Tips n Tricks

2

Manage and Hide desktop icons efficiently

Even after years of polishing the Windows user interface, I think Microsoft has never been able to deliver a quick way to organize/manage the clutter that builds up on your desktop. A long time back I covered a review of the BumpTop 3D desktop which was under testing at that time. It had an amazing concept rolling, but the software package (free) couldn’t deliver exactly what users would find easy for daily use. It wasn’t very intuitive in the first place. A new version of it is available and I’m yet to try it. I’ll review it when I’m done with an exhaustive test.

Fences on the other hand, a free utility by Stardock corporation is something I have found very promising all along. A perfect example of a one-trick pony application. The charm of a clean and light user interface that blends into the default Windows desktop is very pleasing. It divides your icons into separate fences (boxes). These fences can be moved, resized and arranged independently. Giving you the power to manage the icons in a very efficient manner. The color of these fences, their transparency and labels for each of them can be changed from the right click menu. You can also have icons outside these fences which arrange dynamically when you try to overlap them with a fence. On the whole the application is pretty easy to use and configure for daily desktop use.

Another great feature of this utility, I find very useful is the ‘quick hide icons‘ option. It is this can hide all your icons with a single button on your keyboard or a double click in an empty space on your desktop. Exceptions can be added in the configuration pop out. If you are using Windows and are constantly troubled by the mess on your desktop I’d suggest you install it right away. Search no more.

[FENCES]