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I often find people I'm helping have a bazillion unused shortcuts (icons) on their Windows Desktop. There isn't a good simple software program (that works on Windows Vista, 7, 8) that will do this automatically (moving shortcuts not used in X days to some desktop folder).
I know this feature was removed from Windows with Win Vista. Is there any other way to do it automatically?
Clay Nichols
Posted 2013-02-21T20:09:16.213
Reputation: 4 494
1
Not sure about Windows 8 (don't have it on-hand right now), but Windows 7 has something similar to the desktop cleanup back in it (Vista didn't); it's now part of the System Maintenance.
By Default System Maintenance is run every Sunday at 1AM (scheduled in the Task Scheduler, under Library -> Microsoft -> Windows -> Diagnosis), and should clean up any desktop icons that haven't been used in 3 months.
You can manually run the System Maintenance by going to Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Troubleshooting\System and Security\Run Maintenance Tasks (you could also just search for "Troubleshooting" to find it quickly).
Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007
Posted 2013-02-21T20:09:16.213
Reputation: 103 763
1
A couple tools come to mind. The first, which I use on many of my PCs is Fences, which looks terrific and makes organization nuts like myself happy.
For your case, I would also give CleanDesktop a try. It's portable with a very small footprint. I'm not sure if you can run it on a schedule automatically, though.
Moses
Posted 2013-02-21T20:09:16.213
Reputation: 10 813
CleanDesktop crashes with unknown error when I run it on my Win 7 PC. – Clay Nichols – 2013-03-06T00:03:32.343
To clarify: On Win 7 Pro: the error with CleanDesktop is : when you actually choose "clean to folder" I get an Unhanded exception. I'm running it as administrator. Also, there's no option to sort by last-accessed date do you have to choose each shortcut, that's really not a solution non techies (my users) can use. – Clay Nichols – 2013-03-12T00:44:22.097
Hmmm... I tried that but it didn't work. Windows 7 said "probelm not present" but then it lists 2 shorcuts unused in last 3 months. These are the results
There are icons on the desktop that haven't been used in 3 months. Unused desktop shortcuts List of shortcuts that have not been recently accessed for 3 months. Shortcut name: c:\users\clay\desktop\smart photo editor.lnk c:\users\clay\desktop\syncback.exe.lnk – Clay Nichols – 2013-02-21T20:54:01.313
You tried what, exactly? If you ran the Wizard manually, did you try it "As administrator"? Also, did you ensure "Apply Repairs Automatically" is selected under "Advanced"? – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 – 2013-02-21T20:58:36.210
1yes I am an administrator and I checked "Apply...automatically". This is Win 7/32bit. I tried it again. It still hasn't removed shortcuts that I haven't clicked in over a year. Have you had it actually work for you? (This wouldn't be the first Windows feature that simply doesn't work). – Clay Nichols – 2013-03-06T00:01:32.843