Start menu
The Start Menu is a launching point for programs and applications on Microsoft Windows machines. It is essentially a list of destinations to help navigate around the machine, All Programs, Documents, Run, Help (or in newer versions, Help and Support). You can also shut down or restart your machine from this menu.
On operating systems before Windows Vista, the Start Button consists of the word "Start" and the Windows Logo. With Vista's new theme, the word "Start" has been replaced by a blue Windows "pearl" logo.
On a machine using Windows XP, several regularly accessed programs (ie. Microsoft Office Word 2003) are saved for easy access, as well as the basic destinations. A menu might look something like this:
