The graphical user interface used in Tails is called GNOME and shares many fundamentals with that of Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and most other modern operating systems, so if you have used any of them, getting used to GNOME will take no time. As this document is not intended as a complete guide for GNOME there are only a few things about it that we will mention here to spare you some time.

Top navigation bar

First of all, in the upper left corner of the screen there is a button with a logo in it, followed by three menus: Applications, Places and System.

Applications menu

The Applications menu is where you will find shortcuts to the installed applications. Please explore the different categories and try out those that seem interesting.

Places menu

The Places menu is here to make it easy to access storage medias.

System menu

The System menu allows to customize the GNOME desktop or the system.

Here are a few ones that you might want to check:

Applications Shortcuts

On the right of these three menu entries, a few shortcuts allow to launch the most frequently used applications.

Notification area

In the upper right corner you will find a couple of icons, each of which offers an interface for some system feature or running application. You are encouraged to check these icons out with the left and right mouse buttons.

Bottom panel

On the bottom of the screen is another panel.

Then come the buttons for open windows and on the right, a set of four similar rectangle icons gives access to four different workspaces.

Desktop shortcuts

Managing files with Nautilus

Nautilus is GNOME's file manager, FTP, SFTP client and more.

To manage local files, follow links on the desktop or from the Places menu at top right corner of the screen. To move files or folders, you can drag them from one window and drop them to another.

To connect to remote FTP or SFTP server, go to Places ▸ Connect to Server....