User Guide: The Apps Icon

The Apps icon

This icon is found on the icon bar to the right of all the disc drive icons. As the name implies it is intended to be used as an always available shortcut to applications. If you click on this icon it will open what appears to be a normal filer window, although it is a little bit different because it is for the read-only Resources filing system.

This Filer viewer behaves in the same way as other viewers in terms of its display type, sort order and keyboard short cuts, but does not give access to all the internal files within applications and does not let you copy files or applications to it.

The applications that will appear in the folder can be divided into two categories.

1. Applications that are part of RISC OS itself and are included in the RISC OS ROM, not on your hard disc.
2. Applications that you have installed on your hard disc but which can be made to appear here for easy access.

If you click on the Apps icon of a new RISC OS Six computer before any programs have been installed you should see something like the illustration below. You may have some different applications present, but you should always find the following:

• !Alarm
• !Chars
• !Configure
• !Draw
• !Edit
• !Help
• !Paint
• !SciCalc
• !Squash

If you search your hard drive you won't be able to find some of these programs because they are part of the RISC OS ROMs and the Apps icon is the only way that a user can access these programs to run them.

Because this is not a normal directory viewer you can't drag objects into it, so there has to be another way for you to get your own programs to appear here. In fact there are two ways.

The simplest way, and this also works with most earlier versions of RISC OS, is to place them in the Apps folder on your hard drive. You should find that in the root directory of your hard drive is a folder named Apps . If it isn't there you can just create it as described in Chapter 6 of this section. When the computer starts up this directory is scanned and any applications found there will also appear in Apps on the icon bar.

The second method is to use the Add to Apps facility of the RISC OS configuration system.

This documentation is copyright 3QD Developments Ltd 2013 and may not be reproduced or published in any form without the copyright holder's permission. RISC OS is subject to continuous development and improvement as such all information is provided by 3QD Developments Ltd in good faith and is believed to be correct at the time of publication E&OE. 3QD Developments Ltd cannot accept any liability for any loss or damage arising from the use of any information provided as part of the RISC OS Documentation.

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