Program Manager
| Component of Microsoft Windows | |
 | |
 Program Manager in Windows 3.0 | |
| Type | GUI shell |
|---|---|
| Introduced in | Windows 3.0 |
| Last included in | Windows XP |
| Replaces | MS-DOS Executive |
| Replaced by | Windows Explorer |
Program Manager (PROGMAN.EXE) is an application launcher used as the default shell in Windows 3.0, Windows 3.1x, Windows NT 3.1 and Windows NT 3.5x. It has been replaced by the Windows Explorer in Windows 95, however, the Setup still included a "Windows 3.1 user interface" option, which launched the Program Manager at startup with the Explorer shell.
Later Windows versions removed that option, although the application was still included for compatibility purposes. Windows Longhorn build 3683 is the last known build to include the full program, with later builds replacing it with a compatibility stub, which was also backported to Windows XP Service Pack 2. The executable was later removed completely during the development of Windows Vista Beta 2.
Some RM OEM versions of Windows 3.x intended to be run from a network include a "restricted" version of Program Manager, PROGMANR.EXE.[1][2] This version has resources edited to disable the New, Run and Properties options in the File menu, thus users can only run applications specified in existing program groups.