How do I clear all the download Icons from my display?

Question

My screen is so cluttered with download images, zip files which I unstuffed, etc.
I know this has probably been asked and answered somewhere, but I can't find it in my search in the forums.
Can I move them to trash or will that affect the download applications, etc?
Thanks.

Answer 1

OK:
http://www.apple.com/support/mac101/tour/
shows you where the desktop is, and the hard drive icon.
This document:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106161
shows you the different kinds of icons applications will give you. A dmg and an img file are the same icon for a virtual disk image file. When that file is double clicked, most application installers will be inside icons like this one:
If there is no installer program inside that icon, just drag the application to the Applications folder on your hard drive.
Once that is done, the above icon can be dragged to the trash to dismount the image file's virtual disk. When it is gone from your desktop, then the img or dmg file can be dragged to the trash. You can keep behind the img or dmg file and put it inside a folder inside your home folder which looks like this:
The home folder is inside your hard drive -> users folder
The desktop folder which includes everything on the desktop is inside the home folder.
I recommend creating your own folder with the File menu New submenu inside the Home folder to store backups of img and dmg and sit and zip files as well as any documents you want to keep.
When that is done, you can backup to other sources as my backup FAQ explains:
http://www.macmaps.com/backup.html
Once you are backed up.
A .dmg.gz and .dmg.zip file are zipped up image files which if double clicked will reveal the .dmg file.
A .sit file uses an old archive standard known as Stuffit, which can be expanded by http://www.allume.com/ 's Stuffit Expander.
Feel free to ask any additional questions.