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Launching Applications

Overview

Note: This section is not intended as a comparison of the Dock and the Taskbar. See the Dock vs. Taskbar section for that comparison.

When you start Mac OS X and Windows XP, you land on the desktop for each. Both operating systems display a bar along the bottom of the screen by default. On OS X, this bar is called the Dock; on Windows XP, the Taskbar.

The Mac OS X Dock

The Windows XP Taskbar

Since your first task will likely be to open an application, you'll need to know how to access your applications, and there are considerable differences in how each OS handles this job.

In order to understand why we need to talk about accessing applications, we need to understand where applications actually reside. Neither operating system mandates where applications must reside, though each OS has a default location for applications: OS X's default location is /Applications while Windows XP's default location is C:\Program Files.

To help avoid a trip through the file system to locate applications, each operating system has various methods to provide rapid access to applications. OS X has:

• The Dock

• The "Recent Items" submenu of the Apple menu

• The "Applications" menu entry in the Finder's Go menu

• The "Applications" item in the Finder's sidebar

• The Spotlight menu (available by typing the keyboard shortcut -SPACE. Type the name of an application into the search box and any applications that match will be grouped under "Applications" in the results.

The former two store shortcuts or aliases to specific applications; the latter two bring you directly to your /Applications folder. The Dock is the most prominent of these as it is always visible. In addition, if you so choose, you can store shortcuts to applications in the Finder's sidebar or toolbar. Finally, you can store shortcuts to applications on the desktop.

Windows XP provides various methods of its own:

• The Quick Launch bar (which can be enabled or disabled from the taskbar's contextual menu)

• The Start Menu's most recently used applications list

• The Start Menu's "All Programs" submenu

All three of these store shortcuts to applications, not the applications themselves. In addition, you can store shortcuts to applications in your Favorites folder (accessible from the Start Menu and any Windows Explorer and Internet Explorer window), as well as on the desktop.

A key difference between each approach is that while OS X encourages users to browse their Applications folder (two fairly visible shortcuts are provided by default), Windows XP discourages users from browsing their Program Files folder (all visible methods of accessing applications use shortcuts and do not point directly to that folder). Reasons for this difference may include:

• Moving or renaming items in C:\Program Files can cause uninstallers to stop working.
• Files not intended for users' eyes reside at the same level as applications.

On either operating system, most applications can be moved after they have been installed, although depending on the application, doing so may cause it not to function correctly (for instance, see this Apple KnowledgeBase article advising users not to move their iLife applications out of the Applications folder).

Each operating system has a special location for system-related applications or utilities: OS X places them in /Applications/Utilities while Windows XP puts them in either C:\Windows\system32 or C:\Winnt\system32.

Both the Dock and the All Programs menu are always available. Regardless of what program you are in, you can access the Dock or the Start menu (and so the All Programs menu and the most recently used applications list). In addition, both are user-specific, allowing users to customize them to display only the applications they wish to see. Most installers on Windows XP ask during the installation process whether shortcuts should be placed in the All Programs menu for all users, or just select ones.

Both operating systems provide a contextual menu item to make temporary icons stay permanently in the dock or taskbar. OS X adds a "Keep in Dock" option to the context menus of those applications' icons in the dock. XP lets you "pin" applications to the Start Menu, which will affix them to the top left of the Start Menu for easy access (the application name is bolded for increased visibility).

As mentioned above, both operating systems provide a list of recently used applications - XP's list is in the Start Menu, while OS X's list is in the Apple menu. Both provide an option to clear the menu of recently used applications. While OS X aptly places the Clear Menu command in the Recent Items menu:

OS X's "clear menu" command, located at the bottom of the Recent Items menu

XP places it in a significantly less "discoverable" location:

1. Right-click the Start button and choose Properties
2. Click the Start Menu tab
3. Click the Customize button
4. Click Clear List

XP's "clear list" command

Mac OS X

The Dock is the most obvious method of accessing one's applications (click an application's Dock icon to launch it). Add an application's icon to the dock by dragging it onto the left side of dock; the right side is reserved for documents and minimized windows.

OS X's Dock (see the Dock vs. Taskbar section for more info)

While it is simple to add an application to the Dock, this task may be a challenge to novices, since they must know:

• How to locate the application they want to add
• That they are able to drag an application's icon to the dock in the first place
• How to drag an item
• Where on the dock to drag the item (the right-hand side is off-limits to applications)

Since the dock only contains a subset of all of your applications, you will need to browse to your Applications folder in order to access the rest. While, in theory, you could store shortcuts to all of your applications in the dock, this is an impractical solution, due to the fact that the dock shrinks to accomodate additional items. Of course, the dock does not start doing this until it is necessary (once it is big enough that it spans across your display).

Because applications on OS X can be located anywhere on the system (see Applications, adding/removing, packages), an application might not be located in your Applications folder. That said, the Applications folder is the default location for most installers (and drag-install apps usually specify this in their disk image window). A liability of this design is that if you remove an application - either through an uninstaller or by a drag-uninstall - you must also manually remove its icon from the dock (regardless of if you chose to put one there yourself, or if an installer did so automatically). This can be misleading, since visually it will appear that the application is still installed on your system. To OS X's credit, if you attempt to launch an application that is no longer installed from its dock icon, a question mark will be overlaid on it; however, there is no further explanation.

OS X users can also drag their Applications folder to the dock if they wish, creating a popup menu of all applications when control-clicked (or clicked-and-held), which is much more practical than keeping each individual application in the Dock itself.

A popup menu showing the contents of the Applications folder

While OS X technically supports customized Applications folders for each user on the system, its implementation is somewhat lacking. Users will need to manually create an Applications folder within their home folder (~/Applications) and either store their applications there, or create shortcuts to applications located in the main Applications folder. This process is entirely dependent on the user, and it is not immediately obvious that one can even do this at all.

Windows XP

The All Programs menu (within the Start Menu) is the most obvious method of accessing one's applications (click an application's icon in the All Programs menu to launch the application).

Certain applications supplied with Windows XP are not available (by default) in the All programs menu (for example, Microsoft's Address Book Import tool), so the All Programs menu may not be an exhaustive listing of all the applications installed on your system. However, it is fairly unlikely that an application you need and use will not list itself there; most "unlisted" applications are ones that regular users wouldn't need to access anyway.

Most applications designed for Windows XP provide users the option to add the application to the All Programs menu at the time of installation, though that functionality is up to the discretion of the application developer.

While the All Programs menu is easy to use and very discoverable, it can also become cluttered if not properly managed:

A "clean" All Programs menu vs. an unmanaged one

Applications are listed in the order in which they were installed; as the number of applications increases, this method becomes less and less effective. Thankfully, XP provides an option to sort your All Programs menu alphabetically. Unfortunately, this option is not easily discoverable (it's located in the contextual menu of any item of the All Programs menu, rather than in Start Menu & Taskbar Properties), nor is it permanent - you must continually invoke it as you add more applications (otherwise they will remain tacked on to the end of the menu).

The All Programs menu's "sort by name" option

If an uninstaller fails or otherwise doesn't run correctly, an application's shortcut in the menu might remain, even if the application itself is no longer available. When that occurs, the user will need to manually remove any shortcuts to the application. The majority of the time, however, this is not an issue.

The taskbar also features a Quick Launch bar, where frequently used applications can be stored for easy access, and are launched with a single click. You can store as many shortcuts there as you like. You are in fact not limited to application shortcuts - you can store shortcuts to documents, images, webpages, etc. In addition, you can adjust the size of the bar (and the number of icons shown) - additional icons are conveniently moved to a popup menu, accessible from a button at the bar's right end. Furthermore, the user can in fact create a toolbar out of any folder on their system. These toolbars can:

• Attach themselves to the main taskbar (like the Quick Launch bar does by default)
• Dock themselves on any side of the screen
• Float above the desktop

This allows one access to virtually an unlimited number of applications (or shorcuts to any other files) in any manner that they prefer.

XP's included toolbars. Note the option to create your own out of any folder

You can also launch an application by typing its name into the Run window, accessible from the Start Menu. The Run window will auto-complete commands that have been recently entered. For example, you could launch Notepad simply by typing "N," selecting "notepad" from the drop-down menu, and hitting Enter. A minor caveat is that you need to know the actual name of an application in order for this to work. For instance, if you wanted to launch Internet Explorer this way, you would have to type iexplore, since that is its actual name in the filesystem.

XP's Run dialog

Furthermore, XP provides an "address bar," that, like any other toolbar, can be attached to the main taskbar or docked/floated elsewhere. The address bar is just like that found in Windows and Internet Explorer. Type in any location or filename - local or remote - and Windows will open it. Essentially, this can be used like a system-wide Run window, accessible at any time.

The address bar toolbar, attached to the main taskbar

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Conclusion

Mac OS X

• Drag-install applications are not added to the dock unless the user does so manually; this prevents unwanted clutter from building up over time
• A discoverable option to clear the Recent Items menu
• Launch an application by typing its name in the Spotlight menu and choosing it from the search results
• The Dock cannot automatically display your default email client and web browser
• Recently installed applications are not displayed as such
• Users cannot create multiple docks or floating docks

OS X encourages users to access their Applications folder directly when the dock is not sufficient. Using the file system directly has both positive and negative implications:

• Users can sort their applications by any method available in the Finder (name, size, kind, label, etc.)
• Removing a dock icon simply removes a shortcut to that application; in the Applications folder, however, a user could inadvertently delete the actual application
• Items in the Applications folder can only be ordered arbitrarily by the user in Icon view

Windows XP

• The Start Menu automatically displays your default email client and web browser
• The All Programs menu highlights recently installed programs (this can be turned on or off)
• Users can create multiple toolbars that contain any number of shortcuts to any application or file
• Toolbars can attach to the main taskbar, dock to any side of the screen, or float above the desktop
• The All Programs menu is very discoverable
• Launch an application by typing its name in the Run window or the address bar (if enabled)
• Since installers may add icons to the All Programs menu, an unmanaged All Programs menu can quickly become cluttered
• The "sort by name" option to organize all items in the All Programs menu alphabetically is not permanent; furthermore, it is not easily discoverable
• The option to clear the Recent Applications menu is not easily discoverable

Since XP discourages users from accessing C:\Program Files directly, users rely predominantly on the All Programs menu. Not using the file system directly has both positive and negative implications:

• Indirect access to applications means users cannot inadvertently delete a program
• Items in the All Programs menu can be ordered arbitrarily by the user
• The All Programs menu may not list all installed programs
• The All Programs menu only allows Sort by Name, and cannot be viewed by Icon, Details, etc.

Mac OS X: 5
Windows XP: 8

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