High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! In computing, the icon bar is the name of the dock in Acorn`s RISC OS operating system, and is fundamental to the OS. Its introduction in 1987 (as part of Arthur, the predecessor to RISC OS) was a new concept in GUIs. It displays icons through which access is provided to all parts of the computer that a typical user will require, from physical devices and system utilities to running applications, and will usually be their starting point for interacting with the system once it has finished booting.