4 Revolutionary Desktop Features Every OS Should Have Implemented
The concept that could’ve made your life easier, and more productive.
I’m a regular designer and developer, who has used Windows, Linux, and Mac each having their pros and cons. There are features that one operating system has that another lacks. E.g., the spotlight in Mac, desktop environment in Linux, games/drivers support in Windows. But there are certain features I crave, which I couldn’t find in any of the operating systems.
Maybe I couldn’t discover them properly or maybe there’s a third-party app already available with these features. If you find one of these, please share it with me. Or maybe create one in our spare time.
1. Clean Desktop Appearance (Scrollable Icons)
Isn’t it annoying when your desktop fills up with clutter and you don’t have time to clean it up? On my Macbook, I used to just download files to the desktop and hoard them until I clicked on the “Photos” folder and boom! the screen filled with hundreds of overlapping icons and gibberish text.
Well, the solution is either to find time to clean it up or to get something more productive: scrollable desktop icons, where you can scroll down to see more icons. Plus, the icons are fixed to the side so they don’t take up the entire screen.
I’m sure this will keep your desktop clean, unless you use drag-and-drop to arrange your icons instead of a grid.
2. Desktop Profiles
Desktop switching looked beautiful when it was first introduced in Windows. I could work with more than 2 projects simultaneously by switching between different desktops. I could even add third desktop to play games when my boss is away.
This is really great, but couldn’t we make it even better by having different sets of desktop icons or shortcuts for each desktop? For example, I’m building an application for company A and designing an icon for company B. Wouldn’t it be easier and less confusing to save/load files for different Company A on Desktop A and so on?
3. Window Management Shortcuts
I think this has already been implemented by some third party apps. The idea is to arrange windows in grid (side-by-side or vertically). If you press Windows + 1 1, it’ll arrange two most active windows in 2 columns. Similarly, Windows + 1 2 moves 1 most active window to left and 2 active windows to right.
You could also go for 3 columns e.g., Windows + 1 1 1 creates three active windows in 3 columns.
4. Papercups (Disposable Files)
This is something you can do manually but if an operating system provides one as a feature, it’ll be great.
I’ve downloaded about 5–6 images for this article, that won’t be used in future since I uploaded them all here. Similarly, I keep downloading setup files or taking screenshots, only for one-time use. Won’t they clutter my desktop/downloads folder?
I like it when MacOS deletes .app or .dmg file after installing the app. However, it’d be awesome if there was a folder where you can save the files temporarily, only for them to be automatically deleted after 30 days.
Bonus: Not-So-Annoying Clippy
If operating systems could make the best use of Artificial Intelligence, this would be one of the most productive ways. Imagine you open MS Word, and you don’t know how to wrap an image around text. You click on a small icon at the bottom of your screen and ask the assistant to help you. The assistant will know you’re asking something about MS Word (the active window). Wouldn’t it be better than opening ChatGPT or googling stuff?
Different applications can create their knowledge base and submit it to the bot, which can then help users based on the information.
