Skip to Main Content
Windows XP Professional: The Missing Manual
book

Windows XP Professional: The Missing Manual

by David Pogue, Craig Zacker, L.J. Zacker
January 2003
Beginner content levelBeginner
672 pages
21h 13m
English
O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Content preview from Windows XP Professional: The Missing Manual

Chapter 6. Programs and Documents

When you get right down to it, an operating system like Windows is nothing more than a home base from which to launch applications (programs). And you, as a Windows person, are particularly fortunate, since more programs are available for Windows than any other operating system on earth.

But when you launch a program, you’re no longer necessarily in the world Microsoft designed for you. Programs from other software companies work a bit differently, and there’s a lot to learn about how Windows XP handles programs that were born before it was.

This chapter covers everything you need to know about installing, removing, launching, and managing programs; using programs to generate documents; and understanding how documents, programs, and Windows communicate with each other.

Launching Programs

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

  • Choose a program’s name from the StartAll Programs menu.

  • Click a program’s icon on the Quick Launch toolbar (Section 3.4.3).

  • Double-click an application’s program-file icon in the My ComputerLocal Disk (C:)Program Filesapplication folder, or highlight the application’s icon and then press Enter.

  • Press a key combination you’ve assigned to the program’s shortcut (Section 4.5).

  • Choose StartRun, type the program file’s name in the Open text box (Section 2.7.1), and then press Enter.

  • Let Windows launch the program for you, either at startup (Section 2.6) or at a time you’ve specified (see Section 16.6).

Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.
Start your free trial

You might also like

Windows 8.1: The Missing Manual

Windows 8.1: The Missing Manual

David Pogue

Publisher Resources

ISBN: 059600348XCatalog PageErrata