ibe98765 Posted April 8, 2003 Share Posted April 8, 2003 When I returned to my computer today, there was an unfamiliar icon in the tray. I clicked on it and it kicked off something called the Desktop Cleanup Wizard. I had never seen this before, so I clciked next to see what it was about. According to XP, all my icons on my desktop are invalid and have never been used (NOT!). It wanted to move them all to the Unused Desktop Shortcuts folder.I copied the screen and said, no thank you.I know why XP might be confused and thinks the desktop is invalid (all my personalizations have been moved from C:/Documents and Settings/username... to my logical D: drive, including the desktop folder). But what is the event that caused this monitoring app to kick off? How do I control the settings on it and disable it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Jeff Posted April 8, 2003 Share Posted April 8, 2003 Go to Control Panel>> Display> Desktop Tab> Customize Desktop... Under Desktop clean up, untick the box that says "Run Desktop Cleanup Wizard every 60 days".Man, I hate that stupid feature. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
muckshifter Posted April 8, 2003 Share Posted April 8, 2003 JB, I can see your point and agree that MS do seem to build some "features" into the OS that continually fox a lot of people.However, I have also seen a lot of "peoples" desktops (mainly on 98/ME) that completely obscure the wallpaper ... and ... they admit the fact that they don't use most of the icons. Now this XP feature would, in my opinion, "fix" there dilemma of what do you delete. By the same result it would also improve the “resource management†in 98/ME.XP does not suffer from these problems of resource management but it is still a handy “tool†to have, especially when every piece of software you install wants to put an icon on the desktop, whether you want it or not.Oh, I have mine turned off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scot Posted April 9, 2003 Share Posted April 9, 2003 Go to Control Panel>> Display> Desktop Tab> Customize Desktop... Under Desktop clean up, untick the box that says "Run Desktop Cleanup Wizard every 60 days".I've been meaning to run this tip for months in the newsletter. Mucks, I agree it's a good feature for many. Microsoft should just should offer a check box to turn it off the first time it pops up!I told them that back in 2000 too. Did they listen? No, of course not. Microsoft is going progressively more and more deaf to user needs.-- Scot Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stryder Posted April 9, 2003 Share Posted April 9, 2003 Go to Control Panel>> Display> Desktop Tab> Customize Desktop... Under Desktop clean up, untick the box that says "Run Desktop Cleanup Wizard every 60 days".I've been meaning to run this tip for months in the newsletter. Mucks, I agree it's a good feature for many. Microsoft should just should offer a check box to turn it off the first time it pops up!I told them that back in 2000 too. Did they listen? No, of course not. Microsoft is going progressively more and more deaf to user needs.-- Scot I just think they do not know the general user base nearly as well as they think they do. They are so focused on getting new users, and making it easy for them, that they have completely forgotten about the more advanced users.....which are the bulk of their users. They should listen to them more often. Besides it is the advanced users sharing their knowledge that has overcome the inadequacies in Windows....not MS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ThunderRiver Posted April 9, 2003 Share Posted April 9, 2003 Go to Control Panel>> Display> Desktop Tab> Customize Desktop... Under Desktop clean up, untick the box that says "Run Desktop Cleanup Wizard every 60 days".I've been meaning to run this tip for months in the newsletter. Mucks, I agree it's a good feature for many. Microsoft should just should offer a check box to turn it off the first time it pops up!I told them that back in 2000 too. Did they listen? No, of course not. Microsoft is going progressively more and more deaf to user needs.-- Scot I just think they do not know the general user base nearly as well as they think they do. They are so focused on getting new users, and making it easy for them, that they have completely forgotten about the more advanced users.....which are the bulk of their users. They should listen to them more often. Besides it is the advanced users sharing their knowledge that has overcome the inadequacies in Windows....not MS. Hehhe.. I think they do listen. Windows XP beta testing took in a lot of computer geeks, and back then, everyone seems to be soo excited about new features in XP like better game support + new theme + stability + etc. Minor features like "Desktop Cleanup Wizard" is not really an amazing feature, but it does get work done. For those people that love to make short cuts on the desktop every second will appreciate its use.ibe98765, it is triggered by how many days that certain icons are inactive on your desktop. I haven't had much problem with it yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dicknite Posted April 9, 2003 Share Posted April 9, 2003 It might actually be a good little utility IF IT WORKED!I've left it running, and every time I allow it to do it's thing, it does like ibe98765 said - it told me that none (or almost none) of my shortcuts had been used... NOT.I let it put all the icons in a folder and then, as I need them I drag them back out to the desktop. This forces me to keep the desktop somewhat uncluttered. (I'm one of those people that has dozens of shortcuts on my desktop.)d|:^)Dick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ThunderRiver Posted April 9, 2003 Share Posted April 9, 2003 Yeah, I can see your pain. I am one of these people that like to keep desktop clean like no icons on the desktop "not even recycle bin.." j/k Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GolfProRM Posted April 9, 2003 Share Posted April 9, 2003 I actually don't keep any icons on my desktop... It's nice that Windows XP allows me to hide them all... had to run 3rd party program to do that before... I keep windows explorer, IE, mail program, and Winamp in my quicklaunch... everything else is well organized in my start menu... I found it was easier to keep my start menu well organized than to mess with icons on my desktop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
muckshifter Posted April 9, 2003 Share Posted April 9, 2003 LoL, I also forgot to mention that I don't have any Icons on the desktop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AbeL Posted April 10, 2003 Share Posted April 10, 2003 What's a little stupid about the Wizard is that it distiguishes between the Desktop icon and the app that icon points to. The first time I was presented with the Wizard I thought it was totally wrong, but after thinking about it (yeah, my first reaction was shoot, ready, aim!) I realized that it was right, I wasn't using many of the desktop icon to launch the apps, I was launching them using other means. Does that mean I don't want the icon on the desktop? Maybe! But not likely, given the way XP handles some shortcuts.I use the QuickLauch Toolbar (QLT) frequently. What I found when I allowed the Wizard to remove the desktop icons I didn't use, even though I use the apps, was that the QLT icon lost its mind and couldn't do the launch. When I restored the desktop icon the QLT icon worked again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GolfProRM Posted April 10, 2003 Share Posted April 10, 2003 I use the QuickLauch Toolbar (QLT) frequently. What I found when I allowed the Wizard to remove the desktop icons I didn't use, even though I use the apps, was that the QLT icon lost its mind and couldn't do the launch. When I restored the desktop icon the QLT icon worked again.I'm assuming your problem here is that your quicklaunch icons were created from your desktop shortcuts. It's quite possible that if you created your shortcuts from the desktop icons that your quicklaunch icons actually point to your desktop icons. This would explain why if the icons are removed that the quicklaunch buttons don't work.I've never run into this problem and I've had about all my icons removed from the desktop (never use the desktop and keep icons hidden). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stryder Posted April 10, 2003 Share Posted April 10, 2003 Abel, if you utilize the Quick Launch a lot, you may want to take a look at this app. True Launch Bar, http://truelaunchbar.com/index.html I fell in love with this little proggy the first 5 minutes I had it on my system and realized the depths you can now take the Quick Launch bar to. Give it a try. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ibe98765 Posted April 13, 2003 Author Share Posted April 13, 2003 Go to Control Panel>> Display> Desktop Tab> Customize Desktop... Under Desktop clean up, untick the box that says "Run Desktop Cleanup Wizard every 60 days".Man, I hate that stupid feature. Could Microsoft have found a more out-of-the-way and obscure place to hide this switch? Sheese. Wouldn't it be wonderful if MS put ALL the settings for Windows in one place. What a concept... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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