The kind of people who need this software are the same people whose cubicles look like landfills.

If you know anything about computers it's pretty easy to remove desktop icons, remove programs from loading automatically onto the taskbar and removing options from the Word menus. You can even (shock) have the start menu dissapear until you put a cursor on it.

Am getting very tired of "solutions" to things that aren't problems. If you need a program to clean up your desktop, the problem isn't the desktop.

The kind of people who need this "spell checking" software are the same people whose grocery lists look like they were composed by my six year-old nephew.

If you know anything about English it's pretty easy to remove extra letters from your words, keep i be before e (mostly) and spend some time sounding everything out. You can even (shock) use a dictionary for anything you are not sure of.

Am getting very tired of "solutions" to things that aren't problems. If you need a program to clean up your spelling in the English language, the problem isn't the English language.

musireallyweighin, I completely agree (if not with your tone, certainly with your point). I was trying to come up with a response to this article when I read yours and thought, "yeah, that's pretty much it in a nutshell." Amazing how Windows and Leopard (or Cougar or Cheetah or whatever Macs are using these days) can do this for you with just a few clicks. Easily.

And, Mr. MacIntyre, brother, no, my desktop looks nothing like yours! Mine doesn't even have a "My Computer" or "My Network" icon on it! (I have chosen to keep the Recycle Bin there, though. I can't explain why. Nostalgia?) Finally, and perhaps amazingly, my taskbar only appears when I will it to by approaching it with my cursor. It's truly a zen-like miracle, and all without any after-market software.

P.S. You should see my word, IE7 and Excel tool bars. One row only!

You are completely right, even if a bit antagonistic about it. Unless your screen can only be described in square feet, there is absolutely no reason to have a desktop more or less cluttered than you'd like. Too many program shortcuts on the desktop? Delete them! It's almost amazing, but that really is all there is to it. I'd go a step further and say that something which irks me much more than a 'full' desktop is Microsofts Desktop Cleanup Wizard (or whatever it's called). "You have unused icons on your desktop. Click here to clean it up!" OR I could just click on the unused icons and delete them! Genius! Anyone know how to remove or disable it on an XP machine? (Although at least it's not an animated paperclip)

Also, everything else being said, DarkRoom is great and has immediately made writing much more enjoyable for me. To whoever wrote that light text on dark backgrounds has been proven to be more tiring to the eyes: you may be right, but all intuition and anecdotal evidence disagrees completely.