On Windows the background screen is called the desktop. It is accessible from anywhere in Windows by either…
pressing Win+D,
right clicking an empty region of the taskbar and choosing Show the desktop,
or clicking the very narrow (almost invisible) vertical button on the far right of the main taskbar.
Each of these three techniques are toggles and when done a second time, change the display to as it was before showing the desktop.
Since the desktop is so easily accessible, it is useful to use it as a launchpad for folders, files, and applications that you regularly use.
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Each item on your desktop uses some of your system’s RAM (random-access memory) so it’s a good idea to put only items that you regularly use on it. |
On Windows, you can use File Explorer and its Quick access sidebar to manage and launch files and folders. Unfortunately, this sidebar has some issues, including…
it’s a pain to reorder the Quick access items,
you cannot launch executables from it,
and you cannot give
items
meaningful aliases.
For example,
Visual Studio Code’s
Roaming
User directory
is listed as simply User
rather than something meaningful like
VSCode Settings.
Because of these Windows File Explorer issues, I prefer to use Windows desktop as my launchpad for frequently used items.
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Win+D displays the Desktop. |
When configuring
the
qutebrowser web browser,
I
often
do things in
my
C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\qutebrowser\config\
folder.
To make it easy to get
there,
I
do
the following.
Use Windows File Explorer to navigate
to
this
AppData[2]
Roaming
qutebrowser directory.
Right click its config subdirectory
and
choose
View the Desktop by pressing Win+D.
On the Desktop, Right click the
newly-created
shortcut
icon[3]
that’s labeled
config - Shortcut,
choose Rename,
and name it something more meaningful,
for example
qutebrowser config.
After doing this, I can use Win+D to view the Desktop and then…
double click the shortcut to open the directory in Windows File Explorer,
or Right click the shortcut and in the pop-up context menu choose either…
Open in Windows Terminal,
Git Bash Here,
Open Folder as IntelliJ IDEA Community Edition Project
Open with Code,
or Properties;
or Shift+Right click the shortcut and choose…
Open PowerShell window here.
Note that the options you see when you Right click or Shift+Right click a shortcut depend on what apps are on your system.
You can do the above for
C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Code\User\
and
any
other
directory that you regularly visit.
Another example, which includes editing a shortcut’s Properties, is in the desktop shortcut section of Infinite Ink’s Launching Git Bash.
To configure your Desktop, Right click an open spot on it and specify the settings that you would like. Here are some of the Desktop View > settings I use:
Auto arrange icons
Align icons to grid
Show Desktop icons
With the above settings, I can drag and drop my shortcuts and arrange them however I like.
To learn about specifying a desktop wallpaper, see www.ii.com/desktop-images/.
Please comment so I know I'm not speaking into the void. Also, your public comment might immediately improve this page or help me to (eventually) improve this page.