Board
A board is the central object in DeskDrawer. Visually it is a rectangle of your wallpaper with an optional outline, holding a grid of icons. Functionally it is a named set of desktop entries plus a position, a size, a sort order and an icon size.
Anatomy#
Every board has a compact Board widget in its bottom-right corner containing the fold arrow, the board name and the Corner grip. There is no title bar along the top — this is deliberate, and it is the single largest visual difference between DeskDrawer and most alternatives. A title bar costs roughly one icon row of height on every board on screen.
What a board stores#
A board records the identity of the icons assigned to it, its rectangle in screen coordinates, its Sort mode, its Icon size, and two appearance toggles (Board outline and rounded corners). All of this lives in config.json.
A board does not store your files, copies of your files, or paths that would break if a file moved. See Board membership for the exact semantics.
Behaviour that follows from being part of the desktop#
Boards are not ordinary application windows. They sit at desktop level, which produces several behaviours people notice:
- Win+D and the taskbar "Show desktop" corner do not hide them, because showing the desktop is showing them.
- Alt+F4 over a board opens Windows' Shut Down Windows dialog, exactly as it does on the real desktop.
- Applications that open while boards are on screen come to the front normally.
The default board#
Every desktop icon that has not been assigned anywhere else belongs to the Default board. Deleting a board returns its icons there; it never deletes files.