- [Instructor] Let's look at how you can store files
directly on the desktop,
and how you can get things cleaned up
when you have too much stuff on the desktop.
In some ways, the desktop
is just an extension of File Explorer.
So I want to open up File Explorer,
and I want to go to the desktop folder.
Now the desktop folder is part of your home folder.
But I'm just going to use the shortcut here in quick access.
And this folder will show the same stuff
that's sitting out here on the desktop itself,
except for the recycle bin.
That's the one thing that we see on the desktop,
that's not inside this folder.
And of course, right now in my computer,
that folder is empty.
So you could save something directly on the desktop.
Or you could grab a file or a folder
from some other location,
and move it over to the desktop folder.
Let's see that. I'm going to go to my documents folder,
into my client projects and into this no obstacles folder
where I have a lot of files.
So first, I want to select several of these.
So I'll click the first one,
hold the Shift key on my keyboard, click on another one.
So I have everything in between selected.
So you could select individual files, several files.
You could select folders, whatever you want.
And then you could just drag them directly to the desktop.
And you can see they have been moved here.
They're no longer in the original location,
they've been moved to the desktop.
Or another option would be to select the items
that you want, and drag them to the shortcut
for the desktop folder in quick access.
And once again, they've been moved to the desktop.
And if we go back to the desktop folder now,
it's easier to see that everything that's on the desktop,
except the recycle bin, is actually in this folder.
So you can store things on the desktop,
just like any other folder.
And it gives you a quick,
convenient place to find those things.
But I think it's important to limit
what you drop directly on the desktop.
It's better to keep your files organized
somewhere in your home folder.
But if you do keep files on your desktop,
I want to make sure you can keep them organized.
So let's look at some options.
Now first, you can grab individual files here
and drag them around and position them where you want.
Now if you try to do this and you're not able
to move those files, it's because of a setting.
So what you can do is just right click
anywhere on the empty desktop,
go to this view submenu.
And you probably have auto arrange icons turned on.
If that's turned on, you will not be able
to drag those files around.
But if you turn it off, then you'll be able
to drag these around and position them where you want.
You can also select several files at a time.
If you place your mouse cursor somewhere on the desktop,
hold your mouse button down and drag diagonally
to draw a box, everything that you have
inside of that box will be selected.
So now when I let go, these four files are selected
and I can drag those and put them where I want.
And if you click anywhere outside of those files,
they're no longer selected.
Now you can also click on one file,
and hold the Ctrl key on your keyboard.
And click on another and another,
and that's another way to select multiple files.
And then you can move them around.
So you could manually move these icons around,
but sometimes it's better
to automatically have them organized.
So let's look at some more options.
If you right click anywhere on the empty desktop,
to open that right click menu again.
I want to go back to view and this time,
I do want to turn auto arrange icons on.
So the benefit of that is that it will automatically
arrange your icons for you.
But how are they sorted?
Well, you can right click on the empty desktop.
Then go to the sort by submenu
and you can choose how they're sorted.
So if I choose item type,
well now all of the Excel files are together.
All of the Word documents are together, and so on.
Or I might want to go back to that, back to sort by,
and sort them by name.
So now they're sorted alphabetically.
So those are some options you can use
to get things much more organized.
One more thing I want to look at.
Once again, if we right click on the desktop and go to view,
you can change the size of these icons.
So you might prefer large icons
because they're easier to see,
and the labels are easier to read.
But you can choose whatever size you want.
Of course, I do recommend
you limit what you store on the desktop.
But what we do have here, is now much easier to browse.