ohh jeeze you should be banned for Naming something that should not be named... Fil* Exp
the name along freeze my bones and should be world wide banned

repeat after me, TOTAL commander.

say again total commander is all you ever need.

nah double commander is way better

Please clean your desktop.

Create a new folder "Backup_XX" and move every item there, when there are too much "backup" folders maybe a external hard drive is needed. I would use "new folder_01" instead of "backup_01".

Nowadays I'm a bit more organized and usually don't go over 20 shortcuts on desktop and no "files" unless temporary.
Steam games are launched via Steam, games that don't need installation (usually on another drive or partition) and Gog games have their own shortcut but previously used Launchbox.
Programs that are always used, like browser, explorer and calculator are pinned on taskbar, that way only a single click is needed to open.

With Windows don't even have a keyboard attached most of the times while on Linux Mint I use a diferent approach, don't use desktop shortcuts and launch programs via start menu search.

What I keep using less and less over the time is the Start Menu program list, not that you can actually use it with Windows 10 Aberration Edition anyway. Since I only use Win8.1 with Classic Shell, the start menu is used to access most administration tools (via right click Win+X menu) and control panel with a single click. I can't recall the last time I clicked the program list.

Well this might surprise but, no, not really. I use either the windows search function or the appropriate game launcher. I tried galaxy for a while, but to be honest, to have that run first every time if you want to launch a game that uses another launcher feels overly redundant.

I did had this artistic period where i tried to arrange icons according to a certain symmetry, either color or function based while going for pendragons, hexdragons and bears on the road

At least you have more space still available compared to me. On the other hand, all your files are closer to each other + larger resolution. I tend to delete stuff when it gets too full...although, I do have two folders with previous desktop stuff but that's from when I migrated HDDs.
I'll also echo lolplatypus' view on the lack of grouping. For instance, my first three columns are basically shortcuts for programs. Things that belong together also tend to be grouped (I have four versions of the CRPG book for instance, or Excel files with the same basic theme etc). Shortcuts for games are all over the place, though, I only have seven and two are together because they are from the same series.

Nope. No icon besides the irremovable recycle bin.

Games are launched via Playnite (an open source universal game client)

Frequently used applications have quick launch shortcuts on the task bar.

Less used applications I just use Windows search for.

Documents go into the documents folder, music into the music folder etc, and most files are usually accessed by the apps that actually use them. I also use a tool called Everything to find individual files.

Cause Winamp is better.

I surely use Desktop - the best launcher for games. Why do extra clicks to navigate somewhere or to install useless 3rd party programs?

There's a registry hacks you cand do to remove the bin, but do be careful, as always.

Can't you just hide all desktop icons somewhere in Windows?

How the heck should I know? I don't use Windows. ;)

I do have folders like "games", "programs" etc., but I only sort the desktop once I start the cleanup process. I just let it build up over time, then sort/delete the majority of it. Although even when I finish a cleanup cycle, I just reduce the taken space from like 80% of the screen to 30%. Several columns of stuff always remain which I think I might need in the near future. I haven't seen an "empty" desktop in years....

At least in 7 there definitely are such settings, see image, no idea about the later released crap...

On the other hands, seeing all these discussions about launchers and other third party software... I try to keep my install as lean as possible, keep installed programs low, even for some I need try to see whether portable versions are available (Open Hardware Monitor is portable, SumatraPDF and Pale Moon have portable versions...), and really keep programs that run all the time at a minimum, so installing something to launch other programs? Seriously?

And my desktop's quite tidy anyway.

Well, you have to start programs somehow. If you can choose the preferred method, why not?

I like to keep my desktop super minimal with just the recycled bin. I went so far as to manually add all of my non-GOG games to Galaxy just so that I could have about fifty games installed and not have a bunch of short-cut icons cluttering up my desktop nor have to go digging through the start menu either. I also don't have much pinned to the start menu metro tiles, just a few programs that I use often but not enough to warrant pinning to the task bar.

https://imgur.com/lUBws32