The desktop metaphor was first introduced by Alan Kay at Xerox PARC in 1970 and elaborated in a series of innovative software applications developed by PARC scientists throughout the ensuing decade. The first computer to use an early version of the desktop metaphor was the experimental Xerox Alto,^[2][3] and the first commercial computer that adopted this kind of interface was the Xerox Star. The use of window controls to contain related information predates the desktop metaphor, with a primitive version appearing inDouglas Engelbart' "Mother of All Demos", ^[4] though it was incorporated by PARC in the environment of the Smalltalk language. ^[4]

One of the very first desktop-like interfaces on the market was a program called Magic Desk I built on a cartridge for the Commodore 64 home computer in 1983. A very primitive GUI presented a low resolution sketch of a desktop, complete with telephone, drawers, calculator, etc. The user made their choices by moving a sprite depicting a hand pointing by using the same joystick the user may have used for video gaming. Onscreen options were chosen by pushing the fire button on the joystick. The Magic Desk program featured a typewriter graphically emulated complete with audio effects. Other applications included a calculator, rolodex organiser, and a terminal emulator. Files could be archived into the drawers of the desktop. A trashcan was also present.

Back in 1984, explanations of the original Mac interface to users who had never seen a GUI before inevitably included an explanation of icons that went something like this: "This icon represents your file on disk." But to the surprise of many, users very quickly discarded any semblance of indirection. This icon is my file. My file is this icon. One is not a "representation of" or an "interface to" the other. Such relationships were foreign to most people, and constituted unnecessary mental baggage when there was a much more simple and direct connection to what they knew of reality.