There seems to be a current twitter frenzy over showing your desktop, and some interesting comments have come about because of this. I own and love my MacBook, but also use a Windows machine every day, due to my work requirements and because my MacBook is mainly for travelling. The one reason I love OSX however is because of the simplicity of the interface, a single menu, simple dock and a clean desktop, all of which is part of the OSX thinking. However on Windows the above can’t easily be achieved, as it’s the nature of the beast. However simplifying it turned out to be easier then I thought.

First let me explain what made me chance. I have recently spent a lot of time using Linux, specifically as servers. I have previously mentioned running Linux for my virtualization requirements, and have since added another box and moved the Fedora box to CentOS. A discussion for another post however. The one thing I enjoy about working with Linux is the command line, typing a command and getting an almost instant response. Overall I found that I work faster using the command line, and if I can avoid using my mouse altogether I am somewhat happier doing my work. So I set out to find a way to make my Windows experience a bit more Linux like. Thanks to Super User and some tweaking I was able to achieve this goal.

My desktop on my Windows machine, both at work and at home, is completely clean. My background is something I want to see in all it’s glory, and I spend a lot of time on Desktop Nexus finding the right background, which I change once a week. I found the site thanks to a question from Super User on Good websites for wallpapers. Secondly both my wife and I have dual Fujitsu LL3200T LCD displays, which gives more then enough screen real estate for working comfortably. At work I run dual 17” Dell Widescreens. Both machines are configured the same, since I like keeping my environments similar, as I spent at least the same amount of time in both on a day.

The next step was to simplify my interface as much as possible. I really do like the new Windows 7 Interface, however it was still to much for me, and I decided to try some of the shell replacements mentioned in the Good Windows shell replacement question over at Super User. I generally have a bad run with shell replacements, however the SharpE shell turned out to be a real winner. It easily replaced the standard explorer and has a very easy to use configuration module, well layout and easy to get to use. With a little bit of effort I got my taskbar down to only the essentials. The one thing I specifically wanted removed was my Start Menu, as it requires me to use a mouse to start the applications I want to use.

Thankfully there is an awesome little application called SlickRun which comes to the rescue. This free floating command line application is a mini command line on steroids. It allows for the creation of MagicWords, which basically maps a text command to a windows applications or even a group of instructions. Using SlickRun I was able to map command I regularly use on Linux to the equivalent applications in Windows, and mapping it to the Win+R key as a shortcut, can now launch any application by simply typing it’s name.

With some small tweaks I was able to improve my daily production significantly, spending more time getting work done, and feeling good when sitting in front of my desktop. Being minimalistic is important to me, and with these changes to my Windows environment it also feels more like using my MacBook everyday. I highly recommend looking into the above mentioned applications, and also have a look at a few mentioned on Super User in the provided links.