Personal Computer Fundamentals
Running Programs in Windows
In this lesson, you will learn:
The normal way too start a program is to click Start > Programs and choose the program from the list. However, not all programs are listed on the Start menu. Alternative methods for starting programs and opening documents are discussed here to help you understand the inner workings of Windows and its file system.
Alternative methods include:
As you have seen by using Windows Explorer, browsing through the folders and drives to locate a program is fairly easy. As you search through the folder and directory structure, you will become more familiar with how things are organized on the disk. Double clicking the object opens the program that created the file, as well as the file itself. For instance, double clicking on Text 1.txt opens Notepad, (because that is the program that created it), and it also opens the Text file in the window.
As you can see, browsing and clicking on a file is one method of running programs. Even though it is tedious, it is usually sure to open the right program for you IF you know what you are looking for in the first place!
The absolute fastest way of opening up any program files is with the Shortcut located either on the desktop or on the Start > All Programs menu. The Program usually installs the shortcut as an Icon on the Start menu for you, and sometimes even on the Desktop. It is nice having Shortcuts on the Desktop because it is much faster than clicking all of the cascading menus of Start > Programs > "My Program Selection".
Program shortcuts can be re-arranged by name. That is done by right clicking in the desktop area and selecting the 'Arrange' options. This arrangement will be exactly the same every time you start Windows. It makes it easy to remember where on the Desktop they are, especially as more and more programs are added.
Placing Program Shortcuts into their own folder is not always advantageous. The purpose of having the icons on the desktop is speed and simplicity. Clicking more than one time to open a program that you use frequently is counter productive and defeats the purpose of having the shortcut. In this case, folders are not always helpful. Unless you are organizing programs that are not used very often, like utilities, or you need the desktop space, there is very little point in adding another level of access. Shortcuts in Windows are a big topic and are discussed in a later lesson.
As outlined above, double clicking the data file you want to open will open the file in the program that created it. Different types of programs open different types of files. The type of program that will create or open the file is identified by the file extension, the letters after the dot in the file name. This is sometimes called dot 3 notation because most file extensions were limited to 3 characters after the dot.
For more on File Extensions and File Associations study the course on File Types.
Installing Software is a big subject, and is covered in higher beginning and intermediate courses.
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