Comments on: Organizing the Start button

Spring cleaning for the list of programs installed on a Windows XP machine

[cisasteelersfan]

Great post!

[Imalittleteapot]

Odd, I do something completely different. I use the quick launch toolbar for any programs that I either always having running, or start multiple times a day. Such as web browser, media player, instant messenger, email. Basically what it was meant for. Then I pin to Start Menu about 4 to 10 icons for my heavier apps like my word processor, IDE, and spreadsheet. Basically programs that once they're shut down, they're shut down for the day. This way I can start my apps if I already have a window up.

A lot of people just keep the basic icons on their desktop like My Computer, Documents, Recycle, and seem to save files directly to My Documents folder.

I do something different. I actually use the documents folder as sort of an archived folder of old stuff. All the files/folders I'm currently working on stay on the desktop. Small PHP scripts, PDF reports, photos I'm editing, anything I just downloaded, or anything I just transfered from another device. I do this because it doesn't matter if I have another window up. If I'm getting something off the desktop it's probably a file. Which means I'll be closing/minimizing what I'm working on anyway to switch to another document.

My desktop gets a pretty messy sometimes. Of course, some of my older files are in their twenties now. If I actually tried working on a file in the My Documents folder I'd just confuse the crap outta myself.

This seems to work pretty well for me. Since I only use the Start Menu twice a year it hasn't bothered me. On a side note, some parts of my method have been lost in translation with GNOME, but not much has changed.

[pipevine]

XP start menu