thanks again.
My thread was poorly titled.i shouldn`t have said "struggling"as I can find and use everything.
I just found ,personally,no obvious "improvements" that affect my usage and see it as a marketing ploy to cash in on the Apps phenomenon.  
I bought Windows 8 for Seniors.
hopefully it will make more sense as I get older

webbs hill studio
 
if I wanted apps on my desktop I would have bought a Mac!!
 

Actually, the Mac desktop doesn't have apps on it, they don't show up unless you click "Launchpad". ;)
Here's mine. Personally, I have no use for apps view - I like to keep a clean desktop.
 

my bad-should have said an IPad-my wife uses one for work and the desktop appears to be totally run by apps.
nice clean desktop but what are all the icons along the bottom of the screen?
I assumed they were apps or is it a Mac taskbar?
cheers

webbs hill studio
my bad-should have said an IPad-my wife uses one for work and the desktop appears to be totally run by apps.
nice clean desktop but what are all the icons along the bottom of the screen?
I assumed they were apps or is it a Mac taskbar?
cheers

They call it the dock. Considering that just about everything is called an app these days, I guess they are apps. For whatever reason, in my mind, app is a bit derogative and refers to all kinds of widgets and games and all. I guess in Windows lingo, the dock would be the equivalent (roughly) of the task bar and its quickstart icons + the start menu and its sub-menus.
 

 
thanks-I also perceived "apps" were non-essential toys but wiki makes this distinction:
 
Application Software that causes a computer to perform useful tasks
and
Mobile App.,software designed to run on smartphones and other mobile devices.
plus
Application Portability Profile 
and
Atom Publishing Protocol(or AtomPub) 
 
where would we be without wiki.?