Sorting your Windows Desktop

1 Add an icon to the desktop:

If you like the old-fashioned way of putting a launch icon directly onto the desktop, then its easy to do. Just right click on an empty part of your desktop, choose New, and select Shortcut. Locate what you'd like to create a shortcut for (a file, a drive or a program, for instance) and an icon will appear.

2 Back to the desktop: 

If you've got lots of Windows open, and you want to quickly jump back to the main desktop screen, then it's very straightforward to do. As with previous versions of Windows, you can do this at the touch of a button, although it's a button that's easier to find with Windows 7! You'll find a small rectangle at the very right of the Start Bar -just click that, and the desktop screen will appear! 

3 Finding more icons: 

On the right- hand side of the Start Bar, you'll generally see icons for volume controls, wireless network access, and maybe even power settings, if you're using a laptop. Plus, there's the time. But just to the left of all of this is a little arrow, which, if you click, will reveal other running programs that are sitting in your taskbar. You also have a Customize option from here, to decide what will appear on the taskbar for you. 

4 The Start button: 

You can launch any program on your computer from the Start button, on the left-hand side of the Start Bar. This is just a Windows logo, and clicking on it will bring up the Start menu. Furthermore, if you right click on the Windows logo, you can choose Properties, which allow you to customise the look and feel of the Taskbar and Start Menu, from how they look to how they work.

5 Move:

Everyone works in different way, and now you can configure the desktop into more logical layout that will suit your needs. The Bar doesn't have to be at the bottom of the screen any more. If you'd prefer to work with it in a differer position right click on an empty space on it, and untick Lock The Taskbar, then you are able to drag to any of the four sides of your screen!