I was converting some graphics, when all of a sudden my program manager icon dissapeared. Rebooting the PC doesn't help. I have to run all my programs from filemanager. progman.exe is in the windows folder and it is also called in the system.ini file. Please help.

Hi Richie: Check your system.ini file [boot] shell=progman.exe to make sure that progman.exe is set as shell in [boot] section, if set like this you'll have program manager running until you exit windows. If you changed the system.ini setting to winfile.exe as [boot] shell, then you'll need to launch progman.exe from windows directory or add [windows] load=c:\windows\progman.exe to win.ini file. If you want to add a program manager icon in one of the groups just use file manager (in minimized size) to drag progman.exe to a group to create an icon link. Good luck. Z

Thanks Z but I tried all what you said and nothing works. Program manager is loaded (when I press Ctrl+Alt+ESC) to get the task list, but the icon is not there, So I cant access the the program groups and shortcuts directly. Could it be that progman.exe has gotten corrupted somehow. The system works fine otherwise its just it always boots up to the wallpaper and and no program manager icon. All I was doing was converting some jpegs using Xnview when I noticed the icon dissapeared mysteriously. Thanks for your help.

I forgot to mention the pc boots up to the wallpaper only, nothing else. There is no program manager icon as well as no GROUP ICONS.

Hi Richie: You might have a corrupted file or your progman.exe file is written to a bad drive sector. You could try to copy progman.exe (using dosshell, exit to DOS to run) to a floppy, then copy it back to c:/windows to over write that copy, then your progman file should be written to a different part of hard drive. If it works use scandisk (again exit to DOS to run) & defrag if you have DOS 6.22 to repair & mark other bad sectors on your drive (if that is the problem). If nothing works use msbackup (again in DOS) to backup all data to floppies & re-install Win 3.1 over you current on to fix bad or missing files. Good luck. Z

That's an odd problem to have my friend! My next email to you will include a fresh copy of progman.exe. I guess you shouldn't overwrite, but rename your current file and download the new one on another sector of your drive. Like Z said, it might be written on a sector that went bad! Later friend, Lightspeed