Items on desktop slowing down computer?

[tdod]

The genius bar told me that I should minimize the number of items on my desktop. So, lets say I have only 1 folder on my desktop, but that 1 folder has tons of stuff on it? Is all that stuff going to slow down my desktop, or is it just the stuff that's directly on the desktop?


Thanks!

 

[vansmith]

The issues concerning content on the Desktop are really only going to affect performance if you have a significant amount of visible content on it. In other words, a folder with 1,000 items isn't going to impact it much. 1,000 items on the Desktop might and it would be a fairly minor performance hit.

 

[cradom]

What the deal is, Finder has to read and display an icon for everything on the desktop, constantly, all the time. One folder, even though it has thousands of files in it, only has one icon. However, if you have more things on the desktop, you have more icons refreshing.
One or two things wont significantly slow things down. However, I know people who have aliases for almost everything in their Applications folder on the desktop, and wonder why it's so slow.