Should I Save Files On The Desktop?
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Many people choose to save files on their desktop because they are easily accessible. However, what they may not know is that there are certain risks associated with this practice - the biggest one being that you increase the chances of losing your files. In an attempt to discourage people from saving files on their desktop, here are a few points that you need to consider.
- Files on your desktop are not very secure. These files are in plain view to any person that sits down at your computer if you remain logged on. Not only can they read them, they may inadvertently delete them.
- If you have to use the System Restore feature of Windows XP, some files that are stored on your desktop may not be preserved. In other words, they will be gone after the restore process is complete.
- Files saved to the desktop are stored in your user profile. This increases the size of your profile. If you are using roaming profiles, the files follow you around regardless of which computer you log on to.
- If your user profile becomes corrupt, you will lose all your desktop files.
Tags: xp, unclutter, my documents, clean desktop, saving files to desktop
3 Comments
Alan Monroe
June 21st, 2007
at 4:25am
>Files saved to the desktop are stored
>in your user profile. This increases the
>size of your profile.
Color me skeptical. The Desktop folder and the My Documents folder are both under Documents and Settings\your user id. You get the same size increase regardless of the two you pick, so it’s inconsequential which of the two places you pick, from a size perspective.
Tom Zurinskas
June 21st, 2007
at 12:29pm
Thanks Diana,
I like creating new files on the desktop. It’s so easy to right click a blank spot on the desktop, select an application, give the file a name and open it as a new file. But you say it’s not that secure. Suppose I move them to a folder on the desktop. Any more secure?
Mark
September 11th, 2007
at 11:29am
The files in the Desktop folder load into active memory, while the files in My Documents do not. So it makes a huge difference in terms of system resources.