application 2203 also text 2211 provides some further descriptive text associated with highlighted application 2203 the process associated with the selection and execution of the preview information is shown in greater detail in fig2 once the folder preview function of the start menu is initiated by user designation or automatically by the system of fig1 when a user highlights an item at 2301 the process determines which application or task is currently being highlighted 2302 the process then retrieves the preview files associated with the current selection 2304 and displays or plays as appropriate the retrieved preview files 2305 in step 2306 the process determines whether the selection was chosen by the user for execution if so the process retrieves and executes the selected application in step 2307 if not the process continues to display the preview at step 2308 until the users 39 focus moves to another highlighted item or until some other action takes place which takes the system out of preview mode if the another item is highlighted the process returns back to step 2302 where the new position of the current highlighted item is determined and previewed accordingly alternatively files relating to the preview of any task or application can be stored at a remote location to access these files at the remote location the file name as specified in the preview data structure described above may include the entire address of the file so that one may retrieve the remotely stored preview file for example the entire.