Windows 8.1: The Missing Manual

Opening Desktop Programs

Windows lets you launch (open) programs in many different ways:

• Choose a program’s name from the Start screen.

• Choose a program’s name from the “All apps” list. (On the Start screen, right-click, or swipe up from the bottom of the screen, to reveal the App bar; select “All apps.”)

• Click a program’s icon on the taskbar.

• Double-click an application’s program-file icon in the Computer→Local Disk (C:)→Program Files→[application] folder, or highlight the application’s icon and then press Enter.

• Press a key combination you’ve assigned to be the program’s shortcut.

• Press +R, type the program file’s name in the Open text box, and then press Enter.

• Let Windows launch the program for you, either at startup (Reliability Monitor) or at a time you’ve specified (see Task Scheduler, Task Scheduler).

• Open a document using any of the above techniques; its “parent” program opens automatically. For example, if you used Microsoft Word to write a file called “Last Will and Testament.doc,” then double-clicking the document’s icon launches Word and automatically opens that file.

What happens next depends on the program you’re using (and whether or not you opened a document). Most programs present you with a new, blank, untitled document. Some, like FileMaker and Microsoft PowerPoint, welcome you instead with a question: Do you want to open an existing document or create a new one? And a ...