Basically, cos I'm lazy! To get to the desktop shortcuts I have to minimize all windows to see the desktop - so might aswell just hit the START button on the keyboard, in which all my most used programmes are stored as quick pick shortcuts. The three programmes most used are in the grouping on the task bar, and there's a pop up extension for another bunch of programmes off that aswell. So I don't have any need for desktop items/shortcuts/files

Plus it all looks a lot cleaner