For Windows 3.x

If you've found yourself needing to jump between applications, the techniques in this article will show you how to save lots of time by making the jumps much faster!

You should read this if:
you have Windows installed on your computer
you have a need to switch between programs quickly, or
you spend lots of time ending one program just to start another

Here's a way to start more than one program (Word, dBase, spreadsheets, whatever) and leave them running while you switch between them at need. If this sounds like more work than it’s worth, ask yourself these questions:

Do you mind waiting while you start and exit every program you use every time you use it?

Have you had to interrupt your work and start another program (file, notepad, spreadsheet, whatever) to take and handle a phone call (customer order, bosses' question, co-worker's query), then shut down the application you loaded for the call (order, question, query), restart your original program, and try to remember where in the project you were?

If you answered 'no' to any of these questions, you won't need this article.  But please tell a friend about this web page:  although you won't need it, they might!

The basics

In a way, Windows is just a menu that uses pictures ("icons"). We don't actually WORK in Windows; we do our work in another program (dBase, 123, Excel, Word, SuperCalc, etc). But we can start programs from Windows.

We easily start Windows programs from Windows: just click on their icons and they go. DOS programs can be started from Windows too: just click on the "DOS prompt" icon in the MAIN group and you'll be at the old familiar command line. But while this looks like an ordinary DOS command prompt, Windows is still running behind it. We call this "a DOS box in Windows" or just "a DOS box".

You can't tell by looking at this DOS prompt whether it's a DOS box in Windows or just plain old DOS. Neither can the programs! If you start your usual DOS programs from this prompt, they'll (almost always) run just as they normally do. (There are exceptions, of course, but they are getting more and more rare.)

You can tell whether a DOS prompt is plain DOS or a DOS box by pressing CTRL+ESC (hold down CTRL while pressing ESC). This does nothing under plain DOS, but in a DOS box this brings up a Windows display showing the Windows Task List.

The Windows Task List

The Task List displays all the active tasks (that is, programs) running under Windows. Understanding and using the Windows Task List is the true and best key to task swapping.

Look for a moment at the list itself. You'll always see the Program Manager on the task list. The Program Manager is where you are when you start Windows and the place from which you start programs. You may also see the Print Manager and the File Manager listed there. And if you've just come from a DOS box you'll see the MS-DOS prompt listed there.

All active tasks are shown on the Task List. A task (that is, program) becomes active when you start it. Word for Windows, for instance, becomes active when you click on its icon in Program Manager and it starts up. A DOS box becomes active when you click on the MS-DOS icon.

The Task List lets you quickly switch to an active task. Use the up- and down-arrow keys to highlight one of the tasks and press ENTER; that task will reappear, at the point where it was when you left it. No more closing and reopening programs!

The buttons at the bottom are self-explanatory and have varying degrees of helpfulness. Feel free to explore what they do after you understand the Task List better.

Multitasking

Windows is a multitasking operating system. "Multitasking" means we don't have to close one program to start up another. Let's start multitasking by launching another program. Use the Task List to switch to Program Manager. You'll be back where you were the last time you were in Program Manager. If you started a DOS prompt from the MAIN group, the MAIN group will still be open.

If you have another DOS program to run, start another DOS box the way you started the first one. This brings up another DOS prompt, and you can again run any DOS program you choose from this prompt. Or click on a Windows program icon to start a Windows program. The Task List will always be there to let you swap between your tasks as long as they are active.

CTRL+ESC always brings up the Task List, whether you are in a DOS box or a Windows program. If you do so with two MS-DOS prompts running, your Task List will show two "MS-DOS Prompt" entries. This is because to Windows they're just DOS boxes. Windows just keeps track of them as "MS-DOS Prompts", and leaves it to you to remember what they are.

The EXIT command closes the DOS box and removes it from the task list. This in the DOS box is the same as choosing FILE/EXIT in a Windows program.

The uses of CTRL+ESC

Use this helpful keystroke combination:

to bring up the Task List

to test to see if you are in Windows

to test to see if a program is already active before starting another copy of it

to test your computer to see if it is working! From a DOS box, Windows should always honor CTRL+ESC and bring up a Task List. If it doesn't, your system may have halted.

Conclusion

By using the Windows Task List, we can harness Windows Multitasking to get many more things done quickly.