window opening, a small menu opens from which you can select. To make use of this, I created folders for each type of application I have (Writing Aids, Info Managers, Graphics, Office, Utilities), and put the application shortcuts in them. That seems to work okay, but I’m wondering if there’s a more elegant solution.

By the way, I’m interested in what you think of PageFour.

Thanks, again.

Steve Z.