Reinfeld Mode Opening Book

Books on chess for beginning players - those by Fred Reinfeld come particularly to mind here, but other authors do so as well - tend to recommend the King's Pawn opening. It certainly makes sense that players when they start to learn chess will need lots of practice to improve their tactical skills, whereas it's easier to learn about how to apply general positional principles.

If, however, you go to a chess club, and play 1. e4, your opponents are likely to face you with openings such as the Sicilian and the Pirc, which quickly get into waters far too deep for the beginning player.

When one is playing chess at home with one's computer, though, there is no reason not to expect it to be better behaved.

It certainly is possible, with great effort, to make a customized opening book of one's own for use with a chess program or chess computer.

But I would have thought - and it surprises me that I haven't heard of this feature being offered - that an obvious standard option that should be available with a chess program would be to select a "beginner's opening book". Which will, if the player plays 1. e4, take the player through openings like the Guioco Piano, the Four Knight's Game, the Ruy Lopez, and so on. With that kind of opening book, plus a low difficulty setting, presumably the new player would be facing the appropriate kind of opponent for his early development.

Do programs allow one to start the game from the 1 e4 e5 position?

They aren't aligned to do that repetitively, but you can usually setup positions and then begin play from that position.  A good example might be to set up e4 e5 Nf3 Nf6 to practice how to handle the Petroff