Too many icons on your desktop slows the computer?

[Shoyru_Lover]

I have a friend who tells me never to save files on the desktop because allegedly it slows down the computer.

Is this common knowledge?

I save all my files on a folder on my desktop and have never really experienced any slow down at all.

[Blue]

I have not seen that myself. I have often had the desktop completely covered with icons. The only real slowdown was finding the one I was looking for

I have found that a large (file size) desktop picture will slow down the computer.

[Lee]

From my experience, it shouldn't slow it down. But it really does depend on the computer though. As long as you use things like CCleaner and you defrag, there is no reason your computer should be slow!

I'm just a person who likes her desktop clean.

[Shoyru_Lover]

Same!! I love a cleaaaan computer mmm.

I use the following programs:

- AusLogics Disk Defrag (to speed up the computer)
- CCleaner (cleans out all the "crap" from the computer and fixes the registry)
- PC-Decrapifier (removes "crap" from the computer that you never use)
- Revo-Uninstaller (I uninstall all my programs with this... it removes EVERYTHING)
- Spybot Search & Destory (spyware and malware)

[Helena]

- PC-Decrapifier

I LOL'D IRL. XDDDDD

And yeah, anyway. I've never heard that more icons = slower computer, but I like keeping my desktop tidy, anyway, otherwise I can never find anything.

[Arka]

What is CCcleaner? Does it come on a PC or is it software you need to buy or download?

[Blue]

What is CCcleaner? Does it come on a PC or is it software you need to buy or download?

CCleaner is a free utility you can download. I haven't tried it yet, but I plan to do so soon. Free is good

[Plastic Ninja]

What is CCcleaner? Does it come on a PC or is it software you need to buy or download?

CCleaner is a free utility you can download. I haven't tried it yet, but I plan to do so soon. Free is good

Indeed.

I would think it might slow your comp down a tad, but not too much :S

Then again, I don't have that many icons on my desk top XD

[Blue]

FWIW, I did install and run CCleaner. It's a great little utility and it found some old junk including a ton of old dead items in my registry. It works very well and I recommend it.

[shapu]

Yeah, CCCleaner is great because it cleans out the registry, which is really what slows down your machine.

[werepup]

Gotta say I'm careful with what I click on. It's getting harder to know what your clicking on though with all these shorted urls like bit.ly etc.

I suppose if you had 3 screens filled with icons it'd slow things down... unless you've got a rubbish computer to start with. Y'know? Each icon has to be processed and recognised

[shapu]

Well, icons on your desktop are just shortcuts to files, so having your desktop be cluttered wouldn't slow down your computer any further than having a directory window open with the same number of icons.

What really slows down your computer is the programs in the system tray (bottom right-hand corner of your screen, on most windows machines). Each icon in your system tray represents a program that is open, and running, in the background. And while software companies will say that having, say, a firefox icon in your system tray makes firefox load faster, the load speed advantage is minimal at best. In fact, there's a point where having so many programs running as background processes slows down your computer so much that loading takes LONGER than it would if your system tray was empty.

(please don't confuse system tray with quicklaunch bar - they're different).