> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.webexp.dev/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.webexp.dev/exp98-shopify-theme/exp98/advanced.md).

# Advanced

How the desktop works under the hood, for anyone customizing or troubleshooting.

## Windows are real pages

Every window that shows your content — a product, a collection, a page, the cart, search — is a real page at a real address. Clicking a link to one fetches just that page's section from Shopify and opens it as a window, and the address bar changes to the page's address. Load that address directly and you get the same window, on a fresh desktop.

So links can be shared and bookmarked, search engines index every product, ads can land on a product, and the back button works. Games, the music, videos and photos have no address: they aren't pages, and a back button that closed the music would be a surprise.

If a link to one of your pages reloads the whole desktop instead of opening a window, it's a kind of page the theme doesn't open as a window — a link to another site, a file, or an app's page.

## What loads, and when

The screensaver engine and the games are the two heaviest parts of the theme, and most visits use neither. So neither loads with the page:

* The **screensaver** loads shortly before the idle timer would start it, when someone hovers Sleep or the music disc, or when either is pressed.
* The **games** load the first time a game window opens.
* **3D models**, and the AR viewer, load the first time a model is chosen.
* **Videos** in the product gallery load when chosen.
* **You may also like** and the cart's **suggestions** are fetched after their window is on screen.

## In the theme editor

While you're in the editor, the theme holds back everything that would get in your way — the enter gate, the switch-on, the idle screensaver, music starting by itself, the email sign-up opening on a timer — and instead shows each thing when you select it. A section you change is re-drawn by Shopify and keeps its window open.

## Reduced motion

Visitors whose device asks for reduced motion get: no switch-on animation, no CRT flicker or roll, no idle screensaver, a still wallpaper image instead of video, and the 3D password logo held still. Everything they choose to start — Sleep, the visualizer, a game — still works.

## Editing the code

If you customize the theme's code, keep a copy of the original. Theme updates replace the theme's files, so edits made directly to them are lost when you update.

For custom work, [get in touch](https://webexp.dev/pages/contact).