Would be nice to have a custom about dialog rather than using the Windows one.

can't see the files? releases isn't listed! :-(

Using the Microsoft HTML Help resources, improved and updated documentation for the Program Manager should be created to increase ease of use for new users and cover all the changes between Program Manager since 1996. Help writing, styling and editing the documentation using an HTML Help compiler would be appreciated.

In order to roll out documentation faster, it may be more useful for me to add a help section to the website and ensure that it's fully updated.

There isn't really a discussion tab so I figured this would be the appropriate way to ask, is there any specific reason you're not going for NT3-5 compatibility?

Cairo Shell currently has an App Grabber feature where it can read the Start Menu and shell:AppsFolder folders and grab shortcuts from there.

A similar feature would remove the pain of manually adding shortcuts to Program Manager and make it truly an alternate shell for Windows.

Enable users to migrate their program groups and some settings from Program Manager to Program Manager II. Convert from the older group format to the newer one. Give an option, similar to the old Program Manager's ASCII to Unicode group migration, to delete the old program groups or retain them without syncing further.

When right clicking Firefox or Steam or other applications, a special context menu with application-specific commands is seen. Being able to activate this from a program group inside of Program Manager II would be extremely useful and help workflows. More research needs to be done where the data for these actions is stored.

An interesting but useful functionality in the original Program Manager was the ability to change the name and icon of the running application by creating a new program item that had a different name and/or icon.

Hi again!

I had reported this same bug in Progman-x64 before you decided to transition into Program Manager II, so I'll just make another note here in the hopes that you can figure it out and get it working.

When running under Windows Hyper-V server (free GUI-less edition that is limited below Core edition), the file browser dialog (such as the one that appears when you click "browse" on the Run dialog) seems to be missing from that OS, as well as in some other cases (I think WinPE exhibits the same behavior). There is however another callable file browser dialog that is present in those instances, which I would assume could be used instead (the one that notepad.exe calls). Perhaps some sort of if/then detection or case logic could be applied to allow this other file browser dialog to be called in such instances?

Thanks for keeping on with development of this project! I look forward to seeing where it goes.

Program Manager currently lacks any way to view or interact with the system's Notification Area. Popular shells like Cairo include the ability to view it. A tough to implement feature but necessary for ease of use and any chance at becoming a viable shell replacement. Help deciding on how/where it should be implemented is appreciated, not sure whether it should act as a docking window (a la the color palette in Paint.NET) or dock to the edges of the screen (like the Language Bar).

Seems like it'd be dead simple to add as an option. Maybe not a now or soon feature but would be easy to implement down the line.

Program Manager's primary purpose is a program launcher. Due to its inception in the late 1980s and halted development in the early 1990s, not much progress was made in the realm of actually managing programs. Faster task switching would be a great feature for power users to increase their work flow. An early idea is to have program switching between the most recently used programs (based on z-order), similar to how a browser will switch between the first 9 tabs with ctrl and 1-9. Similar functionality may be present in Windows 7+, which is where shortcut keys and functionality may be inspired from.

As per title. Toggleable options should retain their state. Window position and size should persist between launches.

When Program Manager II is first launched, it starts with no program groups. A default group created either from the windows accessory start menu folder or made to cover most systems should be added.

If an environment variable is changed, it should be updated immediately or before a program is launched. Also figure out if env variable change notifications are given to programs when Explorer is not running.

If Program Manager has no group selected or none exist, the new program item menu option should be greyed out. Same with many of the other edit commands.

see WM_INITMENU for implementation detail?

Mimic the NT 3.x behaviour of having separate user and global program groups.
"Each user has their own set of program groups that they may edit and alter without affecting the groups of other users. There are also global groups where all users will see the same thing. Typically these groups will not be alterable by a regular user." (text copied from http://toastytech.com/guis/nt351.html )

Clicking on both options did nothing. I have to use the Run option and execute e.g. shutdown -s -t 0, shutdown -r -t 0, shutdown -l, etc. as alternatives.

FYI, I am testing this program as a shell replacement on Windows Server 2022 Core.

Implement the Notification Area (system tray) into Program Manager. Determine the most appropriate way to display it.

From Progman-x64:
freedom7341/Progman-x64#7

Program Manager does not currently set the desktop wallpaper when you log in. May be solved in a similar manner but that seemed more like a band-aid and was untested on dual monitor setups. May look into how Explorer does it.

Minimised program groups appear as squished windows instead of icons. Would there be any way to restore the Windows 3.1 functionality? You can actually see the same behaviour when minimising other windows without Explorer running, so I imagine Microsoft changed some kind of functionality.

Find relevant group policy options and user permissions to accurately prevent or allow the creation and modification of groups and items.

starting in ef88804 , trying to run progmgr on windows 7 shows this system error. a494e05 and prior run flawlessly

Write a new format for the program group and program items and create working program groups with corresponding MDI windows. Preferably implement dialog functionality for creating these program groups before Alpha 1.

Once 3.x-style icons are implemented, the ability to toggle between those and the 95+ style titlebars should be implemented so the user can use the style they prefer. Also a place to add list view or other display types

would allow for easier 1:1 conversion of start menu groups, as well as (if using the actual start menu files to generate the tree) automatic installation of new program groups even when progman is set as the shell.
Would also allow easier implementation of user/global program groups, where user groups would be put in %AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs and global groups would go in %ProgramData%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs. (NOTE: this implementation would not allow nested global in user groups or visa versa )
Layout of the program manager would likely require a separate file to allow moveable program icons

I run Windows 11 and I have major issues. Program Manager II starts but it doesnt do more. Preferences dont work and I can't create Items. The Create, Browse and Change Icon Buttons simply dont work.

I can create Groups but the rest is unfuncational. This Project doesnt seem very alive but I would appreciate a Patch because I can't get the original Progman running (with the fixed and dlls) because it bluescreens on Win11.

Additionally the Groups don't have an Icon even after setting one.

The user should be able to drag an application onto a program group and have it automatically add itself with the application's default icon and friendly name, extracted from the file details if possible.

Use the Vista-friendly DPI functions for limited DPI-awareness to prevent ugly scaling on many setups.

Shouldn't be possible. Opening a new instance should attempt to find another open copy and redirect focus to it.

given progmanII's small file size, the included .zip support in windows explorer, and the fact it's a windows shell, I feel it would make more sense to at include a zip archive in the release.

Localization support should be implemented through MUI. This should allow support for as far back as Windows XP. Have a preprocessor define to enable/disable localization through MUI for compilation on older systems.

Windows NT 3.x (and Windows 3.x) included a Control Panel applet for configuring the desktop, which seemed closely tied to the Program Manager.
Most of the settings are still configurable today in other ways, and often more precisely, but the desktop patterns setting is no longer supported. I don't know if it's possible to bring him back, but it would be great.

Mostly self explanatory. On the first launch of Program Manager II for any given user, a wizard should be presented that guides the users on:

• Migrating their old program groups (#13)
• Migrating certain start menu groups
• Customizing any options
• Quick interface overview

Otherwise, on the first launch, Program Manager II should automatically create a common program group with all of the default user's programs.

points to https://freedom-desktop.github.io/progmgr/ instead of https://vortesys.github.io/progmgr