terrypin Posted March 26, 2009 Report Share Posted March 26, 2009 Why is 'Program Manager' shown as a visible window by ME Pro? It appears in its browsable list of Visible Windows when creating commands. And if I try to activate it in a macro I see nothing. What exactly is 'Program Manager' anyway? Nothing of that name appears in XP's Task Manager. And other utilities I have that claim to list all programs and windows don't include it. -- Terry, East Grinstead, UK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevin Posted March 26, 2009 Report Share Posted March 26, 2009 What exactly is 'Program Manager' anyway? Wikipedia: Program Manager is the shell of Windows 3.x and Windows NT 3.x operating systems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terrypin Posted March 26, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 26, 2009 Wikipedia: Program Manager is the shell of Windows 3.x and Windows NT 3.x operating systems. Yes, I know that, but a shell is not a window. My question was really asking what ME Pro thinks 'Program Manager' means. Again: - Why does ME Pro call it a visible window, when it's not? - Why does ME Pro regard it as a window at all, when other programs do not? (XP Pro Task Manager was one familiar example I gave, but there are others.) -- Terry, East Grinstead, UK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cory Posted March 26, 2009 Report Share Posted March 26, 2009 I do not know this for a fact so take it with a grain of salt. As I understand it if you close all your applications and have no windows open the Program Manager is what you see. In the old Windows 3 days we had a Window that was titled the Program Manager that housed icons for all your programs. When we got a task bar in later versions it was my understanding that it was essentially still the Program Manager in a prettier and more useful guise. Or more accurately it's an instance of Windows Explorer that is playing the part and is titled as such. If you notice when you load windows in safe mode with no other applications running there will always be one instance of explorer.exe in the processes list and if you kill it you kill the desktop, taskbar and everything. And some apps might not show it as a Windowed application because for most purposes it isn't and is something they don't want the user messing with. And believe you me one can close the "Program Manager" and be left with an empty desktop where one can't do anything. Of course Windows is smart enough to launch a recovery right away to for most users they only see it as a screen glitch. But again this is just the feeling I get after years of use and not formal training so don't take it as the final word. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terrypin Posted March 27, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 27, 2009 Thanks Cory. You're probably right in those assumptions, although I'd still like to hear from the developers on my specifics. I suspect it's some sort of legacy with Ye Olde Days of Win 95 etc to include this 'shell' in a list of 'visible windows' on a modern PC. By understanding points like this it might help me fathom some of ME Pro's occasionally mysterious behaviour! -- Terry, East Grinstead, UK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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