H-Menu

[nil8]

After browsing the post your desktop thread, I've noticed that there are a good amount of you who have massive amounts of icons that cover the wallpaper or don't work well with themes.
I've been using a piece of software for a few years now that takes care of this issue, is free, and is amazingly small.
It's name is H-Menu.
Basically, it's a hidden icon bar program on the outside frame of the desktop. It is highly configurable in the way it functions, including having to hold down the shift key to access it. It takes some getting used to, but works well.

Each corner of the desktop has 2 bars, each bar has 10 spaces for icons.
Icons can be folders, programs, shortcuts, literally anything windows can deal with. It even works with .msc files. For those of you who don't like math, that's 80 icons that can be hidden.

The method of putting in and naming icons is drag & drop. It's simple, doesn't require a lot of skill, and goes fast.

If you're worried about your full screen programs screwing up because of it, a simple left click on the taskbar icon turns H-menu to silent mode. It disables itself. Another left click turns it back on. Very useful.

There isn't much of a readme or faq, which is a fault, but happens with freeware. Also, finding the website is a little difficult. Typing Hmenu into google doesn't bring up the software, it brings up coding sites. This isn't the developers fault, it's just an annoyance. The link inside the program isn't any longer valid for the homepage.

Anyway, if you have a lot of icons or you want a cleaner desktop, I've included a tucows download link. Tucows is a trustworthy, long standing website for downloading software, so I would figure this to be safe. Still, scan it with your antivirus software. Better safe than sorry.

http://www.tucows.com/preview/238518

[SgtM]

I keep mine pretty clean, but this sounds interesting.

[DaveW]

Anyway, if you have a lot of icons or you want a cleaner desktop, I've included a tucows download link. Tucows is a trustworthy, long standing website for downloading software, so I would figure this to be safe. Still, scan it with your antivirus software. Better safe than sorry.

True. Thanks for sharing. +Rep.

-Dave

[Zephik]

Another way to have a clean and organized desktop is to simply hide all of your icons and organize them into files. I LOVE it. There is nothing on my desktop except the taskbar. When I want to access my files, it's easy. I just click Start, then My Computer, then push the back button until I reach My Desktop. Tah dah, there is all of your files. Which bugged me at first, having to scroll through all the icons and files that is. So I organized them. So now its kind of like a personalized file cabinet where I know where everything is. Easy, effective, and very simple.

That program sounds even better than my way nil8! I'll have to check it out for sure!

-Snow

[d_stilgar]

I'm not sure that I would like this more than Mobydock or Object Dock, but it still looks interesting.

[Vertigo]

That is interesting, myself I just keep everything in a partition named Data, if I need something I go to the My Computer icon on my Quick Launch and I'm set.