# About GitHub Desktop

GitHub Desktop helps you work with projects hosted on GitHub.

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## About GitHub Desktop

GitHub Desktop is a free, open source application that helps you to work with files hosted on GitHub or other Git hosting services.

## Benefits of GitHub Desktop

GitHub Desktop is useful for beginning and advanced users. Benefits include:

* **Get started easily.** If you're new to Git and GitHub, you may find it easier to use GitHub Desktop than to use Git on the command line. GitHub Desktop has a graphical user interface that simplifies commands and helps you visualize changes.
* **Find commands.** Because GitHub Desktop has a visual interface, you can easily access less-common Git commands, such as choosing which changed lines to include in a commit or adding a co-author to a commit, without needing to memorize or look up syntax.
* **Follow best practices.** GitHub Desktop encourages best practices. For example, it helps you to create an accurate and easy-to-follow commit history so other collaborators on a project can easily review your work.
* **Integrate with GitHub.** GitHub Desktop is specifically designed for use with GitHub. For example, you can authenticate to GitHub or GitHub Enterprise quickly, without needing to use a separate credential manager. You can also check out a pull request to run checks without needing to open your browser.

## GitHub Desktop workflow

You can use GitHub Desktop alongside any tools you need to contribute to a project. For example, a typical workflow is:

* Use GitHub Desktop to download a GitHub repository to your computer and create a new branch
* Use an editor such as Visual Studio Code to make changes to the code
* Return to GitHub Desktop to commit and push the changes to GitHub

## Getting started

GitHub Desktop is available for Windows and macOS. For information about installing and getting started with GitHub Desktop, see [Getting started with GitHub Desktop](/en/desktop/overview/getting-started-with-github-desktop).

If you're interested in the open source GitHub Desktop project, you can see the roadmap, contribute to the project, or open an issue to provide feedback in the [`desktop/desktop`](https://github.com/desktop/desktop) repository.

## Further reading

* [About Git](/en/get-started/using-git/about-git)