Clean up Vista desktop

When icons cover your desktop like a year’s worth of sticky notes, Windows Vista offers several ways to clean up the mess. If you just want your desktop clutter to look more organized, right-click the desktop, choose Sort By from the pop-up menu, and choose any of these choices:

- Name: Arrange all icons in alphabetical order using neat, vertical rows.

- Size: Arrange icons according to their size, placing the smallest ones at the top of the rows.

- Type: This lines up icons by their type. All Word files are grouped together, for example, as are all links to Web sites.

- Date Modified: Arrange icons by the date you or your PC last changed them.

Right-clicking the desktop and choosing the View option lets you change the icons’ size, as well as play with these desk-organizing options:

- Auto Arrange: Automatically arrange everything in vertical rows — even newly positioned icons are swept into tidy rows.

- Align to Grid: This option places an invisible grid on the screen and aligns all icons to the grid to keep them nice and tidy — no matter how hard you try to mess them up.

- Show Desktop Icons: Always keep this option turned on. When turned off, Windows hides every icon on your desktop. If you can remember in your frustration, click this option again to toggle your icons back on. Most View options are also available for any of your folders by clicking the folder’s Views menu.