Close to a dozen times I've seen a machine come in with over 1000 items on the desktop. Usually from someone doing a file search for say, MP3 or JPG, and selecting all, and dragging to their desktop.
The computer becomes essentially unusable since there are so many "windows" on the screen at once, overlapping many layers deep. Easiest way to fix that is to boot into FW target and get in there and make a folder in their desktop folder, and move everything into it. It's not even worth the time of trying to do that simple thing while booted up on it.
I personally strive to keep only a single vertical column of icons on my desktop, two at the most at any given time. I can't stand it when I am working on someone's computer and for example, plug in a flash drive and have to HUNT for where it landed on the desktop.
