How to Open an Application Program on Windows

How to Open an Application Program on Windows

What is an Application Program?

An application program is a set of software files on your computer that creates an environment where you can create or edit documents.

That's the short version. Here are a few more words about this.

Synonyms Explained

We computer people have developed a set of terms to confound the innocent. Here are some explanations:

Application = Program

The term Application can be used interchangeably with the term Program. Sometimes they'll be used in the same sentence!

Open = Run = Launch

To Open or Run or Launch a Program Application means to startup that program so you can begin using it.

Activity 1: Opening an Application Program

This method works about 90% of the time. After this explanation I'll outline a different method to open programs.

1) Click on the Start button (almost always in the lower left of the screen). This will generate a Pop Up menu.

2) Move the pointer over the Programs menu item on the Start Menu. This will generate a cascading or secondary menu of more choices. (Menu items that have a cascading menu always have little triangles next to them.)

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Sidebar: The Program Menus:

There is great variance with the items that will appear within the program menu. In general, every program that gets installed on your computer (by you or whomever) creates an entry in the Programs sub-menu. Since different software programs get installed on different computers, you may see different stuff on different Program menus.

Be aware that some of the installers may use the name of the company rather than the name of the software program(s) themselves. You'll just need to become familiar with all this....

As example: you may find something called "Corel Suite" in your Programs menu that contains "WordPerfect for Windows" since Corel makes WordPerfect.... If you're not sure, explore!

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3) Find the item you want to launch / open / run and highlight it. Click and you will open that item. In the case pictured below, I've clicked on Start > Programs > Accessories and selected WordPad within the Accessories sub-menu. Please do this in order to launch the WordPad program. (It comes on all Windows computers.)

Below, I show what the WordPad program looks like when it's open. (Note that in this view it's set up to share its application window with other programs and the desktop -- the arrangement of your windows and desktop may vary. Click here to open a new browser window that will show you how to manipulate application windows.)

We'll use WordPad in later lessons.

Alternative ways to open a program

If you have a program on your computer do not find it (or any likely named item) in your Programs menu, don't give up hope! Take these steps and you may be able to find it yet.

Open the My Computer icon

Open the Hard Drive (usually the C drive)

Within the C drive, open the folder named Program Files.

Most of the programs installed on your computer end up either here or within the C drive itself. Note that folders containing programs installed on your computer may have the name of the company that made the software rather than the name of the program.

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