Real Desktop is an incredibly fun Windows application. In a nutshell, it turns your desktop into a “room”, and you organize your files, folders and desktop shortcuts as tiles in that room. The fun part comes in when you drag-and-drop those tiles (or throw them into each other and watch as they bounce around). Keep reading for a full summary, review and lots of screenshots.

I’m 90-something percent sure that Real Desktop is based on BumpTop (and not the other way around). Regardless, Real Desktop is available now, and BumpTop isn’t. Here’s the drawback, (you guessed it) it’s not free. You can purchase Real Desktop for €17.95 (EUR) – which is currently $24.48 USD (per www.xe.com/ucc). There is a trial available, but it’s one of the shortest software trials I’ve ever heard of – you get one hour to decide if you want to buy it. So to save you some precious time, I’ve summarized the tips below.

1. To turn an icon, just grab its edge.
2. To lift an icon, grab it, hold down both left and right mouse buttons, and move your mouse.
3. To highlight an icon, hold down the shift key on your keyboard, then click with your left mouse button on the icon and move your mouse.
4. You can open the extra menu by clicking an icon with the right mouse button while pressing the shift key.
5. You can select several icons at once by holding down the ctrl key while you select them (or by clicking a blank space on your desktop and moving your mouse around the icons).
6. With Ctrl-X, Ctrl-C and Ctrl-Y you can cut, copy and paste your files.
7. You can select a different wastebasket (which is found under the style menu entry).

Real Desktop Features and Overview

1. The first time you launch Real Desktop it will ask if you want to arrange your icons Ordered or Unordered.



2. By default, a Tips window will appear in the upper-right corner of your desktop. If you read the summarized list of tips in this article, you can close the window now – you’ve already read them all.



3. And your desktop will look something like the screenshot below.


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4. To change the Recycle Bin, right-click it and select Style. From here you can test out the available Recycle Bin styles.



5. When you move your cursor close to an icon (or group of them) the icon name(s) will be revealed. Otherwise, they’re unlabelled.



6. To move an icon, hover your cursor over it until the cursor changes (see screenshot below) click and hold the left mouse button, and drag that icon. Tip: while dragging an icon, ’smash’ it into a group of icons and watch them fly around.



7. To rotate an icon, hover your cursor around the edge of it until the ’swirl’ cursor appears (see screenshots below). Then hold down the left mouse button and move your mouse in a circle to rotate.



8. Perhaps it’s just me, but I find throwing all of the icons into a corner endlessly entertaining.


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9. Click in an empty area of the desktop and drag your cursor around a group of icons. This will select them all at once.


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10. To change the Real Desktop settings, right-click on its system tray icon and select Settings.



11. From here you can change a lot of the aspects of Real Desktop.



12. Below is a screenshot of Real Desktop with the camera angle changed.


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13. And here’s a screenshot of the Cold Iron theme.


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14. Another with a different lighting angle.


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15. Real Desktop with the camera angle changed to above.


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16. After playing with Real Desktop for one hour, I’ve come to the conclusion that I would probably purchase this software if I used Windows as my primary OS. I’m also really hoping that BumpTop comes out with an OS X version

Real Desktop Requirements: