Windows Run Command is your Friend

If you use Windows – even if only for few hours a day, you should learn to love the Run command. It is a hassle free gateway to all the applications and control panels on your system. All you need to do is to remember the application names which you want to call.

First of all, you should remember that most of the special system folders can be accessed just by typing their name in Run command, or in any file dialog. What are the special folders? Here are some of them:

my documents
desktop
prefetch
temp

And etc.. You can discover other ones yourself. But more importantly Run can be used to launch windows applications that are usually hidden in control panel 3-4 clicks away from you at any time. Here is a short list of Run commands that I use most frequently when administrating Windows boxen:

devmgmt.msc –

windows hardware device manager

services.msc –

windows services

regedit –

registry editor

appwiz.cpl –

add/remove programs

dfrg.msc –

disk defragmenter

diskmgmt.msc –

disk management panel

cmd –

launches the cmd.exe shell

eventvwr.msc –

event viewer

ncpa.cpl –

network connections panel

printers –

printers and faxes panel

msconfig –

system configuration and startup options

nusrmgr.cpl –

user management panel

control –

opens the control panel

You can bring up your Run command with a simple Windows+R keyboard stroke. Note that these commands may or may not work correctly in Vista.

I use all of the above on random machines that I service at work. On my personal windows boxen I usually install Launchy. It’s like the Run but with an auto complete feature which will try to guess what you mean, give you suggestions and display the graphical icon of the program that you are about to launch.

[tags]run, run commands, windows commands, windows applications, windows run shortcuts[/tags]