In the past, I shared with you all How to Clean up your Computer Desktop. It has been so helpful to many of you AND the post gets a lot of love over on Pinterest!
Computer Desktop Backgrounds
If you are anything like me, I need change, so it was time to create a few new desktop organization backgrounds for you to use. Here are a few fresh backgrounds you can use: the 1990’s preppy color background, a gold ombre background and aqua circles background.
I simply feel like my life (at least my computer life!) is super organized because of these desktop organizers! You can read all my gushing about how and why you should use an organizational desktop background over on the old post….and here’s the quick “how to” install:
1. Find out what size resolution screen your computer is.
For Mac, you can select the System Preferences from the Apple Menu, then click on Displays. Next to the word Resolution, make sure your radio button titled “Scaled” is clicked and look to see what resolution is highlighted. This is the size download you will need.
For Windows, Click the Start button, then click Control Panel. Under Appearance and Personalization select Adjust screen resolution. Check to make sure the monitor you want to examine is selected in the drop-downDisplay list. Below that, you will see the drop-down resolution list, with your current setting showing the number of pixels horizontally and vertically. This is the resolution size you will need for your download Click cancel to leave things as they are.
2. Download the correct size desktop background from below.
3. Next, go to Picmonkey, upload the image and add the titles to each box. Then re-save the image.
4. Now you will need to upload the image as your Desktop Background.
For Mac users: select the System Preference for the Apple Menu. Select the Desktop & Screen Saver option. In that window, find where you saved your newly created Desktop Background and click on the image. This will add the Desktop Background for you. Super simple.
For Windows: Right-click your desktop and choose Personalize. Select Desktop Background from the windows’ bottom left. Click your newly created Desktop Background for the background. Click the Save Changes button.
5. Now you get to clean! Drag your icons to the respective boxes and admire!
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Amanda C says
October 7, 2013 at 11:02 amYou’re awesome…really awesome. It’s the little things in life that make some of us so very happy. Thank you for the new backgrounds! 🙂
Kalyn Brooke | Creative Savings says
October 7, 2013 at 9:34 pmThank you, Heather! Love this!
KayleneP @ The Links Site says
October 7, 2013 at 10:54 pmWhat a clever idea. I am always embarrassed by the mess on my desktop – now I can get all my icons organised! Thanks for sharing!
Heather Moritz says
October 8, 2013 at 7:39 amYou’re welcome! Glad it can be of use to you!
Linda says
October 7, 2013 at 11:50 pmLove the way this looks and am doing it on my computer tomorrow! Can you do this on an iPad too?
Heather Moritz says
October 8, 2013 at 7:38 amGreat idea, Linda! I’ll do a post soon for an ipad background!
Emily says
October 8, 2013 at 1:00 amI just found your earlier post last week, and I have been showing EVERYONE! I absolutely love this, and it’s one of those, “Duh, why didn’t I think of that?” I used to be anti-desktop icons, but now I am all for them. Thank you so much for making these and for continuing to make more! Such a wonderful idea.
Heather Moritz says
October 8, 2013 at 7:37 amI am SO glad you like it…AND thanks for sharing it too!!
Nicole says
October 12, 2013 at 5:18 pmI love this! Is there a way to download the boxes without the background?
Heather Moritz says
October 13, 2013 at 8:43 pmThere is not…but shoot me an email over on the contact page and I can send you the boxes with no background!
Donna Ingalls says
October 18, 2013 at 7:54 amWould love this for my Ipad
Carrie says
October 18, 2013 at 9:18 amI love this! I saved it and did everything, but it doesn’t fit my desktop quite right since my resolution is 1280×1024. Is there any way you can make one that fits this resolution?
margie Dunk says
February 8, 2016 at 11:59 amMe too! I need the same size!
Erin Taylor says
October 23, 2013 at 9:50 amLove this Organizer, thank you. The ombre is working for me, but the link to the aqua circles sizes are not found. Can you help?
Heather Moritz says
October 23, 2013 at 2:33 pmThanks for letting me know, Erin! I just fixed the link and you should be able to grab it without a problem!
Kilty says
November 17, 2013 at 7:12 pmLove this idea, and the possibilities are endless! Thank you!
Heather Moritz says
November 18, 2013 at 11:26 amEnjoy organizing your desktop, Kitty!!
Patty Palmer says
December 11, 2013 at 9:31 pmJust downloaded your screensaver and added it to my desk top. I love it! You’re a genius. Thanks!
Heather Moritz says
December 12, 2013 at 8:53 pmEnjoy, Patty!! Glad you love it!
TeDi says
December 29, 2013 at 11:34 amThis is such a great idea! I love picmonkey. I am wondering if I can make backgrounds of my own? I guess sizing would be the issue. Until I figure it out I’m using yours. Thanks for such a great idea!
TeDi says
December 29, 2013 at 11:37 amI forgot to say that I can hardly wait to show this off at work. The mess on my desk top is kinda legendary. I will be the envy of everyone!
Heather Moritz says
December 29, 2013 at 7:52 pmLOL! I bet everyone at work will want to download the background too! ENJOY.
Allison says
December 31, 2013 at 2:06 pmI love them! I wasn’t able to download the resolution 2560×1440 of the aqua circles though. I use two displays and wanted to put one on each of them. Thank you so much!
Heather Moritz says
January 2, 2014 at 1:23 pmSorry about that Allison, not sure what happened to that link, but I have it fixed! You can download the background now!
Jamie says
January 1, 2014 at 9:17 pmHave you given the program Fences (http://www.stardock.com/products/fences/) a try? It does virtually the same thing without have to redo a background every time the blocks run out of room or if you don’t intend on using all of them. It also allows for smaller blocks you can scroll through for an even more CLEAN desktop! Unfortunately, it’s only FREE to try but well worth the $9.99 it costs.
Heather Moritz says
January 2, 2014 at 1:09 pmJamie- I haven’t seen it before! That is a really great idea, unfortunately it’s only for PC users! Thanks for letting all my readers and I know about it.
Jimmie says
January 2, 2014 at 10:09 pmI want to say thank you. This is beautiful and a great way to tidy up my desktop for the new year. So generous of you!
Heather Moritz says
January 4, 2014 at 8:34 pmYou’re welcome, Jimmie! Glad you like it!
Gay Idle says
January 8, 2014 at 7:55 pmI just finished downloading and tweaking the aqua desktop organizer and I love the looks and functionality of it! Thanks you so much for sharing this! What a great idea!!
blessings,
Gay Idle/CaptiveHeart
Heather Moritz says
January 9, 2014 at 7:34 amGlad you like it Gay! It makes your desktop just a bit prettier, doesn’t it?!
Kay Ward says
January 28, 2014 at 8:23 pmHave you done the desktop organizer for iPad? I’m looking forward to that. My husband would have had a breakdown if I had done it to our laptop! He is less computer savvy than I am! So MY iPad is in for a treat!
Thanks!
Heather Moritz says
January 30, 2014 at 11:03 amHi Kay! It would be awesome to be able to do this on an iPad, but the problem is because the screen rotates, everything moves on the rotation and would fall out of place! So, even though I have done some cute iPad backgrounds, they aren’t organizational because they won’t function correctly. Sorry to disappoint!!
Louise says
January 28, 2014 at 9:55 pmI love the idea of organizing my computer desktop, but I have a Mac computer rather than a PC. Can you tell me how to do it with a Mac?
Louise
Heather Moritz says
January 30, 2014 at 10:57 amHi Louise! I actually have a MAC computer too! If you look above in the post, the directions that are in the gray area tell you how to install it on a MAC, specifically step #4!
I hope that helps you! Let me know if you have any other questions!
Louise says
January 28, 2014 at 9:57 pmWhat a super idea! Thanks for sharing. I wish I could use it, but can’t because I have a MAC computer. Any suggestions for organizing it? Thanks.
Louise
Tiffany says
February 16, 2014 at 1:50 amI LOVE this! I just put it all in place and it works fantastically. One question though. With the way my desktop places icons, the boxes are just a bit off. For example, there will be too much space between the header and the first row of icons and then the bottom row of icons runs into the next header. I hope that makes sense. Any suggestions to fix? I definitely downloaded the correct size so I don’t *think* that would be it? Also, I’m on a PC.
Heather Moritz says
February 16, 2014 at 8:59 pmTiffany, My guess would be that it’s the wrong size background. I would go in and check your screen settings and I know you can also adjust your screen settings as well. I’m not on a PC, so I can’t tell you exactly where to adjust them, but that might be the issue! Hope that helps a bit!
Jenn says
February 28, 2014 at 2:29 pmThis isn’t quite working for me. The icons aren’t lining up correctly in the boxes. I have it on the default font size and classic icon size. They fit horizontally in the boxes, but not vertically.
Heather Moritz says
March 2, 2014 at 12:39 pmJenn- Are you manually moving the icons in the boxes? I place each icon where I would like it.
Jennifer says
April 4, 2014 at 3:19 pmI have a screen resolution of 1280 x 1024. Is there a way that I can get a copy with that resolution? I would love to try this on my work computer, home desktop and home laptop. Also can you do this on an iPhone 5 and iPad 2?
Heather Moritz says
April 9, 2014 at 8:30 amJennifer- Which background would you like at that resolution? Also, you can check out the iPhone Background organizers HERE.
Denise says
May 7, 2014 at 11:29 amJust wondering why when I drag icons to respective box they won’t stay put?
Heather Moritz says
May 7, 2014 at 11:35 amDenise- Are you on a Mac or PC?
Naomi says
May 18, 2014 at 8:44 amI’ve just done this and it’s brilliant! Thank you so much for the download!
Adriana says
May 20, 2014 at 11:57 pmI just tried to download the 2560 x 1600 resolution in Aqua Circles, but the link did not work. Is there any chance you could update that link?
Heather Moritz says
May 21, 2014 at 10:27 amHi Adriana- Sorry about the broken link, but it’s fixed now!
Adriana says
May 22, 2014 at 3:50 pmThank you SO much for that quick response!!
Kelley says
June 11, 2014 at 10:55 pmWOW! I was so impressed and inspired — I not only did it but I even wrote a blog post about it. http://daylilygrl.wordpress.com/2014/06/11/proud-nerd-desktop-organized/ Love it! Thanks so much for your creativity and willingness to share!
Heather Moritz says
June 12, 2014 at 1:28 pmThanks so much for sharing it Kelley!!
MomofTwoPreciousGirls says
July 3, 2014 at 4:10 pmThe aqua circles are adorable on my desktop…I typically try to keep my desktop empty, but have found it easier to access my most used items so I love this new background to organize it!
Lisa says
August 10, 2014 at 7:09 pmWow! This is exactly what I needed and your directions made it simple to set up! 🙂 Suggestion for future versions — could you do some variations using seasonal color palettes? I like decorating my desktop with colors that remind me of each season. This time, I used the gold ombre version and added leaf images from picmonkey to dress it up for autumn. It’s so pretty!
Leii says
September 7, 2014 at 6:06 pm¡I Love you!
Thank you very much.
<3
Liz says
January 1, 2015 at 11:29 amJust used your background this morning to clean up my desktop. What a great way to start the new year! Thank you for sharing! Also, I can’t wait to explore the rest of your site.
Mellissa says
July 31, 2015 at 7:50 amThis is excellent! I’m so happy I found it. I just finished customizing the aqua one and it looks amazing! Thank YOU! <3
Heather Moritz says
August 7, 2015 at 7:54 amHope you are enjoying feeling organized, Mellissa!
Another Amanda C says
September 24, 2015 at 11:36 amI pinned the first article on Pinterest a while back and was checking my pins. I found this one and it’s so cool! Great idea! My pin is now updated to this one and I subscribed to your newsletter, too. Thanks for being so creative! God bless!
Heather Moritz says
September 25, 2015 at 8:22 amAwesome, Amanda! So glad you stopped by! Enjoy the weekly freebies in the newsletter.
Lisa says
September 26, 2015 at 2:58 pmThank you so much for this. It really brings me joy every day. I just got a new laptop and decided to update my labels. One thing I do is include pictures when I edit it in PicMonkey, so I can see my inspiration every day!
Carrie says
April 3, 2016 at 10:03 pmLove this!!!!!
DivaDivine says
May 10, 2016 at 2:13 pmI didn’t even know this was a thing. My desktop is on it’s way to tidy. Thanks for this!
Teresa says
March 19, 2018 at 11:48 amHi, just want to check with you, that first background I could not get access to. It would be perfect for spring!
could you share a link to it? thank you!
Cyndi says
October 23, 2018 at 1:15 pmAfter I edit my image, how do i go about and saving it on my desktop? When I try to save it, it’s asking my to start a trial or sign up for it?
Heather Moritz says
October 28, 2018 at 4:48 pmI just checked out PicMonkey and it looks like it is no longer free. You might want to make your edits on Canva.com. They still have a free version!