I am a Linux newbie trying out different distros. Got Debian installed and booting with no problems.
When I minimize any window, they disappear completely. I'm used to having something in a panel where I can restore a window. What am I missing here?

Thank You

Just as with Win-OS, you can find a minimized window in the taskbar at the bottom of your screen. Just a quick note: you are aware that Debian standard gives you 4 different workspaces, between which you can switch randomly? Even copy/paste stuff from one workspace to any other just works like it was one workspace. (Which it is, actually. It's just cloned to allow many open windows for fast switching and rapidly getting an overview of things )

I had never used Debian, but try right clicking on the task bar and add to panel something like Windows list... While you can't use that, try Alt+Tab.

I expected to see them in my "task bar" or panel, but they are not there.

Thanks for the reminder about the alt-tab, I had forgotten that one. That does work by the way, so my windows are somewhere, but not visible in any panel.

Thanks for the responses.

Ubuntu-Desktop by default places a menu panel at the top of the screen and an open window panel at the bottom of the screen (the trash is also located at the bottom). When you first install Ubuntu you may have to resize your screen or auto adjust your screen so that all portions of the Ubuntu desktop including top and bottom panels are displayed. You can also set these panels to "auto-hide" in which case they will disappear (roll into the margin). They will again appear when you move your cursor to the extreme top or bottom of the screen.

Try to auto-size your screen first.

Clicking on the X in the upper right hand corner will close the window just like in Windows.

OK I finally figured it out. In the top right hand corner is a "window selector". When I click on it it gives me a list of all open windows. I think I will like that better than the panel full of windows anyway. Cool.