Windows 10: The Missing Manual

Chapter 6. Programs & Documents

When you get right down to it, an operating system 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 for 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 companies work a bit differently, and there’s a lot to learn about how Windows 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 one another.

Note

In the beginning, programs were things that ran on computers; apps ran on phones and tablets. Microsoft would very much like the Great Merging of These Categories to hurry up. So in Windows 10, it refers to all of them as “apps.” (Except in older dialog boxes, like the old Control Panel, where they’re still called “programs.” Sigh.) In this book, “apps” and “programs” are the same thing, and both terms appear interchangeably to spice things up.

Opening Programs

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

• Choose a program’s name from the Start menu.

• Choose a program’s name from the “All apps” list.

• Click a program’s icon on the taskbar.

• Double-click an application’s program-file icon in the ...