Clean Up Your Screen

When I watch demos, I always find myself distracted from the presenter's message by something on their desktop. Maybe there's an icon in the system tray I haven't seen before (or maybe something down there is blinking). Maybe they have a shortcut to World of Warcraft on their desktop, or maybe their desktop is nothing but shortcuts, giving the feeling that their Start Menu just threw up all over the screen.

I've whittled my desktop down to the Recycle bin, and 3 shortcuts. One is the application I demo with, and the other 2 are apps I use during my demonstration. Everything that the audience sees has a point to being there.

As for the System Tray (or notification area, if you prefer), I recently discovered there's a way to force Windows to hide icons that are displayed there. Right click on the tray and select Properties, then click Customize on the Taskbar tab. You'll see a list of the items in your tray, and you can select if you want them to always be hidden, always shown, or only hidden if inactive. I set everything except my system's volume control and GoToMeeting to Always Hide.

It's a small thing, but it helps keep people focused on the message I'm sending, rather than wondering if I'm playing Horde or Alliance.