My desktop has a tendency to become cluttered. I’m sure many others have the same dilema. Well, I’ve finally decided to do something about it. Thanks to **** for his wonderful idea of creating a custom desktop and that is just what I did.

Inspired by one of Keith’s designs and geared with Suckerfish knowledge, I created my graphics (well, only one big graphic) in Photoshop, the XHTML and CSS coding (both of which validate, not that it even matters).

Click on the image to see the almost full size desktop - opens in a new window (800×600)

How did I do it?

First, I considered my dilema. I cannot stand a cluttered desktop. I prefer no more than 2 (maybe 3) icons on my desktop at any given time, however in the past months I have found myself with 2 (usually 3) rows of icons and shortcuts.

Once I knew what the problem was, I came up with a solution. Condense everything into a folder safely tucked away in the deeper realms of the drive with one click access.

Then I did some planning. I thought about what programs I used most often and which ones I would use more often if I remembered that I had them. I then thought about what would be important to me.

After all of that, I rolled up my sleeves and put it all together. The first thing that hit me was IE and its support of CSS so I needed to add a few bug fixes for my desired layout. I even had to add a bit of Javascript (for the dropdown menus). Designing and coding the page was easy enough, it only took a few hours.

The real problem I had was actually getting the programs to execute without prompting me to download or save or about possible security issues. After a bit of going back and forth, considering some shell scripting - eh hem - I’m not a programmer so that was out the window in a heartbeat. Then a miracle happened - I found this website.

After installing the LaunchinIE and setting it up, my links all work like a charm and I can launch all my programs with a single click of my mouse.

Right now I have to manually edit the content on my page - you may or may not have noticed the empty “Yesterday I accomplished…” and “Today I will accomplish…” sections - I’m hoping to find a way to turn my desktop into a truly dynamic one with a custom CMS, but for now the “Edit Desktop” link will do.

Since I’m half asleep, I’ll have to continue this tomorrow with a lot more detail on what, when, and how. But before I finish up - I want to mention a few perks of designing your own desktop.

It looks the way you want it to. It can remain clutter free. Fewer hassles (you only need to make sure it looks good on one computer in one browser - yours). Your font selection is only limited to what’s in your FONT folder. Your graphics can be as big as you want because you don’t have to worry about download times or even accessibility.

That’s it, I’m goin’ to bed.

UPDATE: I actually took the time to write out more concrete notes for those that are interested.