Program Manager
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Program Manager was the shell of Windows 3.x and Windows NT 3.x operating systems. This shell exposed a task-oriented graphical user interface (GUI), consisting of icons (shortcuts for programs) arranged into program groups. The user-friendly interface replaced the file-oriented shells of previous Microsoft operating systems, and enabled non-technical users to run their computers without seeking technical assistance.
In later versions of Microsoft Windows, starting with Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0, Program Manager was replaced by Windows Explorer as the shell. For backward compatibility, Program Manager was still included in later versions of Windows; it can be accessed by executing C:\WINDOWS\PROGMAN.EXE in Windows 9x, or %SYSTEMROOT%\SYSTEM32\PROGMAN.EXE in Windows NT. %SYSTEMROOT% refers to the Windows directory which is usually C:\WINDOWS in Windows XP and C:\WINNT in all other versions of Windows NT (including Windows 2000).
Today, PROGMAN.EXE has little practical use beyond compatibility with extremely rare, antiquated programs. Since Windows XP Service Pack 2, it has been replaced by a dummy (icon library) and a converter for Program Manager shortcuts to Windows Explorer shortcuts. This is to ease the transition into Windows Vista, which does not include the application at all.
It is still possible to use the Program Manager in Windows XP Service Pack 2 by replacing the progman.exe executable with the executable from Service Pack 1 (or the operating system's original release). With the SP1 CD, one can expand it by typing expand -r D:\i386\progman.ex_ C:\Windows at the command prompt (replacing D: with the CD-ROM drive letter). It is also possible to bypass the Windows system file protection and overwrite the SP2 version of Program Manager completely.
