Windows 3.1 didn't have a combined file manager/program launcher. Instead, there were two different apps. There was the program manager: http://toastytech.com/

Windows 3.1 didn't have a combined file manager/program launcher. Instead, there were two different apps. There was the program manager: http://toastytech.com/guis/win31progman3.png http://toastytech.com/guis/win31progman3.png Those icons don't represent files; they are 'program items', i.e. launchers. This was the file manager: http://toastytech.com/guis/win31winfile.png http://toastytech.com/guis/win31winfile.png You could launch programs from this, but only if you knew where they were installed and were willing to navigate there and then figure out which cryptically named .exe file it was. And, yes, the windows-in-windows organisation of both applications was a mess. Losing entire subwindows off the side of the program manager because you'd placed them somewhere and then resized the outer window, making them invisible, was totally a thing. The classic Mac, with its combined file manager and program launcher, and its single-file applications (usually), and its human readable filenames, and generally a whole bunch of little subtle usability features such as the way that icons remembered whether they'd been placed manually or had been autoplaced, was enormously better.