The desktop environment used in Tails is [GNOME](https://www.gnome.org). This page describes some important features of the desktop in the context of Tails.

<h1 id="top-navigation-bar">Top navigation bar</h1>

In the upper-left corner of the screen, there are 2 elements:

The shape of the Activities button represents your workspaces, the grouping of windows on your desktop. For example, below is the shape of the Activities button if you have 3 workspaces and the second workspace is the one that it displayed right now.

To open the Activities Overview, you can either:

Click on the Activities button.

Throw your mouse pointer to the upper-left corner of the screen.

Press the [[!img lib/start.png class="symbolic" link="no" alt="Super"]] key on your keyboard.

You can see your windows and applications in the overview. You can also start typing to search your applications, files, and folders.

The **Apps** menu provides launchers for the [[included software|about/features]] and GNOME utilities.

<a id="help"></a>

<p><b><i>Settings</i></b></p>

<p>To change various system settings such as keyboard, mouse,
touchpad, or displays, choose <b>System Tools&nbsp;▸ Settings</b>.</p>

<p>By default, any setting that you change in Tails is lost when you shut
down. Only the settings that you saved in the [[Persistent
Storage|persistent_storage]] are restored when you restart Tails.</p>

<p>To learn about the many keyboard shortcuts in GNOME, open the
<i>Settings</i>. At the bottom of the <b>Keyboard</b> section, choose
<b>View and Customize Shortcuts</b>.</p>

<p><b><i>About Tails</i></b></p>

<p>To know the version of Tails that you are currently running, choose
<b>Tails</b>&nbsp;▸ <b>About Tails</b>.</p>

<p><b><i>Help</i></b></p>

<p>To access the <b>GNOME Desktop Help</b>, choose
<b>Utilities</b>&nbsp;▸ <b>Help</b>.</p>

In the **Favorites** submenu, a few shortcuts allow you to launch the most frequently used applications: