The Organized Desktop
Anyone who has operated in a computer centric environment for an extended period of time has probably experienced a catastrophic system failure. They do happen and if you’re not prepared it can be a nightmare.
Even if you never have to deal with a calamity of this magnitude (I wouldn’t count on it), you will eventually have to upgrade your computer and at the very least, you will want to be able to find your work with the least amount of fuss and bother.
When I work with other peoples computers, I always find it amazing and somewhat frightening how most people tend to let their files get scattered around the desktop and saved randomly in Windows’ My Documents folder or wherever any particular program decides to save working files. This kind of random treatment of valuable property is almost never reflected in real world spaces and yet even people who are organized in real space tend to behave in a completely opposite manner in their virtual space. Perhaps it’s a question of valuation and how most people define property or maybe it’s a matter of not understanding how computers organize the files that are saved. No matter. The fact is that if you intend to operate a virtual business based on information, training or consulting, your data files are your most valuable possessions. In fact they are more valuable than any of your hardware or the physical possessions that you might use in the operation of your business. You need to protect them and keep them organized.
Having lived through several catastrophes and many hardware upgrades over the years, I have developed a file system structure that is very efficient. It allows me to run a complete backup, file searches and even file transfers to a new computer out of a single directory. I think is so important, it‘s the first thing I set up in every new computer I have purchased for the last 8 or 10 years, yet it’s simple to set up, expand and maintain. If you’ve never paid attention to file storage before, it will require some discipline on your part to use it but I guarantee that it will be worth the effort.
Access your primary hard drive (usually C:) by going to My Computer or by right clicking the Start button and selecting Explore All Users from the pop up window. Then select your primary hard drive and right click. Select New from the popup menu and then select Folder. A new folder will appear on the left panel of your directory window and the folder name will be highlighted. Name the new folder Files. This will be the core location for your new data file storage system.
Now right click the Files folder that you have created, select Send To from the popup menu and then Desktop from the sub menu that appears. This will send a shortcut for the new File folder to your desktop. Now close the directories window.
From this point forward, you need to commit yourself to the idea that you will never leave a live file on your desktop or save any of your work anywhere but in your Files folder.
If you are using a machine that is new and dedicated to your virtual enterprise you’re in great shape since you shouldn’t need to do much clean up. On the other hand, if you’re using a computer that does double duty, you will have some work to get it organized.
It is never a good idea to mix personal and business data so the first thing you need to do is create a separation between these classes of information.
Open the shortcut folder for the Files directory on your desktop. Now right click in the white area and select New and then Folder. Name the new folder Personal. Now repeat this process and name the second new folder Business.
Now double click on the Personal folder to open it. Scale down the size of the Personal folder window so that you can see a good portion of your desktop, then drag and drop any data files that are personal in nature to the Personal folder you created. If you have many different kinds of files or you want to categorize your files by subject or interest, simply create additional folders inside your Personal folder the same way you created the Personal folder inside Files. Then drag the individual files into the appropriate folders.
If you are going to use any particular group of files or an individual file frequently, you can place a shortcut to that folder or file on your desktop so that you have direct access. Open the shortcut on your desktop for your Files folder. Then select the folder or file you need to access frequently, right click and then selecting Send To and then Desktop. You now have immediate access to the file or group folder directly from your desktop but the original files are safely stored in your Files folder. Even better, once you have finished working with the file group, you can clean up your desktop by simply dragging the shortcut to your trash bin. Since the desktop folder you created is only a shortcut, your data is still safe!
Once you have put away all the personal files on your desktop, you should do the same with any files that may have accumulated in you’re My Documents folder. In my opinion, the My Documents concept only leads to clutter and makes organized backups and bulk file transfers much more complicated. Click on your start button, open My Documents, then drag any files over to your Personal folder. If you have sub folders in My Documents, go through these as well. Don’t forget to set up sub folders in your Personal folder to categorize your files.
This next part is a bit trickier. Most of your applications (programs) have a default folder where your data files are saved. You are going to want to centralize these in your Personal folder as well. Each program is a little different so I can’t tell you exactly where these folders are but there are two ways that you can usually find out.
Most programs have a Preferences or Setup option. If you can find this option (typically under the Files menu), open it up and see if you can find the settings for the default directories. If you find it, it should display the complete folder address. Then open the default folder by going through My Computer or Explore All Users and follow each step in the address until you get to your saved files for the program.
The other way you might find out where a program’s default save folder is located is to open a new document in the program, select the File menu and then the Save As option. This should open a window which shows you the default folder where the program wants to save your work. You can then access the default folder as outlined in the paragraph above.
Once you have found the default folder, create a new sub folder for the application in your Personal directory, open it and then drag over any files from the program’s default file folder.
If you have been able to find the setup option for a program and you will be using your computer for only one activity (personal or business), you may want to reset the default folder for your files so that any new files are saved to the applications folder in your Files directory. On the other hand, if you are using your computer for both personal and business activity, you will need to remember to use the Save As option when you work on new files and then select the sub folder under Files/Personal or Files/Business before you save your work. One other save method is to save any new file to your desktop and then drag it to the appropriate folder in your Files directory. This is actually the save method that I use myself.
You will need to go through any programs which you use on a regular basis and follow these steps to consolidate your work.
If you have already started your business and have business files on your computer you will have to repeat the whole process again but this time transfer the files to the Business folder you created in your Files directory.
Once you have consolidated all of your data files in the Files directory, if you are going to continue to use a single computer for both personal and business purposes, you will want to create a Profile in Windows for your business activities.
This will give you a clean desktop to work with that is exclusively dedicated to your business activities. You can then place folder and file shortcuts from your Files/Business directory directly on to your business profile desktop without worrying about confusion down the road. You can create user profiles by selecting Control Panel from the Start options and then activating the Users or User Accounts option and following the instructions on the screen. You can establish different color schemes for each profile you set up so that you can tell where you are at a glance. You can also toggle back and forth between profiles depending on your needs so if you are using a single machine for business and personal use, you can move quickly and easily move from one desktop to another.
I know this is a fair amount of work but the payoff is significant. Once your Files folder has been set up and you have moved and organized all of your data files within it, your back up (you are backing up aren’t you?) will be a breeze and you will always be able to find all of your work. Moving to a new computer will be a simple matter of copying the Files folder to your new machine and avoiding the always problematic Windows Transfer application (which doesn’t transfer programs and is supposed to transfer program settings and move your data files but doesn’t do a good job of this either). Finally, if you must use a single computer for business and personal activities, you will be able to segregate your files so that the two activities are not mixed. You will find that this is really important as your business develops and you collect an ever increasing number of files on your machine.
If you want to set up a “Files” structure but need some help, please drop me a line.
