Windows 7 home screen - slightly OT

[John Stevenson]

Some very clever lads and lasses on here so seeing as my computer is mainly work related probably not so OT.

I seem to have many icons on my main screen and even a sort by name doesn't put them all in alphabetical order, seems as one alphabet finishes another one starts ?

Anyway be nice to organise the icons into groups or folders but don't want to mess about opening folders. Something like mini windows I can drag all the CAD programs into, another one for MS stuff like work, notepad, Excel etc, one for DTP OCR programs etc. You get the gist ?

Preferably a free utility but failing that something with a decent trial period.

So lets have a list of your favourites please ..

[J Tiers]

You know you can drag them around on the screen, so you can put them in visual groups that way, right?

[Dieseldoctor]

http://www.stardock.com/products/fences/

[PStechPaul]

I rarely use my desktop (home screen) to select applications. I have the most-used ones in my Start menu and others along the bottom taskbar where they can be accessed without minimizing all the other windows I usually have open at any time. When I want to clean up my desktop, I just move rarely used icons into a folder, or just get rid of them. To arrange the icons as you wish, you need to turn off the auto-arrange feature.

[caveBob]

...Preferably a free utility but failing that something with a decent trial period.

So lets have a list of your favourites please ..

Used to use this a few years ago, just checked, it's still there:

PStart is free. But if you like it support development by donating some money click the PayPal button.

http://www.pegtop.net/start/

[Mike Nash]

You just need to back up a few versions...

[JRouche]

Create folders, like you would a shortcut and name the folder stuff like CAD programs ,MS stuff, notepad, Excel, DTP and OCR programs etc.

Then drag the corresponding desktop icons into the desktop folders. Double clicking the CAD folder will open it and show all yer CAD icons... JR

[koda2]

Johnny,
What are you doing with just one screen? Get a mo bigger display or preferably two (or three) screens. If you work with photos or multiple stuff open at once, you can spread things out. Displays are cheap compared to metalworking tools. Put all the "hot" icons, the ones you need most often, along all four sides of the screen(s) and you can usually hit them with windows open.

The start menu and the tray also hold working buttons. Put shortcuts to folders on the desktop and you can drag all the garbage to each shortcut and dump the stuff in a folder and work with it when you have time. Clicking on the shortcut opens the folder.

The start menu also holds shortcuts to folders with similar apps, like web apps and tools.
Once you have a scheme figured out, a utility program would be just in the way. Anyway thats the way I do it.