Opening QuickBooks

Here are the  easiest ways to open QuickBooks:

 • Desktop icon.Double-click the desktop shortcut that QuickBooks created during installation.

Windows taskbar. The fastest way to open QuickBooks is to click its icon on the Windows taskbar, shown in Figure 1-1—but first you have to put it there. To do that in Windows 7 and Windows 8.1, right-click the QuickBooks desktop icon and then, on the shortcut menu that appears, choose “Pin to Taskbar.” If you're still using Windows 8 (not 8 .1 ), pinning the QuickBooks desktop icon to the taskbar takes a few more steps: Point the cursor at the screen's upper-right corner to

display the Charms menu, click the Search icon (the magnifying glass), type quickbooks in the Search box, and then press Enter. When you see the QuickBooks icon, right-click it, and then choose “Pin to Taskbar.”

FIGURE 1-1 Windows' taskbar keeps your favorite icons near at hand. The taskbar is easy to reach, because program windows don't hide it the way they do desktop shortcuts. You can rename desktop icons, as was done here. To do that, right-click the icon, and then, on the shortcut menu, choose Rename. Type the label you want to use, and then press Enter.

Start menu. You can also launch QuickBooks from the Start menu. In Windows 7, click Start→QuickBooks Pro 2016 (or QuickBooks Premier 2016). If QuickBooks isn't already listed in the Start menu, choose Start→All Programs→QuickBooks→QuickBooks Pro 2016 (or QuickBooks Premier 2016). In Windows 8, point the cursor at the screen's upper-right corner to display the Charms menu, click Start, and then click the QuickBooks icon on the screen's right. And in Windows 8.1, you can right-click the QuickBooks desktop icon and choose “Pin to Start.”

The first time you launch QuickBooks, you're greeted by the QuickBooks Setup dialog box, whose sole purpose is to help you create a company file in one way or another. The rest of this chapter explains how to create a company file, and then how to open company files you create. After that, you'll be ready to dive into bookkeeping.