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The Start menu contains commands that can access programs, documents, and settings. These commands include Programs, Documents, Settings, Find, Help, Run, and Shut Down.
The Quick Launch bar, introduced with Internet Explorer 4, contains shortcuts to applications. Windows provides default entries, such as Internet Explorer, and the user or third-party software may add any further shortcuts that they choose. A single click on the application's icon in this area launches the application. This section may not always be present: for example it is absent by default in Windows XP, although it can be enabled.
The Windows shell places a button on the taskbar whenever an application creates an un-owned Window: that is, a window that doesn't have a parent and that is created according to normal Windows UI guidelines. Typically all SDI applications have a single taskbar button for each open Window, although modal Windows may also appear there. Windows XP introduced taskbar grouping, which can group the taskbar buttons of several Windows from the same application into a single button. This button pops up a menu listing all the grouped Windows when clicked. This keeps the taskbar from being overcrowded when many Windows are open at once.
