Custom Run Command Shortcuts

what?
Run commands are a useful way of opening applications or documents without lifting your hands off the keyboard. And it does not require you to memorize long addresses. I have been looking for ways to make custom ones for a long time, but no google search has turned up the answer for me. Until I stumbled the answer myself one day.

how?
As long as you're using windows Xp or Vista ( I don't know if it works on previous versions, but most likely) this will work.
Hit the keys:
Win+R
this will bring up the run dialog. you may be familiar with this to access msconfig, regedit, or cmd.
now some ones that work by themselves. Typing in these phrases will open the respective program.
firefox
notepad
wordpad
mspaint
photoshop
msword ( XP not in vista >.< )

Now you can also type in the long address of the program you're looking for:
"C:\Program Files\Winamp\winamp.exe"
But because I don't like remembering this long command, I would rather just have to type in winamp to access winamp.

how? (take two)
From what I can tell, vista ( I don't have XP installed, can someone try this for me ) first searches "C:\Windows" first for the application. Notepad and explorer is in that folder. If I dug around some more, I could probably find where wordpad is, but for now I will use this method.

I took a shortcut of microsoft word 2003 and renamed it msword. I then moved it into C:\Windows. When I pulled up the runcommand, and typed in msword, it opened up Microsoft Word. I have not found a way to organize this a little better yet, but when I do I will post it up; for now the shortcuts will just be in a jumble in the Windows folder.

 

There is a very handy yet memory efficient program called launchy. You specify the key combination and the program opens a box where you just type the name of the app you want to start and it's done.

www.launchy.net

 

if you go to system properties and edit environment variables, you can add more paths there. just separate them with semicolon, as it is already done. you can set either user or system-wide environment variables. you are looking to edit PATH and to add path to your program files folders where programs you want to start from RUN window are...

i.e., to add shorthand command to RUN window where you would start winamp, you need to add to the path variable another piece of text - "C:\Program Files\Winamp\" without quotes...

another thing is - there are few more interesting and useful keyboard combinations that save your time by utilizing keyboard only:

win+D to hide windows and show desktop
win+E to open new windows explorer window
win+M to minimize all windows off the screen to the taskbar
win+L to lock your windows session
ctrl+shift+esc to show task manager
shift+alt+tab to rotate active windows backwards :] (useful if there is a ton of opened windows, and you "run over" the program you needed)

 

I place shortcuts to my commonly used programs on my custom toolbar. One of those shortcuts is %SystemRoot%\system32\cmd.exe

 

me too. i hate tons of icons on the desktop, i keep only "my computer", "my docs" and "recycle bin" there... every other program i use - i put shortcut for it onto the quicklaunch bar, and i move bar to the left edge of the screen, make it 3 columns wide, and ask it to autohide and stay on the top... that does the trick, and keeps desktop tidy... also, whatever you download, it goes to desktop, sortofa temp folder for working documents and recent downloads...

 

I only have the Recycle Bin. The only Toolbar I have is my custom one, which also autohides. I set the Download folder to be an actual folder called Download, so everything goes there. Minimalist Zen!. Ahhhh!

 

the quicklaunch bar gets full quickly though. with ten apps that you often use. Thanks iznogud though for that.

 

I currently have 16 icons on my custom toolbar. I don't display any other toolbars.

 

with a 14 inch screen notebook computer. 16 icons would be 1/4 of my windows bar. And i like opening lots of windows.

but to you though

 

I know there is a way to put a shortcut to Quicklaunch that opens Run, but is there a way to make a shortcut that opens a SPECIFIC run command?

I only use Run to open frontpage, and Im hoping to avoid having to enter "frontpg.exe http://..." etc every single time.

 

create a shortcut with that run command in it.

 

how? I only know to create shortcuts from programs, which is why I can create a shortcut to the run program, but not to "run frontpg.exe http://..."

 

Isn't that what this thread does? If you want to run that frontpg file, put it in C:\Windows Opening file by file might be a little tedious though. I'd just open frontpage and then open the file from frontpage.

 

It's not a file, its a remote website. I have to enter it in every time, and thats why I am trying to find a shortcut.

Doesn't work, I don't have a proper local "web folder" for FP to locate, and not sure how to make one.

 

I dont understand the significance of this thread for Vista. When you hit the window key, start menu automatically pops up with the cursor in the search box. Typing in any partial name of the application and hitting enter will automatically launch it. Typing in some run commands like services.msc and msconfig will also work.

Why mess with your windows folder when you have an easy launcher already built into Vista.

 

It's easier to click an icon than type anything, thats why I am trying to find out if its possible to make a shortcut for execuring a specific run program such as services.msc

 

True but the point is to keep a clean desktop. The more software you have the more cluttered your desktop/taskbar/etc will be if you have shortcuts for them all there.

Window launcher like Quicksilver is an easy way to find the file/application you need and launch it without trying to search through dozens of apps. (There is more to Quicksilver than just launching apps but who cares, it's a mac software).

PS. There is already a shortcut for services.msc and msconfig. They are in control panel>adminstrative tools.

 

I use Quicklaunch.

I also need to create a shortcut to a specific run command. I only need one, and its not in admin tools.

Is it possible?

 

to shalimar
the run window isn't only for opening executables, it can also open directories.
If you want to go to program files, you just type in: "C:\ program files" pretty sure you can't do that in the vista search bar. Anyways, this is applicable to xp users too.

to Artie:
I don't really understand what you're asking because I don't frontpage, but i'll give you an example of msword, and hopefully this'll help.
If I want a NBR shortcut, I'd save a shortcut of NBR on my desktop, and move it to the Windows folder ( or just save it directly there)
to save, just right click and "save page as"
Or if you want to get a shortcut to a msword document. just make a shortcut of it and move it to the windows folder.

then in the run command just type in the name of that shortcut.

did this help?

 

You are right. There is more to the run command but the point of this original thread was to find a quick and lean way to open programs.

That aside, if you want to open anything via Vista Search including the Program files, create a shortcut of the file/program and put it into the Start Menu.

That is a quick work around, but I believe there is a way to optimize Vista Search to pinpoint its search directory but I havent had the time to figure it out yet.

Hope this helps.

 

I uses shortcut key (a windows built-in feature) to start my frequently use programs. example: ctrl+shift+x for excel, ctrl+shift+w for word, etc, without the need of any 3rd party launchers.

because of this, i have deleted all the crappy shortcuts from program installation from my vista desktop.

to assign shortcut key, select program shortcut from the start menu, right click, select properties, go to shortcut key field. you can then create a shortcut keys with a combination of ctrl, alt, shift with any alpha-numerics.

been using this since windows 95.

 

Nope.

I want a shortcut that I can click on so I don't have to type the name of the run command; it would be part of the shortcut.

The reason is I can only open websites in frontpage using the run command, and I don't want to type frontpg.exe http://...................... every time.

 

this is probably the first thing you tried, but do this.

right click on the desktop, go to new, then shortcut.

then paste in the run command you use to open the FP page. and.. do whatever else it asks i'm too lazy to check >.<

to lua:
you should put instructions first! i just did crtl + shift + w and closed my firefox

one thing that the run command has over all these other things you guys are proposing, is that this isn't only for executables. I can open certain word documents as long as i know where it is and it's name. I can open directories ( very useful in my opinion ) and whatever you wish.

 

Maybe I dont fully undestand the run command but dont you have to type in say c:\ program files or c:\ "whereever that word document is" to pull it up? Vista continuously update your files so punching in Vista Search the title of a word, excel, etc document will be a lot easier, wouldnt it?


Whatever though. It doesnt really matter. Everybody has their own preference.

 

The shortcut opens a file, not a run command. If I type "frontpg.exe" it says can't find file, but even if it could I don't want a shortcut to open frontpage, I want a shortcut to use run to open frontpage.

 

After countless hours of trying to help you Artie, i think this is a lost cause.

I finally understood what you meant, ( thought i don't know why you have to use a run command to open the FP thing ) and I tried some stuff. When you want to modify how something opens you create a shortcut of it and modify the address. So I went to C:\Windows\Run and I found the run shortcut. I copied that to my desktop and right clicked properties. But lo behold this run isn't an application it's a .lnk not a .exe . This ends any of my theories sorry man. I got nothing else for you. Try finding another solution to using Run commands to open what you're opening.
or you could tell me in detail what you're doing?
do you use the run command to open up the source code of a remote website? ( i don't know what else frontpage does other than html work)

 

Yep Thats exactly what i'm doing, and why i'm looking for a shortcut so I dont have to type "frontpg.exe + url".

 

tricky... i'm assuming this isn't your site. And... i'm assuming you don't know/know enough perl/ruby/jscript or what not to write a script to do it for you. I dunno... dump frontpage? use Dreamweaver! I don't know... for my site ( yess free advertising! ) www.sclyc.com i just use notepad to write it, but there's not much coding on it compared to bigger sites.

I mean I'm a very keyboard oriented computer user ( hence this thread ). If you aren't, and the only run command you use is for frontpage... you have to hit win+R then enter right away becuase "frontpage.exe + url" is already there. i mean.... it'd be quicker than a shortcut probably. but yeah.. up to your preference, but i guess we can't devise a solution for you.

i'll sit here and think of more.

 

You mean it should be there, in the drop down menu, because I used it in the past?

It's not. I know it should be because it was on my old computer, but for some reason the previous run commands are not saved anymore. If I could figure how to keep them there, that would solve the problem of not having to retype everything each time.

 

that's odd. what OS you running.

that is very intriguing. I wonder why it doesn't save them for you....

 

Here's my current layout, showing 2 running programs, the 5 custom toolbars I have set up, and the icons in the notification area. The only things on the Desktop are the Recycle Bin and 3 SideBar gadgets.

 

Im using Vista

 

AKAJohnDoe:
wow... yeah.. right now i have 10 open windows, 3 items int eh quickstart and 2 items on my desktop. haha. For me your setup would be too small :/

Artie Lange:
Hey So i just downloaded Launchy b/c my friend suggested it to me. And it seems like you can make your own run commands. It's in the readme when you isntall. you should check it out and see if it'll work for you: link

http://sourceforge.net/project/down...rb-east&filename=LaunchySetup125.exe&43810194

 

@OP: You can type "winword" in Vista and XP (in the Run dialog, 'course ) and it will open up MS Word without you having to go through the trouble of making shortcuts and all that other crap. I haven't figured out the phrase for excel though.

 

Launchy FTW!

 

for MSword, winword defautly works.

for excel, excel works for me.

I remember i found excel first, and then it took me while to find msword's.

yes, launchy is acceptable, if you want to install more stuff on your computer.