Program Manager

<!-- Image with inadequate rationale removed: -->Program Manager is 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 icon (shortcut for programs) arranged into program groups. It replaced MS-DOS Executive, a file manager, as the default Windows shell.

The program derives from the OS/2 1.2 program PMShell. This had the same icons as the Windows 3.0 program. Unlike the Windows versions, which are meant to illustrate the Multiple document interface, one can place groups or icons in a group, the groups in OS/2 were presented in a list. Running the OS/2 version in Presentation Manager for Windows will cause PMShell to read all of Windows groups, via DDE.

The DOS Shell (DOSSHELL) program in PC-DOS and MS-DOS has a File Manager and a Program Manager, this program being run on the Windows DOSX extender. This program also supports nested groups inside groups. It is in part because of this that programs like Norton Commander offer a program launch menu.

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, though Windows 95 gave the user an opportunity to choose which shell they preferred during setup. For backward compatibility with old applications, Program Manager was still included in later versions of Windows. It can be accessed by executing <tt>PROGMAN.EXE</tt> from the...
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