How to Clean Up excessive Desktop Shortcuts?(Windows 10)

[Schrobes]

Is there a program that people use, or a Windows 10 ability to clean up shortcuts of deleted games/programs?

I did some manual cleaning but did not delete the shortcuts as well, so now i have a bunch of useless shortcuts on my desktop.

Thank you.

[SlowClick]

Right-click > delete.

[_I_]

or right click on desktop, and hide icons

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Also you can do something like making a Folder for certain things.
> Games
> Toolbox
> Admin
> Scripts
> Work

etc. ~ And have all those many many app shortcuts inside those folders, so the overall Desktop still looks very minimal.

But yes you can right click the Desktop area and then un-check "Show Icons"

It also helps to never enable "Auto Arrange" but leave "Align to Grid" enabled.

You can still access all of that via File Explorer > Desktop

[Schrobes]

I guess i didnt word the question properly.

I deleted a slew of different games that had shortcuts on my desktop. is there no way to auto delete all those now defunct shortcuts? A cleaning tool or app that windows 10 might have?

I know there is a file that Windows makes specifically for Desktop Shortcuts but i forgot the name and place of it. I bet this is my best bet, to delete that file and have Windows generate a new one.

[_I_]

test and delete, or just delete them all and remake ones that you need

steam game shortcuts link to steam and no easy way to see if they are not installed

[Schrobes]

Originally posted by _I_:

test and delete, or just delete them all and remake ones that you need

steam game shortcuts link to steam and no easy way to see if they are not installed

I was afraid of this. Hmmmm..... I guess i royally messed up. Ah well....

[SlowClick]

Games are greyed out in the Steam library if they are not installed (or maybe if it can't find them).

[↑↑↓↓←→←→BASelect]

Drag them all to an empty part of your desktop then drag and highlight them all and then right click hold down shift then click delete they will be gone for good as holding down shift bypasses the recycling bin.

[Raoul]

Originally posted by Schrobes:

Originally posted by _I_:

test and delete, or just delete them all and remake ones that you need

steam game shortcuts link to steam and no easy way to see if they are not installed

I was afraid of this. Hmmmm..... I guess i royally messed up. Ah well....

Actually there is free program that does this called CCleaner. After installing go into settings and disable smart, auto cleaning and updates (least what I do) then go to Custom clean --> System --> right click desktop shortcuts --> clean desktop shortcuts.

It basically checks the location of the shortcut and if nothing there cleans it for you. It would be the same as right clicking each shortcut > open file location to check if the file/folder exists then deleting each shortcut manually yourself which is also fine if it's just a few.

[V3LTA]

Originally posted by Raoul:

Originally posted by Schrobes:

I was afraid of this. Hmmmm..... I guess i royally messed up. Ah well....

Actually there is free program that does this called CCleaner. After installing go into settings and disable smart, auto cleaning and updates (least what I do) then go to Custom clean --> System --> right click desktop shortcuts --> clean desktop shortcuts.

It basically checks the location of the shortcut and if nothing there cleans it for you. It would be the same as right clicking each shortcut > open file location to check if the file/folder exists then deleting each shortcut manually yourself which is also fine if it's just a few.

Exactly, personally i am using iobit uninstaller an it does pretty much the same :)

[Bad 💀 Motha]

What you need all those junk apps for? Just manually clean it up yourself, you put the stuff there.

CCleaner and IOBit Uninstaller are not helpful to clean up anything related to games.

[Schrobes]

Originally posted by Bad 💀 Motha:

What you need all those junk apps for? Just manually clean it up yourself, you put the stuff there.

CCleaner and IOBit Uninstaller are not helpful to clean up anything related to games.

Again. I must be wording the question incorrectly.

Scenario: Went through my drives and deleted folders of applications i am not using. I did not do this with the Shortcuts for said applications on my Desktop. So now i have a plethora of different Useless Shortcuts on my Desktop. Is there nothing out there that can siphon through and delete those useless Shortcuts, as opposed to me going through and searching what is there and not there?

-- I understand that Steam has it's own ordeal with shortcuts, which is why i say i royally screwed up in not deleting the Shortcuts as i went through and deleted the applications.

[andreasaspenberg575]

there is a built in app that cleans up unused icons.

[_I_]

cleanmgr.exe
does not clean up desktop icons
it only deletes temp files and empties recycle bin and stuff like that

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Be careful with excessive use of various 3rd party clean up tools.
Often times they will consider all the GPU Shader Cache in %LocalAppData% as "temp junk"
While that is true, you might need that if you play certain games often enough, where they can take 10-30 minutes or more to create such shader cache and output a temp cache file that your game will now use from now on. Unless it gets deleted then next game launch you'll have to wait while that gets created fresh again. Some games like The Last of Us it can take 40-60 mins to create that.

DO NOT run or use any cleanup tools (not even MS Disk Cleanup) while Windows Updates is actively downloading and/or applying updates; or needs a restart in order to apply certain updates. If a junk cleanup app wipes that stuff out during such a time, it can royally screw up your OS. Or having you repeat the process when you did not need to.