Display only HD's on desktop

P

Perishingflames

Registered
Hi,

Currently I have my desktop set to hide all items from the displaying, but I want it to display the standard things (Hard Disk, External HD, iPod/etc but not my clutter of other files and folders in my actual desktop folder). Can this be done? If so, how?

Thanks,
Aaron
 
I don't understand. You have all things hidden yet you want to show things still? You're limited to the preferences available in the General pane of Finder preferences. Your Desktop folder will always show all the files and folders that you keep on the Desktop and will never show any of the devices you have set to appear there. Unless you're running something before Mac OS X 10.3, you can show all those devices in the sidebar of Finder windows. If you want them to appear in your Desktop folder, you can create aliases of them there.
 
I like a clean desktop, too. Not everyone wants that, so I tried to think of the best way to do that.
The first thing that I though of, is to make a folder for all your desktop stuff. Leave that folder somewhere in your user folder. Drag the contents of your Desktop folder to that folder. Drag that folder to your Dock.
Presto - nothing on your Desktop, except your storage devices, which are not stored in your Desktop folder anyway. Click on the folder icon in your Dock, and there's all your stuff, and in a form that is not likely to drag your Finder performance down (which a lot of icons/folders on your Desktop can do). So, you get several advantages when doing it that way. Change the view settings for that new folder in your Dock, and I think you can get easier access to those folders and files than you ever can on your Desktop.
Consider changing your browser download folder to that new folder, as most people seem to use the desktop for a download dump - and it soon resembles one...!
I hope you can use some of this idea...
 
That is a great solution, Delta, however I don't know if I would be able to keep it organized (Things somehow always make their way there =p). Do you know if there is a way so that I can keep the good ol' desktop folder cluttered yet only display those specific items? If not, yeah, I'll just take your suggestion.
 
You can disable the desktop completely, but if you still want your HD icons and whatnot, you can't stop other files and folders from showing up. Just routinely move those items from the desktop to elsewhere. That's what I do.
 
To avoid clutter, I keep my desktop icons full size (128 pixels) and gridded, preventing me from putting too many there. I also don't find device icons useful there, since they're in the sidebar.
 
Don't forget that your desktop folder does not include icons for your storage devices. Each of those is only temporary, and are only displayed on the desktop at your convenience. You can turn those off completely, as you know.

Why do you need your storage devices on the desktop, if you want to clear off everything else? Why not just keep the desktop completely clear? Leave the desktop for those few items that are top dog for you at the moment. Then, when you are done with those files, etc, drop them into your storage folder, or whatever - your choice. Piece of cake, eh?
The only icons that are on my desktop right now are removable drives (a flash drive, at the moment. Some days, very different, with lots of files for projects, etc. I finish the project, and the files are gone (well, I try to keep up, but, you know how that goes sometimes...)
 
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