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 (as default shell) |
| Replaced by | Windows Explorer (Windows 95/NT 4.0 [default shell]) Shell Technology Preview (NT 3.51 [preview shell]) |
Program Manager (also known as progman) is the default shell used 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 It has been replaced by the Windows Explorer in Windows 95, however, the Setup still included a "Windows 3.1 user interface" option, which launched the Program Manager at startup with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, however, the executable was still included for compatibility purposes. It was replaced by a compatibility stub in Windows XP Service Pack 2, followed by Windows Vista removing the executable completely.
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.