[Windows Only]

Students and working professionals alike know how obtrusive and hindering desktop clutter can be for work. On the flip side, designing and customizing your workspace or display has a way of creating a productive atmosphere conducive to doing great work.

Having said that, the following is a list of seven Windows tools that can help create a personalized work environment by managing your display:

Fences

Fences is an innovative program by the specialized software company Stardock that can help organize and bring consistency to your desktop icons. By allowing the user to draw shaded areas and label them on the desktop, icons are organized into movable and re-sizable containers.

In addition, Fences allows you to hide all the NSFW content icons you so foolishly save to your desktop with a quick-hide feature you can use by fading out your icons with a simple double click. Double click again and voila, they return. [Download]

Seven Transformation Pack

Maybe some of your desktop clutter troubles stem from using new programs on an old system. If that’s the case, Windows has a program called the Seven Transformation Pack, which converts your system to just about perform in every way like Windows 7.

There’s no need to spend hundreds of dollars on Windows 7 or any 3rd party applications to get it. Seven Transformation Pack will simply do it for you. This transformation pack will update your Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 with Windows Seven GUI by adding new themes and replacing system files. Try the Seven Transformation Pack to revamp the look of your old system icons and toolbars. [Download]

Q-Dir

Q-Dir is a program designed to make your files and folders a little easier to manage on your desktop. With the Quadro-View technique, Q-Dir gives you fast and easy access to your hard disks, network folders, USB-Sticks and other storage devices. Q-Dir does not have to be installed and can be carried on a USB stick or any other memory device. [Download]

KO Software

Believe it or not, KO Software has designed a desktop utility application that makes virtually any file one click away. The KO Approach simply offers an easier way to navigate in Windows Explorer with a set of hierarchical menus.

The Folder Menus enables you to arrange shortcuts to frequently used documents and programs in one customizable menu. KO Approach is just one of those programs that lifts the rock you’ve been living under and leaves you asking, where have you been all my life?[Download]

Actual Title Buttons

Actual Title Buttons is a window management tool that adds new buttons to a window caption to give you a few more window manipulation capabilities. These buttons merely reveal hidden Windows features such as semi-transparency and moving windows between monitors in a multi-monitor system. [Download]

BumpTop

Bump Technologies has released a fun 3D program called BumpTop designed to organize your desktop clutter in the same way most of us organize clutter in the real world: with piles. BumpTop allows you to add items to a pile to pop them into a grid or to quickly view contents by fanning them out. Sort your icons with lifelike motion simulated by a gaming-grade physics engine. [Download]

Dextop

If more workspace is the key to your chaos of clutter, try Dextop. With Dextop, you can turn your monitor into up to 20 different virtual desktops to categorize your workspace as you see fit. Different icons, wallpapers, and start-ups can be configured for each.

Now with all this extra help at your fingertips, keeping a neat virtual desk is a snap. Unfortunately, with all these tools in your arsenal, it may be time to think of new excuses for why you missed that deadline. [Download]

==== About the Author ====

Yo Noguchi is an accomplished freelance writer and guest blogger for a blog hosted by Benchmark Email, one of the world’s global email marketing services.