Windows XP Pro: The Missing Manual

Chapter 3. Windows , Folders, and the Taskbar

Windows got its name from the rectangles on the screen ”the windows ”where every computer activity takes place. You look at a Web page in a window, type into a window, read email in a window, and look at the contents of a folder in a window ”sometimes all at once. But as you create more files, stash them in more folders, and launch more programs, it's easy to wind up paralyzed before a screen awash with cluttered, overlapping rectangles.

Fortunately, Windows is crawling with icons, buttons , and other inventions to help you keep these windows under control.