The interface that Windows Vista provides is called the Windows desktop. The name “desktop” comes from the fact that it plays the same role as a real, wooden desktop. You work with programs on the Windows desktop in much the same way that you work with paper on a wooden desktop. The desktop is on the screen from the moment you log in to the moment you turn off your computer. The desktop may get covered by program windows and other items, but the desktop is still under there no matter how much you clutter up the screen. It’s the same as a real desk in that sense. Although your real desktop may be completely covered by random junk, like mine is right now, your desktop is still under there somewhere. You just have to dig through the mess to get to it. The two main components of the Windows desktop are the desktop itself and the taskbar. The desktop is where everything that you open piles up. The taskbar’s main role is to make it easy to switch from one open item to another. Everything you’ll ever see on your screen has a name and a purpose. Virtually nothing on the screen is there purely for decoration.

Here’s a quick overview of what each component represents. The sections that follow the list look at each component in detail.

You learn to personalize your desktop. But here’s a quick hint. Virtually everything you’ll ever see on your screen, including the desktop, is an object that has properties. To customize any object, right-click that object and choose Properties.

- Desktop: The desktop itself is everything above the taskbar. Every program you open appears in a window on the desktop.

- Desktop icons: Icons on the desktop provide quick access to frequently used programs, folders, and documents. You can add and remove desktop icons as you see fit.

- Sidebar: An optional component for showing gadgets that you might want to use often.

- Start button: Click the Start button to display the Start menu. The Start menu provides access to programs installed on your computer, as well as commonly used folders such as Documents, Pictures, and Music.

- Quick Launch toolbar: Provides easy one-click access to frequently used programs.

- Taskbar: A task is an open program. The taskbar makes it easy to switch among all your open programs.

- Notification area: Displays icons for programs running in the background, often referred to as processes and services. Messages coming from those programs appear in speech balloons just above the Notification area.

- Clock: Shows the current time. Right-clicking the clock provides easy access to options for customizing the taskbar and organizing open program windows. That’s the quick tour of items on and around the Windows Vista desktop. The sections that follow look at each major item. But first, I should point out that your desktop might be partially covered by the Welcome Center. If so, and it gets in your way while you’re trying things out in this article, you can close the Welcome Center so it’s out of your way. See “The Welcome Center” near the end of this article for more information.

Using the Start Menu In Windows Vista Clicking the Start button displays the Start menu. The left side of the Start menu shows icons for some (but not all) of the programs on your computer. The right side of the menu offers links to commonly used folders and other features. You will notice, however, that some of the program names on the left side of the Start menu are boldface and some are not. There’s a horizontal line separating the two types of names. Items above the horizontal line (shown in boldface) are pinned to the Start menu and never change. Items below the horizontal line are dynamic, meaning they change automatically based on programs you use most frequently. As the weeks and months roll by, the left side of your Start menu will eventually list just the programs you use most often. To see all the programs available on your system, click All Programs near the bottom of the Start menu. In the All Programs menu, some icons look like folders, others like logos. Any icon that looks like a logo represents a program. To start (open) a program, you click its name or logo. Icons that look like folders represent program groups. To see the names of programs in a group, click the folder icon or name. So now the left side of the Start menu includes programs and program groups from the Windows Vista Accessories program group. You can choose from many more programs than can fit on the left side of the Start menu. Use the vertical scroll bar just to the right of the program name to scroll up and down through the complete list. If you want to leave the All Programs menu and return to the dynamic menu, click <Back at the bottom of the list.

The right side of the Start menu The right side of the Start menu shows icons for frequently used folders and features. The name at the top of the list (Alan in the previous examples) is the name of the user account into which you’re currently logged. Clicking the user name opens a folder containing icons for other folders that represent things like documents, pictures, music, and other information saved and stored by this user. Items labeled Documents, Pictures, and Music open folders in which you can store things like documents, photographs, and songs. The Games link opens a folder of games you can play on your computer.

A folder in Windows Vista is like a manila file folder in a filing cabinet. It’s a container in which you can store documents. You use folders in Windows to organize things, just as you use folders to organize things in a filing cabinet.

The Computer link opens a folder that shows icons representing disk drives, memory card slots, and other connected hardware devices like cameras and scanners. Like everything else in Vista, you can customize many aspects of the Start menu. For instance, you can choose which options you do/don’t want to appear on the right side of the Start menu. Right-click the Start button and choose Properties to get to its Properties dialog box.

We’ll have plenty of time to get into the various folders and document types described previously. For now we’ll stay focused on the Start menu.

The Start menu Search box In Windows Vista Down near the bottom of the Start menu, you’ll see a Search box. As its name implies, it allows you to search for things based on a word or phrase. For example, say you click the Start button to open the Start menu, then type the letters cal. The Start menu will list all programs that contain the letters “cal.”

Below the list of programs that contain the search letters, you may see files, contacts, and e-mail messages that also contain those letters. As you type more letters, the list shrinks to show only the items that contain all the letters you’ve typed so far. When you see the item you want to open, just click its name in the Start menu.To cancel a search without making a selection, press Escape (Esc).

For experienced users, the instant searches from the Start menu are one of Vista’s best new features. It can save you a lot of time you’d otherwise spend opening programs and folders to find something.

Shut Down and Lock buttons In Windows Vista The buttons at the lower-right side of the Start menu play several roles. The one with the circle puts your computer in a low power state without shutting it all the way down. When you restart the computer and log in, you’re taken back to wherever you left off before clicking that button. The lock button hides your desktop and shows the login screen. To get back to where you were, just click your user account picture on the screen that appears. If your account is password-protected, you’ll need to enter your password. In a work environment, this hides your desktop from passersby and prevents them from using the computer while you’re away.

- Switch User: Switches to another user account without logging out of the current account. Using Switch User all of the time to switch between user accounts can slow down or even crash a computer. Use Switch User only to temporarily visit another user account. Otherwise, users should always log out of their accounts when done using the computer.

- Log Off: Closes all open items, logs out of the current user account, and returns to the login screen.

- Lock: Hides the desktop behind a login screen. Regaining access requires entering the user account password.

- Shut Down: Closes all open items and shuts down the computer.

- Restart: Closes all open items and restarts the computer (also called a reboot or warm boot).

- Sleep: Puts the computer in a state where it consumes little power, without losing your place on the screen.

- Hibernate: Saves what’s on your desktop, then shuts down the computer all the way so it’s consuming no power at all. When you restart the computer and log in, your desktop is returned to wherever you left things.

- Shut Down: Clears off the desktop and shuts down the computer. When you restart the computer and log in, you’re taken to a clean desktop. Different types of computers offer different options for sleeping, hibernating, and shutting down. How you restart the computer also varies. For example, when you put the computer to sleep, you can often wake it up just by tapping a key on the keyboard or by moving the mouse. Or, on a notebook computer, simply opening the lid to view the screen may wake the computer up. When you hibernate or shut down, you have to use the main On/Off switch to turn the computer back on. But because these do vary from one computer to the next, I can’t say exactly which options your computer offers or how they’ll work. If you have any trouble with those options, refer to the instruction manual that came with your computer for specifics. The button and tooltip are telling you that your computer has automatically received an update that requires you to click that button. Go ahead and do so. Don’t worry, it’s not a security risk or anything. Nothing bad will happen, it won’t cost you any money, and everything will work the way it did before. The update is just a security patch or minor fix. Go ahead and click the exclamation point button and wait for the computer to shut down on its own.