Computers are an essential part of our everyday life, and many of us spend hours upon hours using them every day (trust me, I know). That means it's easy to become jaded, and customizing your Windows PC is a pretty great way to prevent that.

Everyone has different tastes, but I'm a big fan of minimalism when it comes to my desktop. I like it to look clean, because not only does it let me see my wallpaper in full, but it also makes things feel much more organized. I've seen far too many desktops filled with all kinds of icons and it's kind of unsettling. So here's what I did to make my perfect desktop setup on Windows 11.

Choosing a wallpaper

You want something beautiful and positive

First things first, having a beautiful desktop means having a great wallpaper. This is probably one of the most subjective pats of this article because everyone likes different aesthetics and themes. For me, most of my desktop wallpapers tend to be based on Nintendo games, but you can also find great wallpaper on websites like Wallpaper Abyss. I've rounded up the best places for Windows wallpapers before, so check that out if you're not sure where to start.

If you want something more unique, though, a personal favorite of mine is Lively Wallpaper. This is a free app that offers a handful of animated wallpapers that react to what you're doing on your PC. My favorite is probably the ink splash one, but if you want something minimalistic, I think the periodic table wallpaper is a great choice.

Another great option is Windows Spotlight, which ensures you'll never get bored of your wallpaper. Windows Spotlight changes your background every day to a different beautiful picture from around the world, and it's one of the best Windows features in recent history, if you ask me.

Choose a matching color

A consistent look is always good

If you have your wallpaper chosen, it's a good idea to now choose a theme color to go along with it. To do that, you'll open the Settings app and go to Personalization and then Colors. Here, you can choose any of the colors available, or even go into a more advanced color picker where you can pick basically any color in existence, and you can even enter HEX, RGB, or HSV values to choose the perfect color.

But really, if you want an easier time, you'll want to click the dropdown menu next to Accent color and choose Automatic. This way, Windows will pick the dominant color from your wallpaper and make that the accent color.

Usually, this accent color is only seen in things like links, buttons, and UI elements like the notification bell in the bottom right corner, but if you want things to be a bit more colorful, there are two options at the end of this page: Show accent color on the Start menu and taskbar and Show accent color on title bars and window borders. You can enable one or both of these options for some extra color, though I personally keep them disabled.

Hide desktop icons

Nobody likes a mess

I usually feel very alone in this, but seeing a bunch of icons on the desktop is a major turn-off for me. I know the idea that having icons on the desktop makes your PC slower isn't really true these days, but it just looks unclean. It's like having a messy house, it may not seem like it matters, but it's kind of a reflection of where your mind is at, so I definitely like keeping things organized.

Thankfully, having a clean desktop is easy. You can delete all the icons and files on the desktop by selecting them, right-clicking them, and choosing Delete.

But if there are important things there, you can always just hide your desktop icons. Just right-click an empty area of the desktop, go to View and disable the option called Show desktop icons and there you go, you now have a perfectly clean desktop. You can always revert this if you need to access those files, but you can also get to your desktop files through File Explorer, so you might just want to keep them hidden.

Alternative: Use Fences

If you have money to spare and you want to organize your desktop in a more flexible way, then maybe you'll want to consider Fences by Stardock. I reviewed this app a while back, and it's a pretty great way to make your desktop more organized and clean. Not only can you group icons into specific areas that make them more organized, but Fences also lets you quickly hide or show your desktop icons at a moment's notice, so you don't have to sacrifice quick access to your apps to keep your desktop minimalistic and clean.

Learn the power of the keyboard

Windows Search finds what you need anyway

Hiding desktop icons may seem like a hinderance if you want to access your files quickly, but really, the fastest way to open your apps and files these days is just to use Windows Search. This is what I find myself using to open most of my apps and files nowadays. All I need to do is press the Windows key on the keyboard and type the name of the file or app I want to open, and most of the time, it's right there, ready to open. As long as you're not giving your files random names, finding what you need should be fairly easy this way. You can always change your search indexing settings if certain files aren't being found as easily as they should.

Power users will certainly vouch for how much faster it is to get certain things done with a keyboard compared to using a mouse, and that's certainly become true for me.

Or you can use Start11

Because I change computers a lot, I don't always bother installing customization apps, but if you want an organized setup that doesn't rely on using Windows Search as much, you can try Start11, another Stardock app. Even though I don't always set it up, this app is super useful because you can put almost anything you'd have on your desktop in your Start menu, and you get capabilities like creating groups, folders, tabs, and pages ot organize it all. It really helps put all your apps and files in easy reach without cluttering your desktop. It costs $5 for a lifetime license, so it's a pretty small investment.

Remove taskbar icons

Those default Windows icons are useless for the most part

If you want a clean and minimalistic desktop, that has to include removing useless icons from the taskbar, too. Both Windows 11 and 10 come with a few icons on the taskbar you probably never use, such as widgets, the search bar, and Task View. There are also some pinned apps there you probably don't need. To remove pinned apps, you can simply right-click their icons and choose Unpin from taskbar.

The Windows icons require a bit more work, but it's still very easy. Simply right-click an empty area of the taskbar, and choose Taskbar settings. You'll be taken to the page where you can turn off the buttons you don't need. For the search bar, there's a dropdown menu, and all you have to do is select Hide. Personally, I tend to leave the Widgets icon on the screen, but you can pick and choose what you want to remove.

Use a transparent taskbar

Enjoy your wallpaper uninterrupted

One of the most baffling things about Windows these days is how it still gets in the way of your wallpaper as much as it does. I mean, you're probably used to it by now and don't even think about it, but wouldn't be nice if you could see all of your wallpaper?

Thankfully, there are solutions to this, too. The best one (mostly because it's free), is TranslucentTB, an app available on the Microsoft Store with the sole purpose of giving you a transparent taskbar. In fact, it does a bit more than that. You can change the color of the taskbar, the type of blur effect you want (if any), and the level of transparency. You can even change these settings for certain scenarios, so, for example, when the desktop is visible, the taskbar is completely transparent, but it can become visible when you have a maximized app, because seeing your wallpaper at the bottom of the screen could be visually distracting.

Other paid apps offer something similar, including the aforementioned Start11, but if you prefer free solutions, TranslucentTB is great.

Let the desktop be a peaceful space

Most of the time I spend on my computer tends to be stressful, so a minimalist and clean desktop acts as a sort of cooldown, something I can just look at and not do anything. Because of that, I really like having it as clean as possible, and the steps above have really helped me with that. If you're someone looking to clean up the way your desktop looks, you'll hopefully find some value in these tips too.