Everything DeskDrawer does

A complete list, including the things it deliberately does not do. If you are deciding whether it fits, the second half of this page matters as much as the first.

Updated 8 August 2026

Boards#

  • Group desktop icons, files, folders and shortcuts into transparent boards
  • Boards are drawn on the desktop, not as windows: Win+D and "Minimize all" leave them alone
  • No title bars — all controls in one compact corner widget
  • Fold any board into a compact square and unfold it again
  • Optional outline and rounded corners, per board
  • Drag to move, drag to resize; both snap to the icon grid, screen edges and neighbouring boards
  • Rename by double-clicking the board name
  • Deleting a board returns its icons to the default board and never touches a file

Your files#

  • Files never move. Boards store Board membership, not locations
  • New desktop items appear automatically on the default board
  • The one exception is deliberate: dropping a file onto a folder moves it, exactly as the desktop does — with the folder highlighted while you drag, and a cross-drive drop copying rather than moving
  • Uninstalling leaves every file exactly where it was

Native Windows behaviour#

  • The genuine Shell context menu on every icon, including every extension you have installed
  • The desktop's own right-click menu on empty board space, with a working New submenu
  • Open, rename (F2), delete, copy, cut, paste, drag — the shortcuts you already use
  • Drag files out to File Explorer or any application, and in from them
  • Standard Windows info tips on hover: type, size, date, a shortcut's target, an image's dimensions
  • The Windows 11 Share pane
  • Windows' own dialogs are passed through, including the broken-shortcut prompt and the "how do you want to open this file?" picker
  • Marquee selection that spans several boards at once

Arranging#

  • Five sort modes per board — manual, name, type, size, date — each ascending or descending
  • Manual order is stored and survives switching away and back
  • Four icon sizes per board
  • Automatic re-tiling after an icon-size change so boards stay inside the work area
  • Fix misplaced boards to rescue a layout after a display change, without touching boards that are fine

Windows integration#

  • Windows 10 build 19041 and newer, and Windows 11, on x64
  • Multiple monitors, including mixed DPI scaling — per-monitor v2 aware
  • Boards kept inside each monitor's Work area, never under the taskbar
  • Optional Run at startup through the official Windows startup task, manageable from Task Manager
  • Live Recycle Bin state, updated on change rather than by polling
  • Per-user configuration, so a shared PC works correctly

Language#

  • Store listing available in 16 languages
  • The application interface is icon-only — the Board menu and Tray menu contain no sentences
  • New boards are numbered, not named, so a layout contains no words in any language
  • System icon names and the whole right-click menu come from Windows in your display language
  • Full detail in Languages

Privacy and footprint#

  • One tray process. No services, no drivers, no shell extensions, no plugin host
  • No network connections of any kind — no telemetry, analytics, crash reporting, update checks or accounts
  • No ads, ever
  • Configuration is one local JSON file you can copy, read and back up
  • Ships as a Single-file self-contained executable; no runtime to install

What DeskDrawer does not do#

Stated here rather than left for you to discover:

  • No automatic filing rules
  • No launcher, dock, widgets or theming
  • No plugin system
  • No global hotkeys or rebindable keys
  • No sync between machines
  • No screen-reader support for board contents
  • No ARM64 build
  • English-only application strings and documentation

The reasoning for each, and the known rough edges, is in Limitations.