The behavior of detector signals corresponding to the thermal desorption of gas from a solid surface for integral‐order kinetics is investigated with respect to variations of the parameters describing (1) the kinetics of the desorption process itself, and (2) the interaction of the desorbed gas with the vacuum system. A computational approach is used because the equations describing the simple model used are, generally, analytically intractable. A computer‐driven display and a data‐logging system facilitate not only the analysis indicated above, but also curve fitting so that the kinetic parameters can be extracted from experimental desorption data containing distortions caused by gas scattering from structures in the vacuum system.