Standard Installation Procedure (MATLAB Installation Guide for Windows) MATLAB Installation Guide for Windows     After You Install This section describes tasks you can perform after a successful installation, including Starting MATLAB Setting Your Initial Current Directory Setting Up MATLAB Environment Options Configuring Certain Products Finding Information About MATLAB Starting MATLAB To start MATLAB, you can use any of these methods. Double-click on the MATLAB icon (called a "shortcut") that the installer creates on your desktop. Click on the Start button, select Programs, and click on the MATLAB 6.5 entry. Select MATLAB 6.5 from this menu. Using Windows Explorer, open your top-level MATLAB installation directory and double-click on the shortcut to the MATLAB executable, MATLAB 6.5. Setting Your Initial Current Directory By default, when you start MATLAB using the shortcut the installer puts on your desktop, the initial current directory is the $MATLAB\work directory, where $MATLAB represents the name of your installation directory. The \work directory is a good place to store the M-files you modify and create because the MATLAB uninstaller does not delete the \work directory if it contains files. You can, however, use any directory as your MATLAB initial current directory. To specify another directory as your initial current directory, right-click on the MATLAB shortcut that the installer creates on your desktop and select the Properties option. Specify the name of the directory in the Start in field.   Standard Installation Checklist Setting Up MATLAB Environment Options