What's in a name? 6 Feb 2007

Here's an interesting article from Microsoft Technet on how Windows' "Program Files" directory got its name. What's interesting about this little case study is that this moniker was deliberately chosen for its user-unfriendliness:

"Many people have said that the 'Program Files' directory introduced in Windows 95 should really be named 'Programs.' But programs and program files are different. Users like programs. Programs do things. If you have a list of programs, you can browse through and choose which program you want to use. Programs are fun to play with.

"Program files, on the other hand, are scary. These are the nuts and bolts that make the computer go: data files, DLLs, configuration files, helper processes, and other things that users shouldn't be messing with.

"This distinction was preserved in the user interface. Programs appeared on the Start menu. This offered a friendly, inviting place where you could see all the programs on your computer and choose one to run. Program files, on the other hand, were squirreled away in a directory with a scary name that discouraged exploration. A directory named Programs would be an attractive nuisance. A user who wanted to run a program might open My Computer, see a directory named Programs, and wander into it, unwittingly entering a frightening world of DLLs and executables with baffling names. If this user were lucky, she might discover that this thing called WinWord.exe launches Microsoft Word. She might even (wrongly) conclude that, in order to run Word, she needs to open My Computer, click her C drive, click Programs, go into the Microsoft Office directory, then to Office11, and then in the list of 200 files (all of which have nonsense names) find the file called WinWord.exe and double-click it."