# GUI Usage

This page will help you get around the MESS GUI.

## Usage

Here's the MESS GUI screen...

As you can see it's very straightforward. At the top you have the menus that are described on the MESS GUI Config page. Under that there are a few buttons which are used to control how the system and software lists are shown. the first two will decide whether the folder list and screenshot page are shown. The rest will change the icons size and description in the lists.

The first thing to do is select the system you want to use in the first list. If you have any software installed it will automatically show up in the second list.

To run a system you need to double click it and MESS will load it for you. There are some systems that will only run if software is present. This applies especially to console based systems. To load these systems you need to click the piece of software you want to run from the software list. MESS will then load it for you.

MESS like Mame allows you to add screenshots and system picture to the GUI. These are normally kept in large Zip files in the C:\MESS\snap folder. You can get snapshots from here.