"Clean up" desktop with Applescript - macos

Question

I feel it should be a simple task, but I could not find a solution yet. Basically, I want to clean up the items of the desktop using Applescript, the same way I would by right-clicking the desktop and clicking "Clean up".
Unfortunately, something like the following does not work:
tell application "Finder" to clean up desktop
Any ideas?

Answer 1

This is what I use:
set theFiles to {}
set folderExtensions to {}
set _extensions to {}
tell application "Finder" to set theFiles to every file in folder (desktop as string)
tell application "Finder"
if not (folder ((desktop as string) & "Mydesktop") exists) then
make folder at (desktop as string) with properties {name:"Mydesktop"}
end if
end tell
set i to 0
repeat (number of items in theFiles) times
set i to i + 1
set _extensions to _extensions & (name extension of (info for file ((item i of theFiles) as string)))
end repeat
set i to 0
repeat (number of items in _extensions) times
set i to i + 1
if folderExtensions does not contain (item i of _extensions) then
set folderExtensions to folderExtensions & (item i of _extensions)
end if
end repeat
set i to 0
repeat (number of items in folderExtensions) times
set i to i + 1
tell application "Finder"
if not (folder ((desktop as string) & "Mydesktop:" & (item i of folderExtensions)) exists) then
make folder at ((desktop as string) & "Mydesktop:") with properties {name:(item i of folderExtensions)}
end if
end tell
end repeat
set i to 0 ------we are moving the files now
set _key to ""
set x to 1
set letters to {"a", "b", "c", "d", "e", "f", "g", "h", "i", "j", "k", "l", "m", "n", "o", "p", "q", "r", "s", "t", "u", "v", "w", "x", "y", "z"}
repeat
set x to x + 1
if x > 100 then return
set _key to ""
repeat 20 times
set _key to _key & (item (random number from 1 to 26) of letters)
end repeat
tell application "Finder"
if not (folder ((desktop as string) & "Mydesktop:" & _key) exists) then
make folder at folder ((desktop as string) & "Mydesktop:") with properties {name:_key}
exit repeat
end if
end tell
end repeat
repeat (number of items in theFiles) times
set i to i + 1
tell application "Finder"
if not (file ((desktop as string) & "Mydesktop:" & (item i of _extensions) & ":" & (name of (info for file ((item i of theFiles) as string)))) exists)
then
move file ((item i of theFiles) as string) to folder ((desktop as string) & "Mydesktop:" & (item i of _extensions) & ":")
else
set x to 1
repeat
set x to x + 1
if x > 100 then exit repeat
if not (file ((desktop as string) & "Mydesktop:" & (item i of _extensions) & ":" & (name of (info for file ((item i of theFiles) as string))) & " " & x) exists) then
set someItem to (item i of theFiles)
tell application "System Events" to tell disk item (someItem as text) to set {theName, theExtension} to {name, name extension}
if theExtension is not "" then set theName to text 1 thru -((count theExtension) + 2) of theName -- the name part
set old to ((desktop as string) & "Mydesktop:" & _key & ":" & (name of (info for file ((item i of theFiles) as string))))
move file ((item i of theFiles) as string) to folder ((desktop as string) & "Mydesktop:" & _key & ":")
set the name of file old to theName & " " & x & "." & theExtension
move file ((desktop as string) & "Mydesktop:" & _key & ":" & theName & " " & x & "." & theExtension) to folder ((desktop as string) & "Mydesktop:" & (item i of _extensions) & ":")
exit repeat
end if
end repeat
end if
end tell
end repeat
set item1 to (the quoted form of POSIX path of ((((path to desktop) as string) & "Mydesktop:" & _key) as alias))
set deleteit to "rm -rf " & item1 & ""
try
do shell script deleteit
on error
do shell script deleteit with administrator privileges
end try
It creates a folder (if it does not already exist) and sorts all my files.I have exported it as an application and have set it to open every time I log in!That way I start with a nice clean desktop.

Answer 2

This seems to work for me:
tell application "System Events"
tell application "Finder"
activate desktop
end tell
-- this delay is to ensure that the second block of code doesnt run too fast, or it will not work, if this doesn't work, try increasing this delay
delay 0.1
tell process "Finder"
-- this clicks the the clean up button from the menu bar at the top, the "activate desktop" at the beginning was to make sure that the desktop's menu bar was the front menu bar
click menu item "Clean Up" of menu "View" of menu bar item "View" of front menu bar
end tell
end tell
Edit: new improved script
tell application "System Events"
-- hides everything, which makes the menu bar become the desktop's menu bar
set visible of every process to false
set visible of process "Finder" to false
end tell
delay 0.1
tell application "System Events"
tell process "Finder"
click menu item "Clean Up" of menu "View" of menu bar item "View" of front menu bar
end tell
end tell