Game desktop short cuts who uses them?

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Pretty sure most of us here buy our PC games from Steam or Origin but just like a retail copy of the game when installing it you get asked if you would like to add a desktop short cut.
As we all know Steam keeps all our games nice and tidy with its UI, leaving out games just a double click away from getting started. For most of us that's enough but I'm assuming that there's some people out there that want to have desktop short cut for some of their games as well. Is that something you do?

Personally I have never bothered with this, I actually spend time making sure that there's nothing on my desktop apart from Rocketdock. Even my occasional retail game gets activated on Steam, or gets a shortcut made on Steam.

30/04/2012

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Mik3y

only a few games on rocketdock

30/04/2012

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Guyver

Mik3y said: only a few games on rocketdock

The appeal in that is that there are some pretty awesome game icons you can download for Rocketdock.

30/04/2012

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iamtom

Having recently migrated to Windows 7 Ultimate thanks to a brand-new computer, I find myself never ever using the desktop. The file browser is just really good.

30/04/2012

/no1

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SirAbers

Back in teh PII/III days I was an icon whore. I would have a few important icons neatly on the left side of my monitor (Msn, Winamp, Napster, etc), while the right side was filled with every game shortcut I could possibly find all for sho'. (and I'd spend hours lining them all up neatly too)

Now I just keep it as neat as possible, but I still have game shortcuts in a folder on my desktop.

30/04/2012

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abuu91

Everything in Windows can be quick-launched by hitting the command key and starting to type what you want to run. There is literally no reason to have icons making your desktop dirty when you have features like that.

30/04/2012

Kiama, NSW

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iamtom

abuu91 said: Everything in Windows can be quick-launched by hitting the command key and starting to type what you want to run. There is literally no reason to have icons making your desktop dirty when you have features like that.

Windows key is on right side of my keyboard, thanks to SteelSeries ; ;

30/04/2012

/no1

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Kenni

I used to pin L4D2 on my taskbar but I ****ed something up and now the logo didn't show up so I just depend on Steam to boot up my games. I even do this for non-steam games like Minecraft or Tribes.

01/05/2012

ᶘ ᵒᴥᵒᶅ - The golden tsundere ratio is 8:2

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Desi

Yes I do. I use Fences (I finally went for the Pro version because I wanted alphabetical sorting) to keep it organised.

01/05/2012

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Skarteh

You've mentioned this fences programs many times Desi and I've never gotten the point :/ it just groups them into an area right?

01/05/2012

Melbourne, Victoria | Walk with me in hell

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Guyver

Desi said: Yes I do. I use Fences (I finally went for the Pro version because I wanted alphabetical sorting) to keep it organised.

"alphabetical sorting" Are you kidding me :*O
I have fences installed in a few of my work computers because I always end up with a heap of network short cuts, this allows me to group them into batches that make sense to me.
I have it installed on my home PC but I just use the one fence as a dumping ground for temp work.

01/05/2012

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Desi

Skarteh said: You've mentioned this fences programs many times Desi and I've never gotten the point :/ it just groups them into an area right?

Yeah, and you can drag the area around to move all the icons inside it, that sort of thing.

01/05/2012

And I love starting sentences with conjunctions! >=D

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Doyl

If I must user desktop shortcuts I group then into logical groups using my mouse and clicking and dragging.
I really do not see the point of fences.

01/05/2012

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Silence

You can get areas with scroll bars, I think.

01/05/2012

I'm from the Internet. Nothing I say is original.

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Skarteh

Doyl said: If I must user desktop shortcuts I group then into logical groups using my mouse and clicking and dragging.
I really do not see the point of fences.

This. I am immensely confused by its purpose lol. Scroll bars would make some sense if Silence is correct, then you could have a line of single icons hiding many from view. Still no appeal to me though I just don't use icons. I got into the habit back in my trade days when I had to use a Mac but I'm back to my old ways now.

01/05/2012

Melbourne, Victoria | Walk with me in hell

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Doyl

If you were going to use a single row of icons with a scroll bar there are other programs that do the same like rocket dock and even the default w7 task bar.

01/05/2012

Perth - pew pew

Kudos: 353,830

Guyver

Doyl said: If you were going to use a single row of icons with a scroll bar there are other programs that do the same like rocket dock and even the default w7 task bar.

Stop hating on it :P

01/05/2012

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Harry

I tried using fences for a while but found a huge flaw.. any time you explore your desktop through the file browser, you just get one big fat mess.. which means any time you need to load or save a file from ANY program, you get a big mess making it hard to locate folders, files etc..

01/05/2012

Lemonaids.

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Desi

Silence said: You can get areas with scroll bars, I think.

You can indeed. Just size a fence so that not all icons are visible at once, and it will create scrollbars that hide when the fence doesn't have focus.

Harry said: I tried using fences for a while but found a huge flaw.. any time you explore your desktop through the file browser, you just get one big fat mess.. which means any time you need to load or save a file from ANY program, you get a big mess making it hard to locate folders, files etc..

Type in the start of a file or folder name, mark folders as Favorites, add folders to your Libraries...

Doyl said: If I must user desktop shortcuts I group then into logical groups using my mouse and clicking and dragging.
I really do not see the point of fences.

For me it's the convenience of not having to click-and-drag to organise them. I just right-drag a fence, then chuck icons into it. I can then manipulate all of those icons at once, move them around, hide them automatically and so on. Fence-specific sorting by name/date created/popularity is a nice feature of the Pro version. Having new icons and files sorted to fences automatically depending on type is also excellent.

01/05/2012

And I love starting sentences with conjunctions! >=D

Kudos: 70,382

Harry

Type in the start of a file or folder name, mark folders as Favorites, add folders to your Libraries...

I don't see why Fences is any more convenient then.. I can just do that to begin with and forego the middle man (Fences)..

Those things are great, but do not change the fact that Fences fails to provide a clean desktop within the file browser.

01/05/2012

Lemonaids.

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Desi

That's not what it's supposed to be doing, though. :P It's like saying that Metro 2033 sucks because it doesn't have enough 4X elements.

It's meant to give you a convenient and attractive way to organise your desktop only.

01/05/2012

And I love starting sentences with conjunctions! >=D

Kudos: 70,382

Harry

I get the attractive part but convenience I will never see. At some stage or another, you still have to manually choose where you place your files/folders/shortcuts. Seems like an excuse to have more crap on your desktop than is really needed.

Just out of curiosity, do you actually go onto your desktop and into that fence on the right to pen your games? [MOG]

01/05/2012

Lemonaids.

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Desi

Well I don't organise them alphabetically, it does it automatically. :P But yuh, I launch all my games from the desktop. I like seeing them all there at once without having to scroll down a list. Makes it easy to decide what to play.

01/05/2012

And I love starting sentences with conjunctions! >=D

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M@ndyz

No I hardly ever click on them.. I usually click on the steam icon at the bottom then load my game from there

01/05/2012

Add me on steam........... bootie [mmgn] Or raptr.......... bootie101 Or wiiu. actually don't add me on wiiu im never on it :p

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nagleator

never have used fences, I just use Steam for all my games and just have maybe 5 things on my desktop.

The only things I use my PC for is gaming and checking emails, all I need is Steam and Google Chrome.

03/05/2012

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