Desktop overview

The taskbar appears at the bottom of your screen. The taskbar contains the Start button, which you can use to quickly start a program, find a file, or access Help.

When you open a program, document, or window, a button appears on the taskbar for each item. Use the buttons to quickly switch from one open window to another.

Minimize all open windows and access the desktop with one click of the Show Desktop button on the taskbar.

Use this folder as the default storage location for documents, graphics, and other files, including saved Web pages. Each user who logs on to the computer has a unique My Documents folder, so the documents you store in your My Documents folder are not readily available to another person who uses the same computer.

Use this folder to quickly see the contents of your floppy disk, hard disk, CD-ROM drive, and mapped network drives. From within My Computer, you can also open Control Panel, where you can configure many settings on your computer.

Use this folder to locate shared resources on the entire network to which your computer is connected. Shortcuts to the computers, Web servers, and FTP servers where you've accessed documents or programs are automatically created in My Network Places. You can also create shortcuts to network, Web, and FTP servers by using the Add Network Place wizard.

If your computer is a member of a workgroup, you can double-click Computers Near Me to narrow your search to computers that are in the same workgroup.

For more information about Web servers, see Related Topics.

For more information about FTP, double-click Internet Explorer on your desktop, click Help, and then click Contents and Index. Search for FTP.

The Recycle Bin stores deleted files, folders, graphics, and Web pages until you empty the bin. If you want to retrieve an item that you have deleted, look in the Recycle Bin.

Using an Internet connection and Internet Explorer, you can browse the World Wide Web and your local intranet.