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The Desktop is the main workspace in Windows, and the first thing you see when Windows starts. It has a picture (wallpaper or background) that you can customize and icons for opening programs, folders, and documents.  It is the computer display that is under any open windows in a Microsoft Windows operating system environment. 

The desktop is designed to represent an office desk with objects on it - hense the term.  Just like documents and other objects can be placed on the top of a physical desk, the desktop provides a place where users can place their files and folders.

The electronic desktop consists of pictures, called icons, that show cabinets, files, folders, and various types of documents (that is, letters, reports, pictures). You can arrange the icons on the electronic desktop just as you can arrange real objects on a real desktop -- moving them around, putting one on top of another, reshuffling them, and throwing them away.