System Desktop Organization?

So, I have a new system and I'm thinking of changing the way I manage my programs. Usually, I use Stardock Fences to create corrals for various types of icons, and then I put an icon for the programs I use in the appropriate place. This leads to a huge amount of icons which the system will handle, but can get slow.

I'm ADHD so for me it's easiest to keep something in mind if I can see it on the taskbar or the desktop. However, I'm open to new ways of doing things.

How do people organize their Win10 desktops to handle easy access to large numbers of games and programs?

Robear wrote:

How do people organize their Win10 desktops to handle easy access to large numbers of games and programs?

I don’t. I don’t have large numbers of games/programs that I actually use. Don’t get me wrong; I have large numbers. I just don’t use most of them at any given time.

I pin the 4 or 5 apps that I use to the taskbar, and I install a small number of games at a time and only show “installed” in my various launchers. I find that cuts way down on the clutter for me.

Nothing gets a desktop icon if I can help it.

Robear wrote:

I'm ADHD so for me it's easiest to keep something in mind if I can see it on the taskbar or the desktop.

Hm! ms. placed bravado and I have suspected for a while that she has undiagnosed ADHD... and she is very much an "out of sight, out of mind" person. Her computer desktop is covered with icons, and she has a strong preference for open storage for physical things. I had not known that was connected to ADHD.

I personally pin the handful of applications I use most to the taskbar and use Launchy and the Steam/GOG/Epic launchers for the rest, but it sounds like my preference is off at the other end of the scale from yours.

misplacedbravado wrote:
Robear wrote:

I'm ADHD so for me it's easiest to keep something in mind if I can see it on the taskbar or the desktop.

Hm! ms. placed bravado and I have suspected for a while that she has undiagnosed ADHD... and she is very much an "out of sight, out of mind" person. Her computer desktop is covered with icons, and she has a strong preference for open storage for physical things. I had not known that was connected to ADHD.

I personally pin the handful of applications I use most to the taskbar and use Launchy and the Steam/GOG/Epic launchers for the rest, but it sounds like my preference is off at the other end of the scale from yours.

You may then find this informative.

For myself, I'm now in clean desktop mode. I do everything through search and pinned to Start for folder shortcuts.

I also don't have a large number of games installed anymore. I try to only play 3 or 4 different games (and from different genres) at the same time. I need to be "done" with a game wherein it gets uninstalled before I move on to the next one.

I'm a little OCD about keeping my system tidy. No icons on the desktop and folders pinned to the sidebar of File Explorer.

I pin all of my games to the Windows start menu, and all of the store apps are pinned to the taskbar. I recently cut over to macOS and iOS so I only use Windows for gaming. I used to have them pinned to the start menu.

IMAGE(https://i.ibb.co/P9D5Hx2/Desktop.png)

For things I use often, they get pinned to the taskbar. For everything else, I press the Windows key on the keyboard and start typing. The search is good enough to find anything else I want in just a couple seconds of typing.

I prefer nothing on my desktop. For the few things I use all the time, I pin those to the task bar. For stuff I use sometimes that I want to keep together, like stuff for work, I create custom toolbars. I find that custom toolbars are innocuous but very handy when I want to quickly get to what I need.

Everything else I do what beanman said (Windows search).

The search in Windows 10 is really good, and I’m in the camp of using that for everything. I do let things install desktop icons but I never use them. Partially I do that because I’m too lazy to click the option not to, and partially to troll people who are bothered by busy desktops.

absurddoctor wrote:

The search in Windows 10 is really good, and I’m in the camp of using that for everything. I do let things install desktop icons but I never use them. Partially I do that because I’m too lazy to click the option not to, and partially to troll people who are bothered by busy desktops.

You mean me don’t you. Don’t you?!

People I work with know this about me and apologize in advance if they have to share their screen where I will see their desktop - often with icons off the edge of the screen there are so many!

So this identifies part of the problem. I'm terrible with names, so unless the search bar can handle "that tactical WW2 game that the Ukrainian guys did", I need icons. I guess in large part I'm asking how to organize icons, seeing if anyone has something more innovative than Fences. Learned something about myself, I guess.

Misplacedbravado, I just found out about that aspect of ADHD a few months ago. It's described as essentially having issues with "object permanence". That is, out of sight, out of mind. It happens with things on physical desks (organizing by stacks is a dead giveaway), friends (you're happy to hear from them but either you talk to them all the time or rarely reach out) and of course folders, files, icons, documents, etc. For work, I actually pull the files and folders I'm working with to the center of my screen for the day, or week. That way they are front of mind.

Thank you all for the insights and suggestions, and I'd love to get more! Please tell me how you organize your desktop.

How It Starts:
IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/JCydBYH.png)

How it Ends:
IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/3BPVFAB.png)

Dual monitor setup. Start on left with End on right. I know I'm going to dump everything in downloads or desktop out of habit, and periodically remove game shortcuts and throwaway files when it starts to look like this.

g: google suite shortcuts
sort: stuff to get sorted to their home folders later
gwj: anything GWJ related
dl: shortcut to downloads
trash: recycle

Tools, programs, and apps all go in the taskbars and start menus.

The process is now complete.

Spoiler:

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/B4T0NAY.png)

Interesting no one else is fond of Fences. Are there similar desktop icon organizers out there that work at scale?

I'm a big fan of Fences.

I group desktop icons by function. So I have a video editing fence, a system utilities fence, a programming fence, a game launcher (Steam, Epic, etc) fence, and two games fences. One fence is for "games playing now" and the other is for "games installed". I'll move icons from the "playing now" fence to the "installed" fence as they stop being played. My "games installed" fence is hidden and only appears if I mouse over it. When I need to make room for new installs, I'll delete games from the "installed" fence.

I've been toying with using Fence's multiple desktops but haven't felt the need yet.

I used to use Desktop toolbars in Windows, but with Windows 10, that doesn’t appear to be a thing anymore. Any search for it only talks about Taskbar toolbars.

I went for a new Fences license, since this is a new system and I have some use for the old one. But I'm gonna try Moggy's idea for the games. That would really change the way I do things.

I'm kind of disappointed that Stardock is the leader in this kind of thing, but there it is. Again, thanks everyone, and if you have any other ideas to contribute I'm interested in them.