From your description, it sounds as if it's the Layer list your are missing.
Within MapInfo Pro 17.0, this can be found in the Explorer window. To open the Explorer window, go to the HOME tab, click on the Tool button in the Windows group and then finally click on the Explorer element in the dropdown.
You should now see the Explorer window as shown in the image below.
![OpenExplorer]()
You can place it in multiple places - that's all up to you. By default, I think, it will dock itself on the left side of the screen.