Like most other people I suspect, I've gathered a few icons on my desktop. Rt clicking gives an opportunity to delete them. If I do, do they simply leave the desktop or do they take with them everything they are associated/represented with? For example, when i subscribed to talktalk, I gained three icons. One I use to connect and one of the others checks the system when connection fails, but the other one means nothing to me. also, there is a Quicktime and Media Player icon which I don't recall using.
If your desktop is cluttered with personal data files (like word documents or excel spreadsheets, or personal digital pictures then why not drag them into My Documents.
Under Windows XP everyone has a My Documents folder and this is where you should keep all your personal files.
You can move files into My Documents easily by just dragging the icon over the folder and letting go.