Keep Windows 10 Organized, Pretty, and Productive

Microsoft Windows could possibly get messy. It’s not (always) the main system’s fault. You download a great deal of apps and files, and create new content stuff of your family, until your “Downloads” directory looks like a landfill for old content. Your desktop is really brimming with icons, you simply can’t visit your pretty wallpaper. Your Start Menu appears like an app buffet. In short, your main system is a mess, but it is not unfixable.

We take spring cleaning very seriously at Lifehacker. Far be it from us to let a way to refresh, reorganize, and declutter our homes lives pass us by. We’re also pretty psyched going to the reset button on our tech usage, please take a close look at our finances, and give the heave-ho on the day-to-day habits which may have gotten somewhat musty. Welcome to Spring Cleaning Week, wherein we remove the cobwebs of winter and set the stage for sunny days ahead. Let’s clean things up, shall we?

There are several free apps you are able to use to atart exercising . much-needed organization to your Windows world. Here are several of our favorites:

DropIt

Screenshot: DropIt
We covered this app a long time ago, however it is worth resurrecting. DropIt is a great utility that can help you stay organized in case you are the person who dumps whatever you download (or copy for a PC) into a single folder-one giant, sprawling hub that lots of files enter, but rarely leave.

DropIt permits you to create a bunch of different rules that fire off once you drag files on top of the utility’s little icon. For example, it is possible to set the app to always move image files in your primary photos folder, video files into your videos folder, and Word documents into-you guessed it-your documents folder.

That’s the start. If you need to get more advanced, DropIt can automatically scan folders (much like your Downloads folder) and apply more complex filters to anything it finds, like automatically unzipping archives, renaming files based on your parameters, or compressing large batches of files that are otherwise taking up more space than you need.

Automation is often a great method to stop you organized in Windows, and DropIt practically provides you with a virtual helper when you need it.

digiKam

Screenshot: digiKam
If your sprawling photo library needs some serious organization nevertheless, you shouldn’t pay for something like Adobe Lightroom, the open-source app digiKam can be a great alternative.

Use this app to sort your photos and build (or edit) metadata so you can find exactly what you’re looking for in a single easy-to-access library. If you’re also a small photo perfectionist, you’ll be able to use digiKam to edit your family and RAW shots to make them picture-perfect.

This app is often a superior solution for organizing shots than dumping them into arbitrary Windows folders. Your disorganized harddrive will many thanks, and you’ll be a smaller amount planning to lose (or forget about) images in the years ahead.

LaunchBox

Screenshot: LaunchBox
We’re not going to ask why you have a number of emulators attached to one’s body, and we’re going to assume that all the ROMs spread across that nightmare of an folder structure in the “Games” part of your harddrive are completely legal. Right? Regardless, if you just spent the final day having your nostalgia kick by downloading archives of a large number of different retro games to experience on the modern-day PC, keeping these games in order is going to feel overwhelming.

We suggest grabbing LaunchBox, which is often a great “game organizer” utility that enables you to identify and play titles in your giant library. You can access the app’s crowd-sourced database to pepper your titles with useful information, like release dates, genres, publishers, and images, and you’ll be able to mark certain games as favorites to produce theme easier to dig up when you have somewhat time to kill.

LaunchBox also helps it be (somewhat) easy to import games from the favorite distribution services, like Steam, Battle.net, and GoG (for starters). If you’re the world’s biggest gamer who plays anything you can download and always grabs new titles to test from each of the major services, LaunchBox is often a great method to organize your games under one digital roof.

AquaSnap
Screenshot: Nurgo Software
Everyone knows Windows’ Aero Snap shortcuts, right? Hit Windows Key + one of the arrow keys on your keyboard to deliver your active window flying all over your screen: minimizing, opening, shrinking to fill 1 / 4 or 1 / 2 of your display, and bouncing off much of your display entirely (if you have a multi-monitor setup).