Ann tagged me, and I’m afraid I’ll disappoint a lot of people. I have tons of creative stuff going on in my noggin, but there’s not much going on with my computer desktops.

Here are the screenshots:

Here is my commentary:

The PC—I never bothered to change my wallpaper; it’s the same one from when I first started up the PC years ago. It’s boring and stinks of Corporate America, but I like the shallow focus of the photo. Had I bothered to change it at all, I’d have done it daily or weekly, as I was known to do at the old day job; my wallpaper folder would have burst at the seams. Since I deal with huge and numerous graphic files nearly everyday, such that I archive them to CDs on a regular basis just to keep my hard drive happy, I like to minimize casual stockpiling and not mess with wallpaper. I was fine with collecting wallpapers at the day job because 1) it wasn’t my computer and 2) most of my work there resided on servers anyway, leaving my hard drive practically empty. That is so not the case on my home office PC. Besides, I never really see the desktop much when I’m working anyway. I’m a big believer in Alt-Tab.

Note also the relative lack of icons on the desktop. I live by the Start button, and almost everything I need with which to do my work is in the eight icons sitting in the “most-used” area of the Start button. As for what is on the desktop…

CuteFTP—This is what I use to upload to or download from servers, mostly to my own, for transferring large files or for updating web sites. As often as I need this shortcut, sometimes it slips from my top eight, so I keep a copy on the desktop for easy access.

Happy People 2, Passion, and Intimacy—These are folders that correspond with some of the stock photo CDs that I have. The first two are what I downloaded before the actual CD was delivered to my doorstep, and I simply never got around to archiving them as backup and clearing them from my desktop. The third folder pops up every time I stick the actual CD in and select a photo I want to use; I got so tired of deleting it after each use that I’ve left it there for the next time I use the CD.

Unused Desktop Shortcuts—I love this folder. My desktop is set up to clear off any shortcuts I don’t actually use. They all find their way into this folder.

[blank].sql—This is the only thing I’ve edited in the screenshot. I’ve redacted the filename because this is a copy of the database file my blog uses. It’s there from the last time I backed up the database prior to tweaking or upgrading my installation of WordPress. That was so long ago, though, that the file is probably completely outdated.

Since taking the screenshot this morning, two new shortcut icons have popped up on my desktop, one for j2 Compose Fax 4.2 and another for j2 Messenger 4.2. I installed the upgrades today because my insurance agent needed to fax me some paperwork. The shortcut icons, however, will probably be swept into the Unused Desktop Shortcuts before I never need to use the fax service again.

OK, now note the relative lack of open programs on my task bar. This, for me, is not typical; I usually have between 5-10 windows or programs open as I work. When I took the screenshot, it was very early in my workday. I always start by opening up my e-mail, and since my blog feeds update first, Ann’s post was one of the first things I read … and since the rules state that I must immediately take a screenshot upon being tagged, that’s exactly what I did. Had I taken this screenshot at noon, however, I’d have about four windows/tabs of Firefox open, one of Photoshop, one or two of Windows Explorer showing me my various files and folders, and maybe one or two Dreamweaver, HomeSite, or any number of my various programs, in addition to the one window of Thunderbird.

The Mac—This is also fairly clean and dull. The wallpaper is straight out of the box, and right after installing everything I needed, I cleaned most of my icons off to show only my hard drive, my back up hard drive, and a shortcut to my Documents folder. I normally have my Documents folder open anyway, and what you see there is the last print project I worked on while on the Mac. Above, there’s an X on the icon for Version Cue. I’ve never been able to figure that out—what that program is and why it hasn’t properly installed. All of my software on the Mac is legit and registered, so I’m a little bit irritated with Adobe for my not being able to use this, whatever it is.

The only thing I did before taking the screenshot was Quit out of Quicken. I don’t want the public to know my financial affairs; that’s my business, not anyone else’s. I also brought the cursor down so that my dock is up while I take the screenshot; I figure people might want to know what programs I have on there.

Voila. My computer desktops. The height of irony is that my physical desktop, the surface of my real world desk, is utterly cluttered with crap.

Here are the rules:

A. Upon receiving this tag, immediately perform a screen capture of your desktop. It is best that no icons be deleted before the screen capture so as to add to the element of fun. You can do a screen capture by going to your desktop and pressing the Print Scrn key (located on the right side of the F12 key).Open a graphics program (like Picture Manager, Paint, or Photoshop) and do a Paste (CTRL + V). [Edited by April to add: If you’re on a Mac, hit Command-Shift-3, and the screen capture will pop up on your desktop as Picture 1.png. Open this file in a graphics program and do your thing.] If you wish, you can “edit” the image, before saving it.

B. Post the picture in your blog. You can also give a short explanation on the look of your desktop just below it if you want. You can explain why you preferred such look or why is it full of icons. Things like that.

C. Tag five of your friends and ask them to give you a Free View of their desktop.

D. Add your name to this list of Free Viewers with a link pointing directly to your Desktop Free View post to promote it to succeeding participants.

List of Free Viewers:
iRonnie, Thess, Rebecca, Knoizki, Beng, Tina, Rachel, Alice, Julia, Darla, Carrie, Ann, April

And I tag the following:
Cousin Zee, Minnie, Nikki, Bam, and Kat.

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