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Desktop, Start Menu, Folders and Internet Explorer in Windows XP

Tip: keyboard shortcut Ctrl+F searches in the page contents

Looking for Windows Vista version of the article? Click here then.
Looking for Windows 7 version of the article? Click here then.

After logging on, you will see Windows XP Desktop. Let's have a quick look at it.

Desktop area is where your program icons and open programs appear. Here you can open programs and folders by double-clicking on their icons.

Start button opens Start menu with recently used programs, All Programs list and shortcuts to common folders and places.

Quick Launch toolbar includes buttons to favorite programs and Show Desktop button that minimizes all open program windows.

Taskbar holds buttons to open programs. You can bring programs to front, minimize, maximize and close their windows here.

Notification area includes icons of some programs and important messages. It also includes current time. When you hold your mouse over time, you'll also see current date.

Here is Windows XP Desktop:

Start menu

When you click on Start button, you'll see Start Menu:

On the top left there are most important programs - default programs for Internet browsing and e-mail. 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 top right there are common folders (My Documents, etc) and recent documents. Below them are configuration items (Control Panel, etc) and help, search and Run command.

On the bottom there are buttons Log Off and Turn Off Computer. 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.

Folders

When you open a folder, it will probably look something 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. Several 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 key on your keyboard. You can move forward one step at a time by pressing Alt+right arrow key 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 pressing 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 are present only if Folders pane is not open. They include 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. 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.

Internet Explorer

This picture applies to Internet Explorer 8. You can get it by visiting Microsoft Update website. It is strongly recommended to get Internet Explorer 8 as it is much more secure than Internet Explorer 6 or 7. Read my articles about Microsoft Update and installing Internet Explorer 8 with other updates.

Back and Forward buttons are for quickly going back or forward in current browsing history. These buttons are active only when you have visited at least two web pages. Then a blue arrowhead pointing down activates to the right of the Forward button. When you click on it, you will see your browsing history and you can go back or forward by clicking any item in the list.
Browsing history is different for each open Tab in each open Internet Explorer window.
You can also move back one page at a time by pressing Backspace or Alt+left arrow key on your keyboard. You can move forward one page at a time by pressing Alt+right arrow key on your keyboard.

Address bar is the place to write the address of the website you want to visit. For example, www.google.com. Address bar remembers visited addresses, so if you have visited www.google.com before, you do not have to type in the whole address, just type "google" and choose the address from the list.
After you enter a website's address (also called "URL") press Enter key on your keyboard to go to that address.

Refresh and Stop buttons are quite essential. When you want to refresh a page, click on Refresh button or press F5 key on your keyboard.
When you want to stop loading a page (for example, it takes too long), click Stop button or press Esc key on your keyboard.
There is often also a third button called Compatibility View. This allows viewing really old standards-ignoring pages correctly. So when a page looks odd (menus or pictures are out of place), try clicking on it to see if Compatibility View makes things better.

Search box is for quickly searching for something on the Internet or on the current page. You can have several different search providers (for example, Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc) to choose from. When you type something in the Search box, most search providers offer you words or phrases for auto completing. For example, when you want to search for "Estonia", type in just "est" and choose "estonia" from the list that appears in a short while.
When your search word or phrase is complete, press Enter key on your keyboard to start searching.

Search button is also a way to start searching. The arrowhead pointing down allows you to select between, add and manage search providers. It also enables searching on the current page only.
It is easier to quickly search for something on current page by pressing Ctrl+F on your keyboard and enter the search term in the Find box.

Favorites bar includes your favorite web sites and web parts. This bar is meant for pages and web parts you visit most often. This bar is short, so you can also have an extended and well-organized list of favorites under Favorites button on the very left of the bar.
After the vertical separator is Add to Favorites Bar button. When you click it, your currently open page or selected web part will be added to Favorites bar as a button.
Suggested sites is a feature that gives a list of other sites that you might find interesting. This list is based on your currently open web page.

Tabs are something like windows in windows. Since Internet Explorer 7 you can have many pages open in one Internet Explorer window. This makes navigating between open web pages easier and different Internet Explorer windows will not clutter the Windows XP Taskbar.
You can open a new Tab by clicking the small empty tab right to the last open Tab or by pressing Ctrl+T on your keyboard.
You can close active Tab by clicking the X button in the right top of the Tab or by pressing Ctrl+W on your keyboard.
To navigate between open Tabs, click on the needed Tab or use keyboard shortcuts Ctrl+Tab to move forward one Tab at a time or Ctrl+Shift+Tab to move back one Tab at a time.

Menus include most often used commands.
Since Internet Explorer 7 the full Menu bar is hidden by default. Instead of wasting space on your screen by making full Menu bar visible at all times, you can just press Alt key on your keyboard and full Menu bar appears below Address bar until you use it. After selecting a command from the full Menu bar, the full Menu bar disappears.

Horizontal and Vertical scroll bars are for moving left and right and up and down in currently open web page. The scroll bars appear only if the page content does not fit fully in open Internet Explorer window or Tab.
Click and hold on a scroll bar and move your mouse to scroll a web page.

Status bar shows the status of web page (done, loading, errors, etc).

Status bar also includes Current Security zone name. Security Zones are Internet, Local intranet, Trusted sites and Restricted sites. Interactive content, multimedia and add-ons can be restricted or allowed depending on the current Security Zone.
The most common zone is Internet.

Zoom Level controls how small or big everything looks on a web page. You can switch between zoom levels by clicking on the number (this switches between 100%, 125% and 150%) or you can click the arrow down button and select a common percentage yourself. You can also use keyboard shortcuts Ctrl+plus sign and Ctrl+minus sign to zoom in and out, respectively.

What is a window?

"Window" really means any open program or folder. So you can call Internet Explorer  a window and My Documents folder a window while they are open. The pop-up windows that include a question or information (such as "Are you sure you want to log off?" or "You need to restart your computer for the changes to take effect") are often called dialogs or dialog windows.

Looking for Windows Vista version of the article? Click here then.
Looking for Windows 7 version of the article? Click here then.

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