At the bottom of the screen you will notice a long, gray bar called the Panel. This is where applications are launched from and where you can switch desktops. To launch an application you need to use the button marked with a large K at the far left of the Panel. This button is called the Application Launcher.

When you click on the Application Launcher button you will be presented with a menu that is broken up into sections. Each of these sections contains applications that you can launch. For example, the games section contains games such as solitare and reversi, the Applications section contains an organizer and text editor and so on. Clicking on one of these icons will launch the application.

Once you have launched an application, an icon will be created for it in the taskbar at the top of the screen. To switch between running applications, just click the icon of the application you need (or use ALT + Tab to switch as an alternative).