Program Manager

The Program Manager is the operating system shell of the 16 -bit operating systems, the Windows 3.x series and the 32- bit operating systems Windows NT 3.1 and Windows NT 3.51. With the release of Windows 95 it was, like the file manager, replaced by the Windows Explorer.

History

The Program Manager was introduced with Windows 3.0, new, and used throughout the Windows 3.x series. Windows 95 provides the original version during setup the option instead of the new Windows Explorer, continue to use the old combination of Program Manager and File Manager. Also in the 32- bit operating systems, Windows NT 3.1 and 3.51 of the Program Manager was used until it was replaced in Windows NT 4.0 from Windows Explorer. The executable file is included up to Windows XP, the program from Windows XP Service Pack 2 is no longer operable.

Functions

The Program Manager is by default a desktop in the background, a main window and several program groups. These groups are open in the form of sub-windows and contain various icons to launch programs; they correspond roughly to the later start menu. By default, there are the groups main group, autostart, games, accessories, and in the network-enabled versions of Windows network, it can, however, at any time create additional groups.

Minimized programs are represented by an icon on the desktop, can be restored if necessary with this window. Likewise minimized program groups are represented by an icon in the main window.

The Program Manager has some significant limitations: it is only a maximum of 40 groups can be created, and each group can contain a maximum of 50 icons.

References and sources

• Windows
• Historic software