Microsoft HTA/Basic concepts


Welcome to the Computernewb Wiki Microsoft HTA tutorial! HTA is a simple way to make desktop programs for Windows computers with Internet Explorer. It uses a similar syntax to HTML; in fact, HTA is just HTML with specialized extensions to allow for desktop programs to be made. HTA programs use the .hta file extension.

Getting started with HTA is easy! If you know how to write an HTML web page, then you're already on your way to mastering HTA. Let's start with a simple Hello World program:

Language: HTA, File Name: hello.hta
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Hello, world!</title>
    <HTA:APPLICATION
      APPLICATIONNAME = "Hello, world!"
    />
  </head>
  <body>
    <h1>Hello, world!</h1>
  </body>
</html>


As you can see, the special HTA-related attributes such as APPLICATIONNAME are located in the HTA:APPLICATION element, which is located in the head element. All window style attributes go into the HTA:APPLICATION element.