This is a simple way to turn those icons into a toolbar,so you can get them off the screen but still have access to them from your desktop .. and anywhere else!
You can hide the icons using Active desktop. However this way does not rob your computer of precious system resources, which the active desktop DOES.
First, RIGHT click on a blank area of your desktop and select "New", then "Folder" and name this folder Desktop Toolbar.
Now, drag all or some of your icons into this folder.
Some icons, like My Computer, etc. may not allow you to move them, but any icons you have created yourself since your installation of Windows should not be a problem.
Some icons will try to create shortcuts in your folder instead of actually moving the icon. For these, just RIGHT click when you drag. Then, when you release your right mouse button, select "Move Here".
Now, drag this folder to the far right edge of your screen, so part of it is actually off screen and let go of your mouse button.
There .. all your icons which you can scroll through to find what you want and your beautiful wallpaper is no longer cluttered up with icons.
You can also drag this folder to the left or top of your screen and achieve the same effect.
You will notice the folder you made is still on your desktop. Unfortunately, there's no way to get rid of it without deleting all its contents, so DON'T delete it.
Do you want to make it even less intrusive? Right click on a blank area of this new toolbar and check out your choices. I moved mine to the top of my screen, and choosing "View" and "Small Icons" from this right click menu. Then I moved my cursor to the bottom edge of this toolbar and dragged down until the toolbar showed all of my icons. Then I chose "Auto hide" and "Always on Top" from the right click menu. Now my desktop looks like this:
But, if I move my mouse pointer to the top of my screen, my desktop looks like this:
