July last year I learned about a program called Belvedere from Lifehacker that helped keep Windows desktop file and icon clutter managed. This morning, thanks Betsy, I learned about Fences from Stardock which is another free program (this one in beta) that allows you to manage groups of files on your desktop. The short video walk-thru explains the various features of Fences, but the most attractive one to me is the double-click to instantly clean your desktop.

While Belvedere is good for getting the clutter off the desktop and into other organized places, there is no quick hotkey way to bring it back. This is where Fences shines gives the ability to group the clutter and decide right down to file by file what you want to do. I was hopeful that Fences would allow me the ability to group off the desktop items in one fell swoop like Belvedere, but after installation and checking it out that doesn’t appear to be an option. Maybe that will be added in future update?

When you run Fences for the first time a handy option is included that will auto sort your icon clutter. Here’s the before and after shot of my desktop.

Before Fences:

After Fences (auto organize on first time program run):

Note: in the screenshot above to the right is the program Rocketdock and not a part of Fences. Rocketdock is a handy Mac-style program launcher.

The auto sorting fences created are as follows:

• Quicklinks – contained folder shortcuts and one game shortcut misidentified by Fences (should have gone into the ‘Programs’ fence)
• Recent Things – most recently accessed files on the desktop
• Programs – click to launch these programs. Redundant for those using Rocketdock, unless you have programs you want to try out (like Fences) and then once you decide you will use them regularly enough to add to Rocketdock.
• Web Links – Mine was empty since I almost never save web links to the desktop. I deleted this group.
• Folders – I would have thought the folder shortcuts placed in Quick Links would have gone here, but not the case. I deleted this empty fence too.
• Files & Documents – this fence was the only one with a scrollbar and sort of a catchall for everything else. So now instead of having my entire desktop fill up with junk from left to right, this would catch everything? Nope. When you add a new file it goes to the desktop and must be sorted. Bummer.

If I’m not going to take time to delete or move the file on the desktop to a folder off the desktop, it’s doubtful I’d move into a fenced off area. It’s really a bummer that Stardock didn’t add a feature which captured anything saved to the desktop and auto sorted. Without that feature, it’s sort of a non-starter for me. It’s not a bad start.

The best solution is not having to run program(s) like these at all. Just be neat and not clutter your desktop, but that doesn’t seem to work for me who likes saving things to the desktop for quick access versus navigating to a file. For example, when I want to save a picture that I’ll use in a blog post I’m working on like this one, I’ll save it to the desktop and then drag it into Windows Live Writer. The step that I neglect all too often is the cleanup of this image file. That’s where Belvedere has come in handy. Good news for fellow Belvedere users, you can still run alongside Fences.

I’m going to try using both Fences and Belvedere for awhile and see how it goes. My early opinion? This adds another step to the process of organizing the clutter and if I’m going to organize, why rearrange dust? Instead, it should be cleaned away like Belvedere does, right? That said, the double-click for quick clean desktop could come in handy and I liked how I could make organized fences around my desktop image of the notes on the guitar fretboard. Only problem there: as new stuff is added, I have to reorganize, which I probably won’t do. I’m mixed on this one, but curious what others think. Grade: C+

Did this post make you go hmm?

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