# Hard Drive Icons On Desktop



## GadgetLover (Jan 5, 2002)

Trying to decide if I should keep my Drive icons on my desktop or just use the "New Finder Window" and leave the icons off since the dock keeps messing it up -- even under 10.1.2 having the dock on the right seems to shift the icon row over to the left -- messes things up.

Please vote AND say why you do what you do.


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## Daeyin (Jan 5, 2002)

I love the clean desktop idea.


My desktop has nothing, and I mean literally nothing on it.  I keep my dock hidden, and hide my hard drives.  The only thing I show are mounted disks like CDs and Zip (which I use rarely).

Why?

I love desktop pics, and the wow factor of my Flat Panel display is really picked up by having it clean.

Granted, my desktop will usually get cluttered with whatever project I am working on at the time, but the almost obsessive compulsive need to have no files on the desktop forces me to get my butt in gear and finish with those files. 

I do wish Apple would bring back the ability to assign apps, folder, links, etc to the F keys.  Not that I don't love the dock, but it really made  keyboard control a breeze.  There would be HOURS where I wouldn't need to touch my mouse.


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## Ralph J. (Jan 5, 2002)

i, too, like a clean desktop, but i do keep my dock visible. the ability to hide desktop icons is one of my favorite features of the OSX GUI. i find having too many desktop icons to be a distraction from whatever i'm working on at the time. i also like to use simple, low contrast desktop pictures for the same reason.


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## doublejoint (Jan 5, 2002)

by the way, I know this is a novice question, but how do you get rid of the hard drive icon on the desktop anyway?


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## Ralph J. (Jan 5, 2002)

select Preferences... from the Finder menu.

uncheck the desired items from the "Show these items on the desktop" part of the dialog box.


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## doublejoint (Jan 6, 2002)

ah, of course, so simple.

thanks


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## avg joe (Jan 6, 2002)

I just put  the hard drive icons in my dock, then turned off the desktop icons. To me, it's the best of both worlds.


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## simX (Jan 6, 2002)

You know, the "New Finder Window" feature and hard drives on the Desktop are not mutually exclusive.  If you have new Finder windows to open to your Home directory instead of the Computer directory (via Finder prefs), and have your hard drives on your desktop, you can have the best of both worlds.  As for the shifting icons, just put them across the top or the left.


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## kenny (Jan 7, 2002)

Oh no! Not on the left!! That's where those "other" guys put them!!


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## edX (Jan 7, 2002)

i'm just an icon junkie and my desktop normally looks like a junkyard of icons. daeyin's ocd with a clean desktop would really annoy me after a while. not that my way is any better. somewhere in between probably makes good sense. 

i think i would be neater if i had a good desktop picture i really liked, but since i don't i let it be background.


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## theed (Jan 7, 2002)

Anything else on the desktop, fine.  HD's are not things you are going to want to manipulate (throw away / eject)  I specifically requested that apple allow this kind of separation so that HD's could stay off the desktop.  Apple-N for browsing is easy enogh to get used to.  Or clicking the Finder icon.  Since my dock's on the right the finder is about where the HD's would be anyway.

As for a clean desktop, my desktop is a general mess of things I'm in the middle of.  And my desktop is a hot chick.  I used to not put things on top of her so thati I might ogle her, but now I don't really care... except that I still don't put anything on top of her face.  That just seems rude.  Try as I might not to personify her, I still can't put something on top of her face without wondering if she can breathe.


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