A little trick not all of you may have been aware of: The Windows Start menu -- and each column within the Programs submenu -- grows in width according to the names of the programs and documents in it. Any long-winded name will immediately increase the width of the whole column, and all the other columns if your Programs Menu stretches to more than one. Like this:
To avoid these columns taking up too much space, it's worth spending a bit of time renaming the programs, folders and whatever you have in these lists so they're short and pithy. (To do this right click over the entry and select 'rename'.) Once you've whittled down the longest culprits you'll notice the columns shrinking in width. The thinner they are, the more you can fit on and the more you can see of the Desktop. Like this:
