Windows XP for Starters: The Missing Manual: Exactly What You Need to Get Started

5.1. Launching Programs

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

• Choose a program's name from the Start All Programs menu.

• Click a program's icon on the Quick Launch toolbar (Section 3.5).

• Double-click an application's program-file icon in the My Computer Local Disk (C:) Program Files application folder, or highlight the applications icon and then press Enter.

• Let Windows launch the program for you at startup (Section 2.6.1).

• Open a document using any of the above techniques; its "parent" program opens automatically. For example, if you used Microsoft Word to write a file called Last Will and Testament.doc , double-clicking the document's icon launches Word and automatically opens that file.

What happens next depends on the program you're using (and whether or not you opened a document). Most present you with a new, blank, untitled document.

Some, such as FileMaker and Microsoft PowerPoint, welcome you instead with a question: do you want to open an existing document or create a new one? And a few oddball programs, like Adobe Photoshop, don't open any window at all when first launched. The appearance of tool palettes is the only evidence that you've even opened a program.