Operating systems: the manager inside every device
Week 4 · Lesson 3 Operating Systems · 3 lessons
3
The opening screen: desktop, icons and bars
ICT Prep 1 Term 1, Lesson 3: pp. 19–26
GoalName the parts of an opening screen and explain why it can look different.
New words
desktop · the main screen you see after the system has startedicon · a small picture that stands for a program, a file or a folderbackground · the picture or colour behind the icons, chosen by the userbar · a strip that holds icons for programs and for settings such as time, sound and network
Explanation
When the system has started, the first screen you see is the desktop. It has three main parts. Icons are small pictures that stand for programs, files and folders, set out in a certain order. The background is a picture or a colour behind the icons, and the user chooses it. Bars are strips with icons for the programs that are installed, and with other icons for system settings, such as the date and time, the sound and the network. This lesson does not show a real screen. We use a drawing, because the opening screen differs from one system to another, and it also changes with the version of the same system. A phone and a computer, for example, show their icons in different ways. What stays the same is the idea: a place to start your work.
icon: drawing
icon: folder
icon: notes
background (a picture or colour)
background
background
bar: program icons
bar: time and date
bar: sound and network
Worked examples
Computer system
Phone system
Icons
spread on the screen
in a tidy grid
Start a program
click or double-click
tap with a finger
Bar
along the bottom
at the top
Two different systems show two different opening screens. This table compares an imagined computer system with an imagined phone system. Each has icons, a background and bars.
choose a sea picture→the background changes→the icons stay
Salma wants her screen to look like the sea. She chooses a sea picture as the background. The icons stay where they were. Only the background changed, and it was her choice.
Mina looks at the bar and sees a clock, a loudspeaker and bars that show the network. They are not programs; they are settings icons. Next to them are icons of the programs that are installed.
Class activity
Draw your own desktop on a page. Choose a background and colour it. Draw six icons and give each a name. Draw a bar along one edge and put icons for time, sound and network in it. Then ask a family member to describe the screen of their phone and compare the two.
Practice
1
What is the difference between an icon and the background?
An icon is a small picture for a program, file or folder. The background is the picture or colour behind the icons.
2
Which part holds icons for time, sound and network?
The bar.
3
True or false: every operating system has exactly the same opening screen.
False. It differs between systems and between versions.
