Date: Tue, 20 Nov 2001 13:39:47 +0100 From: "Anthony Atkielski" <anthony@atkielski.com> To: "setantae" <setantae@submonkey.net>, "FreeBSD Questions" <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: home pc use Message-ID: <006401c171c0$74db6780$0a00000a@atkielski.com> References: <3BF9B12B.3D521A4D@nycap.rr.com> <20011119220243.A268@prayforwind.com> <009a01c171a9$4eedbee0$0a00000a@atkielski.com> <E1667rO-0002md-00@mrvdom03.schlund.de> <00cd01c171ac$ca0fa0e0$0a00000a@atkielski.com> <20011120102625.GB75402@rhadamanth> <00d201c171af$61dccb80$0a00000a@atkielski.com> <20011120110535.GB75918@rhadamanth> <013901c171b7$407ea500$0a00000a@atkielski.com> <20011120114643.GB76431@rhadamanth>
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Ceri writes: > They are the programs responsible for creating > and manipulating the windows. > > Aren't they ? Nope. In the old Windows systems, PROGMAN.EXE maintained a window on the desktop from which other programs could be launched; its primary purpose was to provide access to all other programs. In the new Windows systems, EXPLORER.EXE maintains the taskbar and provides a few other services, like the Windows Explorer window. However, both new and old Windows systems would run without these programs, and they did not provide any window management, which was a function of the underlying GUI modules. The old Windows systems wouldn't do much without PROGMAN, since there was no way to start other programs; but newer Windows systems can survive without EXPLORER, although you usually have to restart it to do things productively. Windows NT, in particular, does not require that EXPLORER be running, and if it crashes or if you have to kill it, you can still start programs through the secure attention sequence (Ctrl-Alt-Del); you can also simply restart EXPLORER through this same mechanism. I've had to do that occasionally, usually because an Explorer plug-in hangs the program. Windows NT and its kin don't even require that a GUI environment be running, but in practice they are so dependent on a GUI that they are practically useless without one. This is one of the serious drawbacks of NT as a server when compared to FreeBSD. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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