Does saving files on the Desktop slow a computer?

entry · 10-07-2009, 05:38 PM

Is it true, having all your big files +folders on your desktop slows your computer down?

as windows accesses all these at the startup?

Where do you people have your files, and where is the best place/directory to store them?

trapp120 · 10-07-2009, 05:46 PM

I use a mac, but if you saw my desktop you would freak out. I probably have 300 files sitting on there. The only time my comp is ever slow is when I've got Dreamweaver and Photoshop open at the same time, and that's only if there are multiple projects going on in each.

RGallowitz · 10-07-2009, 05:46 PM

I believe it does. When my desktop gets clogged up, my pc responds way slower.
So there has to be some sort of correlation.

Reinhardt

Steven Fullman · 10-07-2009, 05:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by entry

Is it true, having all your big files +folders on your desktop slows your computer down?

as windows accesses all these at the startup?

Where do you people have your files, and where is the best place/directory to store them?

It does slow things down...but not a lot.

The reason is, windows has to redraw the screen everytime you want to see your desktop. So, it has to grab the icon files from wherever they are on your PC, put them in the right place, and render them.

I put my files on Amazon S3

The computer is the cloud these days...and vice-versa.

Steve

entry · 10-07-2009, 05:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steven Fullman

It does slow things down...but not a lot.

The reason is, windows has to redraw the screen everytime you want to see your desktop. So, it has to grab the icon files from wherever they are on your PC, put them in the right place, and render them.

I put my files on Amazon S3

The computer is the cloud these days...and vice-versa.

Steve

What do you mean by render them? and where is the right place on the windows hardrive?

tomw · 10-07-2009, 06:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steven Fullman

It does slow things down...but not a lot.

The reason is, windows has to redraw the screen everytime you want to see your desktop. So, it has to grab the icon files from wherever they are on your PC, put them in the right place, and render them.

I put my files on Amazon S3

The computer is the cloud these days...and vice-versa.

Steve

What is Amazon S3?

I use

http://www.spideroak.com

Check it out. It's has an auto backup feature that you can sync across any number of computers, access and sync to any other number of computers anywhere. It's amazing. You download a little local app and sync up all your desktops, laptops, etc or access online. It has the most secure system there is. You can share files etc with anyone by giving them a secure link. It even automatically stores historical versions of all your files if you need it to. So you never lose a draft or work in progress design.

Tom

entry · 10-07-2009, 06:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tomw

What is Amazon S3?

I use

http://www.spideroak.com

Check it out. It's has an auto backup feature that you can sync across any number of computers, access and sync to any other number of computers anywhere. It's amazing. You download a little local app and sync up all your desktops, laptops, etc or access online. It has the most secure system there is. You can share files etc with anyone by giving them a secure link. It even automatically stores historical versions of all your files if you need it to. So you never lose a draft or work in progress design.

Tom

I dunno about putting my files live.

how secure is it, - as nothing is 100% secure

patJ · 10-07-2009, 06:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steven Fullman

It does slow things down...but not a lot.

The reason is, windows has to redraw the screen everytime you want to see your desktop. So, it has to grab the icon files from wherever they are on your PC, put them in the right place, and render them.

I put my files on Amazon S3

The computer is the cloud these days...and vice-versa.

Steve

Icons are usually stored in the RAM and are only accessed once on startup.

But yes and no. It depends on how much free space you have available. A full HDD will be slower because of the lack of virtual memory. It does not matter where you put the files though, since they are written randomly to the HDD. After a while the HDD usually become fragmented which slows it down. Then it's time for defragmentation.

tomw · 10-07-2009, 06:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by entry

I dunno about putting my files live.

how secure is it, - as nothing is 100% secure

They're not "live." They're held securely, fractured and encrypted on a network of servers in multiple locations.

Check out the site. It ain't no affiliate link! You get a bunch of gigs for free.

Tom

Steven Fullman · 10-07-2009, 06:35 PM

What makes you trust them that they'll still be around in 5 years, though?

Quote:

Originally Posted by tomw

What is Amazon S3?

I use

http://www.spideroak.com

Check it out. It's has an auto backup feature that you can sync across any number of computers, access and sync to any other number of computers anywhere. It's amazing. You download a little local app and sync up all your desktops, laptops, etc or access online. It has the most secure system there is. You can share files etc with anyone by giving them a secure link. It even automatically stores historical versions of all your files if you need it to. So you never lose a draft or work in progress design.

Tom

Kris.Sm · 10-07-2009, 06:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by patJ

Icons are usually stored in the RAM and are only accessed once on startup.

But yes and no. It depends on how much free space you have available. A full HDD will be slower because of the lack of virtual memory. It does not matter where you put the files though, since they are written randomly to the HDD. After a while the HDD usually become fragmented which slows it down. Then it's time for defragmentation.

That is a great answer. my desktop is crowded as well. i uninstalled a few unwanted programs and did a defragmentation (which took a loong time) but got the results, its much faster now. Also removed a few startup programs tht was not needed.

tomw · 10-07-2009, 06:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steven Fullman

What makes you trust them that they'll still be around in 5 years, though?

You b*gger

I hadn't thought of that.

But seriously, they're a huge company.

What does Amazon S3 do? I thought it was for streaming or something?

Tom

mywebwork · 10-07-2009, 06:47 PM

The Windows Desktop is actually just another folder, it's a unique folder simply because it's contents are displayed on your desktop. Ideally you only should be placing shortcuts on the desktop but many people do use it for file storage.

There are couple of reasons that doing this can slow your computer down:

1 - The more items on the desktop, be it files or shortcuts, the longer it takes to draw the screen. On most modern computers this isn't really a big issue.

2 - Your desktop is part of your Windows Profile. When you logoff or shutdown the contents of your profile are saved. If you have files (as opposed to shortcuts) in your profile then this process will take longer.

3 - Item 2 is especially a concern if you are on a Windows network and are using "Roaming Profiles". Unless you are in a corporate environment you probably don't do that. This is the situation where saving items on the desktop can severely slow down your computers login and logoff time - the whole profile is saved to your network share on logoff and reloaded to your desktop when you log in. I've seen profiles that take over 5 minutes to load because the user has saved everything to the desktop.

Personally I have only 1 item on my entire desktop on all my Windows machines - my Recycle bin. I no longer use desktop icons, I place my most used program icons in the QuickLaunch taskbar instead. I really like the clean look it gives my desktop.

Bill

Steven Fullman · 10-07-2009, 06:49 PM

Tom,

S3 + JungleDisk = peace of mind, delivery, security, huge storage and backup.

Check it out!

Steve

JungleDisk not strictly necessary, but it makes everything so much easier and quicker.

Quote:

Originally Posted by tomw

You b*gger

I hadn't thought of that.

What does Amazon S3 do? I thought it was for streaming or something?

Tom

AceHazel · 10-08-2009, 01:15 AM

Got some couple of tips from here. Personally, I put all my important files on my hard drives. I don't really like to see my files stacked on my desktop.

CDarklock · 10-08-2009, 01:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steven Fullman

The computer is the cloud these days...and vice-versa.

Ooh, ooh, let me tell you... dammit! Damned NDA! I'm not allowed to talk about this yet! Dammit, dammit, dammit!

JUST WAIT

BIG Mike · 10-08-2009, 01:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mywebwork

The Windows Desktop is actually just another folder, it's a unique folder simply because it's contents are displayed on your desktop. Ideally you only should be placing shortcuts on the desktop but many people do use it for file storage.

There are couple of reasons that doing this can slow your computer down:

1 - The more items on the desktop, be it files or shortcuts, the longer it takes to draw the screen. On most modern computers this isn't really a big issue.

2 - Your desktop is part of your Windows Profile. When you logoff or shutdown the contents of your profile are saved. If you have files (as opposed to shortcuts) in your profile then this process will take longer.

3 - Item 2 is especially a concern if you are on a Windows network and are using "Roaming Profiles". Unless you are in a corporate environment you probably don't do that. This is the situation where saving items on the desktop can severely slow down your computers login and logoff time - the whole profile is saved to your network share on logoff and reloaded to your desktop when you log in. I've seen profiles that take over 5 minutes to load because the user has saved everything to the desktop.

Personally I have only 1 item on my entire desktop on all my Windows machines - my Recycle bin. I no longer use desktop icons, I place my most used program icons in the QuickLaunch taskbar instead. I really like the clean look it gives my desktop.

Bill

Great minds think alike

I have the My Documents folder mapped to a second hard drive, which is highly organized to store everything. That in turned is regularly backed up to two othe hard drives on my VPN as well as online on a private server.

Anup Mahajan · 10-08-2009, 01:36 AM

I believe if you have less space on your working drive (where your OS is installed) then your computer would be slow.. I have myself seen messages that your working drive is full or something similar when my C drive was almost full..

Since the Desktop folder is created on the same drive as the drive in which your OS is installed your computer will get slow if you have huge files on desktop.. If however you have hundreds of text files on your desktop, I don't believe it would affect your computer much... I had a senior in my office who had thousands of text files on his desktop.. yeah sounds crazy but it was true but his computer didn't seem that slow to me...

Hope that helps,

Cheers,

actionplanbiz · 10-08-2009, 01:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by entry

Is it true, having all your big files +folders on your desktop slows your computer down?

as windows accesses all these at the startup?

Where do you people have your files, and where is the best place/directory to store them?

yes it does, organize them into folders in your documents

Martin Luxton · 10-08-2009, 01:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steven Fullman

Tom,

S3 + JungleDisk = peace of mind, delivery, security, huge storage and backup.

Check it out!

Steve

JungleDisk not strictly necessary, but it makes everything so much easier and quicker.

Steve,

Looked at Jungledisk. S3 versus Rackspace - differences/pros and cons?

Does it offer the possibility of offering other people limited access like Spideroak?

CDarklock,

If you send me a copy of the NDA I'll get my lawyer to look it over to see if there are any loopholes

The one thing I found that really messed up my computer was MSN Messenger. It keep freezing and crashing my system. I got rid of it and normal service resumed.

Martin

Ken Strong · 10-08-2009, 01:55 AM

I've been getting increasingly annoyed with how slow my laptop runs -- after seeing this thread I just moved a ton of crap off my Desktop and put in My Documents. The computer immediately began running much more quickly -- thanks!

CDarklock · 10-08-2009, 02:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Martin Luxton

If you send me a copy of the NDA I'll get my lawyer to look it over to see if there are any loopholes

When you have an NDA with an 800-pound gorilla, those are actually called "traps"

SageSound · 10-08-2009, 02:11 AM

I have a folder somewhere named "Downloads" and I have many sub-folders in it to help me organize things in some reasonable manner.

If you've got Windows Vista or 7, you should either put it into your "My Documents" folder, or in the root of another drive (other than C

.

As has been mentioned, you're best to have only shortcuts on your desktop.

Mac's OS X uses a completely different way of managing things, so stuff on the desktop isn't as much of a problem. (I have the greatest problems in my Mac due to how much memory leakage and CPU overhead the various browsers consume.)

-David

madison_avenue · 10-08-2009, 04:37 AM

I have a lots of files on my desktop: The reason being is that if I put then into a My Documents folder I usually forget about them. When I am working on a theory or new ideas I like everything in front of me. Hundreds of times I have had a great idea by looking something at I put into my desktop and it is in front of me. In a document's folder everything just gets forgotten about, important links don't get visited, there could be potential revenue earner on there. As the driving force in my business, is up to to me come up with new ideas and this is how I like to work others may have a different approach.

There is a programme called autoruns from sysinternals.com which lets you decide what you want to ran as start up which use to cut start up time . The thing which slows the system down is the start up programmes being loaded. Be careful what you disable though!

For back up I have a complete backed up cloned hard disk which is regularly updated.

10-07-2009, 05:38 PM	#1
entry Senior Warrior Member Join Date: Jan 2009 Posts: 1,756 Thanks: 211 Thanked 20 Times in 20 Posts	Does saving files on the Desktop slow a computer? Is it true, having all your big files +folders on your desktop slows your computer down? as windows accesses all these at the startup? Where do you people have your files, and where is the best place/directory to store them?

10-07-2009, 05:46 PM	#2
trapp120 Active Warrior Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Vancouver, WA Posts: 52 Thanks: 1 Thanked 6 Times in 6 Posts	Re: Does saving files on the Desktop slow a computer? I use a mac, but if you saw my desktop you would freak out. I probably have 300 files sitting on there. The only time my comp is ever slow is when I've got Dreamweaver and Photoshop open at the same time, and that's only if there are multiple projects going on in each.

10-07-2009, 05:46 PM	#3
RGallowitz AffiliateTeachings.com War Room Member Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Where ever I want to! Posts: 1,165 Thanks: 30 Thanked 137 Times in 117 Posts Contact Info	Re: Does saving files on the Desktop slow a computer? I believe it does. When my desktop gets clogged up, my pc responds way slower. So there has to be some sort of correlation. Reinhardt
	Make INSANE money by promoting PHYSICAL affiliate products. The one and only "GALLO Affiliate System" - >> Click Here! <<

10-07-2009, 06:47 PM	#13
mywebwork Senior Warrior Member War Room Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Honolulu, Hawaii, USA & Montreal Canada Posts: 2,218 Blog Entries: 1 Thanks: 759 Thanked 725 Times in 506 Posts	Re: Does saving files on the Desktop slow a computer? The Windows Desktop is actually just another folder, it's a unique folder simply because it's contents are displayed on your desktop. Ideally you only should be placing shortcuts on the desktop but many people do use it for file storage. There are couple of reasons that doing this can slow your computer down: 1 - The more items on the desktop, be it files or shortcuts, the longer it takes to draw the screen. On most modern computers this isn't really a big issue. 2 - Your desktop is part of your Windows Profile. When you logoff or shutdown the contents of your profile are saved. If you have files (as opposed to shortcuts) in your profile then this process will take longer. 3 - Item 2 is especially a concern if you are on a Windows network and are using "Roaming Profiles". Unless you are in a corporate environment you probably don't do that. This is the situation where saving items on the desktop can severely slow down your computers login and logoff time - the whole profile is saved to your network share on logoff and reloaded to your desktop when you log in. I've seen profiles that take over 5 minutes to load because the user has saved everything to the desktop. Personally I have only 1 item on my entire desktop on all my Windows machines - my Recycle bin. I no longer use desktop icons, I place my most used program icons in the QuickLaunch taskbar instead. I really like the clean look it gives my desktop. Bill

10-08-2009, 01:15 AM	#15
AceHazel HyperActive Warrior Join Date: Sep 2009 Posts: 120 Thanks: 1 Thanked 16 Times in 16 Posts	Re: Does saving files on the Desktop slow a computer? Got some couple of tips from here. Personally, I put all my important files on my hard drives. I don't really like to see my files stacked on my desktop.

10-08-2009, 01:36 AM	#18
Anup Mahajan Firm Believer In Karma War Room Member Join Date: Jun 2008 Posts: 796 Thanks: 71 Thanked 104 Times in 51 Posts	Re: Does saving files on the Desktop slow a computer? I believe if you have less space on your working drive (where your OS is installed) then your computer would be slow.. I have myself seen messages that your working drive is full or something similar when my C drive was almost full.. Since the Desktop folder is created on the same drive as the drive in which your OS is installed your computer will get slow if you have huge files on desktop.. If however you have hundreds of text files on your desktop, I don't believe it would affect your computer much... I had a senior in my office who had thousands of text files on his desktop.. yeah sounds crazy but it was true but his computer didn't seem that slow to me... Hope that helps, Cheers,
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10-08-2009, 01:55 AM	#21
Ken Strong Marxist (Groucho) War Room Member Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Seattle, WA, USA. Posts: 4,652 Blog Entries: 1 Thanks: 759 Thanked 1,492 Times in 707 Posts Social Networking Contact Info	Re: Does saving files on the Desktop slow a computer? I've been getting increasingly annoyed with how slow my laptop runs -- after seeing this thread I just moved a ton of crap off my Desktop and put in My Documents. The computer immediately began running much more quickly -- thanks!
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10-08-2009, 02:11 AM	#23
SageSound Advanced Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Reno, NV Posts: 620 Thanks: 56 Thanked 129 Times in 90 Posts	Re: Does saving files on the Desktop slow a computer? I have a folder somewhere named "Downloads" and I have many sub-folders in it to help me organize things in some reasonable manner. If you've got Windows Vista or 7, you should either put it into your "My Documents" folder, or in the root of another drive (other than C. As has been mentioned, you're best to have only shortcuts on your desktop. Mac's OS X uses a completely different way of managing things, so stuff on the desktop isn't as much of a problem. (I have the greatest problems in my Mac due to how much memory leakage and CPU overhead the various browsers consume.) -David

10-08-2009, 04:37 AM	#24
madison_avenue Advanced Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: London, United Kingdom. Posts: 902 Thanks: 675 Thanked 89 Times in 79 Posts	Re: Does saving files on the Desktop slow a computer? I have a lots of files on my desktop: The reason being is that if I put then into a My Documents folder I usually forget about them. When I am working on a theory or new ideas I like everything in front of me. Hundreds of times I have had a great idea by looking something at I put into my desktop and it is in front of me. In a document's folder everything just gets forgotten about, important links don't get visited, there could be potential revenue earner on there. As the driving force in my business, is up to to me come up with new ideas and this is how I like to work others may have a different approach. There is a programme called autoruns from sysinternals.com which lets you decide what you want to ran as start up which use to cut start up time . The thing which slows the system down is the start up programmes being loaded. Be careful what you disable though! For back up I have a complete backed up cloned hard disk which is regularly updated.