How to get a clean desktop in Windows

The fastest way to an empty desktop is already built into Windows. The setting simply turns off icon rendering. Your files stay where they are, the screen goes clean.

1. Right-click a free spot on the desktop.
2. Hover over View.
3. Untick Show desktop icons.

The classic: create folders like Work, Games, Misc and drag everything in. The desktop gets noticeably cleaner, and you finally learn what was even lying on it.

1. Create 3-4 folders by topic, more usually does not stick.
2. Select icons with a rubber band and drag them in groups.
3. Shortcuts of long-uninstalled programs (the white-sheet icon) are safe to delete.

If your desktop is buried under game shortcuts, it is almost always Steam and other launchers: by default they add a shortcut with every install. You can cut the flood off at the source.

1. In Steam, untick add a desktop shortcut in the install dialog. Steam remembers the choice for future installs.
2. Check the same in Epic Games Launcher, EA app and other launchers, the checkbox usually lives in the install settings.
3. Simply delete the shortcuts you already have. The games themselves are not removed, a shortcut is only a link.

Tools like Stardock Fences group icons into zones right on the desktop. Order appears, but the icons stay where they were: the desktop remains busy, and the license costs about 10 dollars on a subscription model.

Vealo combines the best of the methods above. The desktop becomes completely empty, like in method one, but nothing is lost: every icon lives in a panel that opens with a click on an empty spot of the desktop. Games launch in one click, just like from the desktop before.

1. Install Vealo and every desktop icon is swept into the panel. Empty desktop, files in place.
2. Click an empty spot on the desktop or press Ctrl+Alt+F. The panel opens with a smooth animation, with sections inside: Games, Work, anything.
3. Work with files right in the panel: rubber-band selection, copying, group drag and drop, renaming. For everyday tasks you no longer need File Explorer.
4. Open Studio and paint everything your way: theme, wallpaper, clock, effects, cursor and keyboard lighting.

With panelClean desktop

• Hide the clutter One click sweeps every desktop icon into the panel. Your wallpaper, finally uninterrupted.
• A panel that works Sections for your games and projects, group drag and drop, an image viewer and multi-monitor support. Plus search, for when there really are a lot of icons.
• Themes and glass Ready-made palettes, the Mono style or real glass, plus a theme built from your wallpaper colours. And opening animations: Bloom, Cascade, Radial, Pop.
• Windows in your theme colour The taskbar takes your theme colour, and the whole system switches between light and dark along with it.
• 128 wallpapers included Anime, cars, cities, cozy scenes, nature and abstract. Hover a thumbnail. Your own file works too, and the theme is built from its colours.
• A living desktop A clock on your wallpaper plus rain, snow, leaves or sparks. They pause by themselves while you play.
• Device lighting Razer is set up straight from the app, and thousands of other devices connect through the free OpenRGB.
• Custom cursors Different shapes and any colour you like, for maximum customization.
• Setup profiles Your whole look saves in one click: Work, Gaming, Evening, Anime.