Tuesday 8 October 2019

Windows NT 3.51 Program Manager On Windows 7 & 8.

Program Manager was every version of Windows from Windows 1x to Windows 2000. Windows 95,98 and Windows ME had the 16 bit version from Windows 3x.  There was also a 32 bit version that was in Windows NT3,Windows NT4 and Windows 2000. But Microsoft disabled Program Manager in Windows XP. It's still in there but it does not run and was removed altogether from Windows Vista onward.





The 16 bit version runs on Windows XP,Windows 7 and 8 but does not save any programs so you cannot do anything with it. I have tried to install the 32 bit version on Windows 8, by copying the Progman Exe from Windows NT4 and then Windows NT3.51, but it just does not run.

The other day I came across a post on the web from a user named Floyd from Chorus Of One website which is his website. He has adapted the 32 bit  Program Manager from Windows NT 3.51 to work on Windows XP, and later Windows, including Windows 8. He also said in his post that he has got it working on Windows 10. And he has made the program available to all who want to use it.

So I downloaded it from his website and it works on my Windows 8, and I also tried it on Windows 7 and Windows XP. So if you miss the old Program Manager here is how to get it back. Download the Program from his website and place all of the files in the C\Windows\System32 folder on Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows.

On Windows XP  you need to rename the Progman Exe you have downloaded to something like Progman2. Because there is already a Progman in System32 and System File Protection won't let you delete it. If you try to do so it will just replace it with the inactive Windows one. That's why you need to rename it. But once you have done that, place all of the files in C\Windows\System32, the same as on Windows 7, and it will work.

Here is Program Manager on Windows 8.





Here it is on Windows 7.




And this is Program Manager on Windows XP.




You can create program groups as well as drag and drop program files into it.

See it in action in my video.



Many thanks to Floyd of Chorus Of One Website for sharing this with us,credit goes to him.
Thank you Floyd.

The software can be downloaded from his website here and he also has a forum as well.

Chorus Of One Website.

Floyd's forum is here.

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