Windows 8 A Win8 Desktop Approach You Might Like...

[Drew]

There is nothing wrong w/ going from Desktop to the Start screen w/ its Tiles for some or all things OR going to WinQ for things OR pinning a bunch of stuff OR having icons all over the Desktop BUT,

You might like this approach... It means not having to do any of the 3 things mentioned above. The Applications window sits on the Taskbar. Please note the use, employment of Desktop Toolbar, greatly facilitates ease of navigation & allows screen to be 'clean' of icons.

Link Removed

Cheers,
Drew
Link Removed

 

[Drew]

Discussion as to the value of this approach is welcomed; discussion to heighten one's understanding of it & the reasoning to it. It is very worthwhile & the results are terrific & make using 8 extremely pleasant.

Cheers,
Drew
Link Removed

 

[kkay]

Thank you. I had never messed with that icon before, as there was a preinstalled game sitting there before. I thought that was what it was, until I was searching for what you called the applications window on the taskbar. This is very helpful to know!!

 

[Drew]

You're welcome.

Yes, kay, it is terrific. It is created as follows:

Rt Clk on your desktop > New > Shortcut.
Put this in the 'box' %windir%\explorer.exe shell:::{4234d49b-0245-4df3-b780-3893943456e1}
Name it, Applications
(Now) Open the desktop icon, probably you'll want to remove the nav tree, really no need for it in this case, slect the View & Sort desired and Minimize it to the Taskbar... never close it or will have to be reconfigured from the desktop icon.... it has to be reset from that icon following a reboot.
W/ this you have everything in a familiar window & never have to leave desktop (switch screens) to access anything
And done w/out any 3rd party add-ins. Together w/ Desktop Toolbar, yep, makes things really nice.

Enjoy

Cheers,
Drew
Link Removed