Clear Desktop Clutter with Groupy

YOU’LL NEED THIS

GROUPY Download a free 30-day trial version from www.stardock. com/products/groupy, or

pay $10 for the full app.

IF YOU’VE EVER HAD TO JUGGLE multiple work or study assignments at once, you may have come to resent the concertina of open windows on your desktop. Groupy is a free-to-try utility that attempts to declutter your desktop by organizing your files and programs into tabs. This idea is hardly new, as web browsers have happily displayed dozens of webpages side by side for years. However, Groupy borrows this concept and extends it, by applying it to other programs, such as File Explorer.

In this tutorial, you’ll discover how to install Groupy and set up your first group of tabs. After taking some time to flick between these effortlessly, you’ll also learn how to save and restore your favorite groups. Groupy can also change its appearance to some extent to make tabs easier to navigate, move, open, and close.

If, like us, you become a Groupy convert overnight, the program also supports automatically grouping together multiple instances of the same program, such as Microsoft Paint. And if you’re worried about becoming too trigger-happy and tabbing everything in sight, Groupy also supports “Opt-in” tabulation using key presses.

Groupy is available as a 30-day free trial. If you feel your life is enriched by it, you’ll need to pay $9.99 to obtain a product key for the full version. 1 DOWNLOAD AND INSTALL GROUPY Open your web browser and navigate to www.stardock. com/products/groupy/. Click “Try it Free!” to download the installer for the trial version of Groupy. Double-click to launch the installer from your “Downloads” folder. Windows 10 users need to click “Yes” to allow the program to make changes. Select the radio button to agree to the licensing agreement, then click “Next.” Confirm your install location, then click “Next” again. Once installation is complete, Groupy launches automatically. Groupy now asks you to enter a product key; instead, select “Start 30-day free trial,” then enter your email address to receive an activation link. You must click the link to start using Groupy. 2 ADD YOUR FIRST APP TO A GROUPY TAB On first launch, Groupy displays a “Welcome” screen giving more information about the utility and how to get started. Read this, then click “Close” on the bottom-right. From here, you can adjust Groupy’s tab and visual settings. But for now, open a new File Explorer window. Next, add your program of choice by dragging the application window over the title bar in File Explorer. Release the mouse button and the tab is created automatically. Click each tab to switch between windows. Groupy is compatible with a number of applications beyond File Explorer, such as Microsoft Edge and Paint. Feel free to open these and add other windows as a new tab until you feel comfortable with the process [ Image A]. 3 ORGANIZE YOUR GROUPY TABS Now you know how to add programs to new Groupy tabs and windows, open a few more of your essential programs and files. Next, drag them into a Groupy-compatible window, such as the File Explorer

one you opened earlier in the same way. Re-order tabs by pressing and holding the left mouse button, then moving left and right. To close tabs, hover your mouse over the tab name, then click the “X” next to it. Alternatively, change tabs back to regular windows by dragging and dropping them on to the desktop. To close all tabs, click the “X” at the top-right, as you would for any normal window. If you have any unsaved work , the program still asks whether you want to save changes. 4 SAVE TABS AS A GROUP By default, when you close a Groupy window or shut down your PC, any open tabs are lost. Fortunately, Groupy supports saving tabs as “Groups,” so they can be restored. To get started, click the Groupy options button (“…”) at the top-right of the window. Scroll down to “Save Group” [ Image B]. Click this option to enter a group name—“Art Class Materials,” for example. Select “Save” to finalize your changes. Groups are saved on a window by window basis, so if you have multiple Groupy windows open, you must save each one as a separate group. 5 LOADING AND EDITING GROUPS You can restore groups at any time by clicking the options button at the top-right of any Groupy-compatible window, then scrolling down to “Saved Groups.” Double-click the name of your saved group to restore all your tabs. Any new tabs you add to a group aren’t automatically saved, but you can resave new tabs using the same group name by following the instructions in step 6. If you’re managing multiple groups, you can also search for them in the Windows 10 search bar at the bottom-left. If you use multiple Windows virtual desktops, restored groups all appear on the same screen. However, you also can manually create a new Groupy window and add new tabs to it on a separate desktop. 6 EXPORTING GROUPS Groupy has no built-in way to export or share saved groups. This can be a nuisance if you work with the same programs and files across multiple PCs. Luckily, it isn’t too difficult to move your Groupy settings between Windows devices. Open File Explorer and copy your “Groupy” folder in the “AppData” directory “C:\Users\Nate\ AppData\Roaming\Groupy.” Do the same with “Saved Groups” under “Start Menu”—for instance, “C:\Users\Nate\ AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\ Windows\Start Menu\Saved Groups.” Install Groupy on your Windows device, then copy these folders to their respective locations. Next, launch Groupy, and click the options button at the top-right. Scroll to “Saved Groups” and choose “Manage Saved Groups” to see them listed. Note: This only works if your files and programs are in exactly the same location on both devices. 7 CHANGE TAB BEHAVIOR Groupy’s interface is highly customizable. You can access program settings by launching Groupy via the “Start” menu or desktop shortcut. Uncheck the option to show the welcome message and click “Close.” Most of the tab options are self-explanatory. In the “Visuals” section, you can choose “Combine if possible” under “Where should Groupy position the tabs?” to place tabs on the title bar itself instead of above it [ Image C]. By default, Groupy only displays the close button on tabs when you hover over them with your mouse. To change this, click the drop-down menu under “How should the tabs look?” and choose a different option, such as “Show a close button on all the tabs.” 8 CHANGE GROUPY COLORS Groupy automatically matches your Windows color settings for custom application windows for active and inactive tabs. You also can manage these settings from the “Visuals” section of the Groupy main menu. First, deselect the checkbox marked “Automatically match color of custom titlebars.” Next, click “Pick default active tab color.” This brings up a color palette wheel. Select your color of choice, then click “OK” [ Image D]. If you are unhappy with your results, click “Reset to automatic tab colors” to restore your settings. Color changes only affect the tab itself, not the file or program open beneath it.