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Windows Desktop, Start menu and folders

Last modified: 2011-12-25 13:11:32 EET

This article gives a brief overview of Desktop, Start Menu and folders in Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7. All items are covered in detail in separate articles.

After logging on to Windows, Desktop appears. Basically, it looks the same in all versions of Windows. Let's take the good old Windows XP as an example:

Desktop area is where your Desktop icons and open programs appear. Here you can open programs and folders by double-clicking on their icons. To minimize all program windows and display Desktop, press WINDOWS KEY+D on your keyboard.

Start button opens Start menu with recently used programs, All Programs list and shortcuts to common folders and places. You can press WINDOWS KEY to open Start menu, or you can use the CTRL+ESC shortcut if there is no Windows Key on some keyboard.

Quick Launch Bar / Quick Launch Toolbar includes buttons to launch favorite programs. You can rearrange the buttons using your mouse - just click and hold on a program button and drag it to a different position.
In Windows Vista and 7, you can launch the first five programs here using the Windows Key+<number> shortcut. For example, if Windows Media Player is the third button from the left, open it with Windows Key+3.

Taskbar holds buttons to open programs. You can bring programs to front or minimize, maximize and close their windows here. To cycle through all open applications, use keyboard shortcut Alt+Tab. Windows Vista and 7 allow using special 3D effects with keyboard shortcut Windows Key+Tab.
Windows Vista and 7 allow cycling through Taskbar applications using the Windows Key+T shortcut.

Notification area includes icons of some running programs and important messages. It also includes current date (in Windows XP) or current time and date (in Windows Vista and XP).

Windows Vista and 7 also have Sidebar that holds Desktop Gadgets. You can use keyboard shortcut Windows Key+G to bring Gadgets to front temporarily.
Here's a Windows Vista example of Sidebar:

Windows 7 has a convenient button on the very right of Taskbar's Notification Area - Show Desktop. Stopping mouse pointer on it makes all windows transparent and you can see Desktop icons and frames of open windows. Clicking it minimizes all open windows and displays Desktop. Clicking it again restores open windows.
This can also be achieved with Windows Key+M and Windows Key+Shift+M keyboard shortcuts.

Start menu in Windows XP, Vista and 7

Start menu opens after clicking Start button. The menu is somewhat different in Windows XP and Windows Vista/7.

Here is Windows XP Start menu:

On the top left there are pinned (most important) programs - default programs for Internet browsing and e-mail. Pinned programs always appear on the top of Start menu.

Below them is a list of most often used programs and link to All Programs. You'll see list of all programs when you hold your mouse over the link for less than a second.

On the right there is Navigation Pane with common folders (My Documents, etc) and recent documents.

Below them are configuration items (Control Panel, etc) and Help, Search and Run.

On the bottom there are Log Off and Turn Off Computer buttons. Clicking on the latter one gives an option to restart or turn off your computer, modern laptop and desktop computers also include hibernate and sleep options.

In Windows Vista and 7, Start menu looks a little different.
In Windows Vista, there are the red Power button (with default action set to Shut down), Lock Computer button and Shut Down options button (options to restart and turn off your computer, plus hibernate and sleep commands) on the bottom left.
In Windows 7, there are just Shut down and Shut Down options buttons.
 

But the main difference in Start menus in Windows XP and its younger brothers is that you can (and should) search for programs instead of scrolling through the list of All Programs. Just type a few letters of the program's name and click the appropriate result to launch it.
To launch a program with elevated rights, right-click it and select Run As Administrator from the menu.
 

Folders in Windows XP, Vista and 7

Folders look again different in Windows XP and in Windows Vista/7.

In Windows XP, contents of My Computer look like this:

On the top there is Title bar that you can use to bring folder or program to front by clicking on it once. Double-clicking on Title bar maximizes the folder or program window. Double-clicking again restores the window to its previous size. When you click and hold left mouse button on Title bar, you can move the window by moving your mouse and then releasing the left mouse button.

To the right of each Title bar there are three buttons:

From the left they are: Minimize, Maximize/Restore and Close. Their functions are quite essential, right? 

Menu bar holds all commands that you can use. Newer programs, such as Internet Explorer 7 and 8, Windows Media Player 11, Windows Live Messenger, etc hide Menu bar by default. You can reveal it by pressing ALT key on your keyboard once.

Toolbar includes some common commands:

• Back and Forward buttons move you backwards and forwards in folder browsing history, one step at a time. You can also move back one step at a time by pressing ALT+LEFT ARROW on your keyboard. You can move forward one step at a time by pressing ALT+RIGHT ARROW on your keyboard.
• Up button takes you one step up in folder tree (hierarchy). For example, if your current open folder is My Pictures that is located under My Documents, then clicking the Up button takes you to My Documents folder.
• Search button opens or closes Search pane that you can use for finding files and folders.
• Folders button opens or closes Folders pane with Common Locations, folders tree (hierarchy); network browser, Recycle Bin and Desktop contents. You can use that pane for quickly opening a folder or location. Please note that Folders pane hides Common tasks pane.
• Views button allows you to switch between different folder views - icons, list, details, thumbnails, etc.

Address bar is present only in folders and Internet browsers. Here you can type in location name (for example, "c:\documents and settings" or "My Documents") or web address (for example, "www.google.com") and press ENTER on your keyboard or Go button next to address bar to go to that location. You can also select a location by clicking the down arrow button at the right side of Address bar.

Common tasks pane is present only if Folders pane is not open. It includes common tasks relevant to open folder or selected file type, links to common locations (My Documents, My Computer, etc) and details about open folder or selected file.

Folder contents is a list of what's in the folder. You can quickly refresh/reload the contents by pressing F5 key on your keyboard. In Details view you can sort folder contents quickly by clicking on column name (such as Name, Type, Total Size, etc). Sorted column and sorting order are indicated by an small arrowhead to the right of column name. If the arrowhead points up, the sorting order is ascending, if it points down, the order is descending. You can toggle sorting order by clicking on column name.

You can select one item by clicking on it.
If you want to select multiple consecutive items, click on the first item, then press and hold down SHIFT key on your keyboard and click on the last item.
If you want to select multiple items that are not consecutive, click on the first item, then press and hold down CTRL key and click on other items you want to select.
If you want to select all items in folder contents, press CTRL+A on your keyboard or open Edit menu and click Select All.

Status bar shows summary of folder items or selected items, such as count or total size. When you are in a menu, status bar shows quick description of selected command.

Here's how Computer folder looks in Windows Vista. In Windows 7 it looks almost exactly the same, just colours and some Toolbar commands are different.

Menu bar is hidden by default in Windows Vista and 7. You can reveal it by pressing ALT key on your keyboard once.

To the right of Address bar there is a Refresh button that you can use to reload folder contents. You can also press F5 key on your keyboard for the refresh function.

Search box is a location-sensitive Windows Search box for finding files and folders quickly. You can type in a part of a file or folder name, for example win finds windows, edwin, a_winter_tale.mp3, etc. You can also search by file type (type:jpg or kind:video), file properties (created:<30/06/09 or author:linus) and any combination of search criterias, for example horse author:"linus benedict" size:>10MB NOT kind:(video OR picture).

Toolbar is location-sensitive in Windows Vista and 7 - its buttons change depending what type of folder you are viewing.

However, there are two common buttons always visible in the left side of Toolbar in Windows Vista:

• Organize button includes file and folder management items, such as cut, copy, paste and layout options such as hiding or showing Menu Bar, Search Pane, Details Pane, etc.
• Views button allows you to switch between different folder views - icons, list, details, thumbnails, etc. You can use CTRL+mousewheel for this, too.

In Windows 7, there are always three buttons visible in the right side of Toolbar:

• Views button allows you to switch between different folder views - icons, list, details, thumbnails, etc. You can use CTRL+mousewheel for this, too.
• Preview pane button opens and closes Preview pane that you can use for viewing photos, videos, document properties, etc. You can also use keyboard shortcut ALT+P for this
• Help button opens Windows 7 Help and Support Center, a place for finding information and answers to your Windows 7-related questions. Pressing WINDOWS KEY+F1 on your keyboard does the same.

Navigation pane displays common folders for quick navigation.

Details pane shows properties of selected items or properties related to currently open folder. For example, when you click on a local disk in Computer, you will see the disk's size, free space and other properties. Clicking on a photo will display date the photo was taken, rating, dimensions, size, etc.
Details pane is like a much improved Status bar (Status bar is still available in Windows Vista and 7, but it has no purpose whatsoever compared to Details pane).

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