Desktop

A desktop is used by many user interfaces as a visual metaphor of a workspace on the surface of a desk. It can be used to display the contents of a computer's drive with as documents which are organized in folders. The user can manipulate the files in the drive by using a mouse to click and drag their representations (icons) on the desktop.

History
The modern graphical user interface and desktop metaphor were invented at Xerox PARC and popularized by Macintosh systems from Apple Computer. In classic Mac OS since 1984, the desktop was bounded by a menu bar at the top, the startup disk icon at the upper right, and the trash at the lower right by default. The desktop pattern could be modified within the General control panel. Starting with Mac OS 8 in 1997, a Desktop Pictures control panel was included to customize it with an image. Starting with Mac OS 9 in 1999, multiple users could each have their own desktop, with files that appear on the desktop stored in each user's own Desktop folder. Starting with Mac OS X (now Mac OS), the menu bar was retained at the top, but drives were hidden by default and the trash was moved into the right side of the Dock, which was located at the bottom by default. Files that appear on the desktop are actually stored in a Desktop folder. In 2007, Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard" introduced Spaces, which allowed each user to have multiple desktops.