Desktop Mode

What Does Desktop Mode Mean?

Desktop Mode is a graphical user interface (GUI) environment for Windows 8 for quickly accessing commonly used applications and services. Desktop Mode works like a typical desktop, as in all versions of Windows earlier than Windows 8, but with slightly different functionality and appearance.

Advertisements

Techopedia Explains Desktop Mode

Desktop Mode is one of the two different GUI environments available in Windows 8. The other is the tiled screen menu. Typically, Windows 8 starts in the tiled screen UI, but a user can switch to the desktop mode, which nearly resembles the desktop found in previous Windows versions. However, the desktop mode doesn’t include the start button, although all frequently used apps icons are placed on the horizontal bottom bar. And, unlike the new Window 8 app menu, most of the functionality of desktop mode can be accessed with non-touch input devices such as mouse and keyboard.

Advertisements

Related Terms

Latest Privacy and Compliance Terms

Related Reading

Margaret Rouse

Margaret Rouse is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical, business audience. Over the past twenty years her explanations have appeared on TechTarget websites and she's been cited as an authority in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine and Discovery Magazine.Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages. If you have a suggestion for a new definition or how to improve a technical explanation, please email Margaret or contact her…