You can start several programs by going to Start>Run and typing in the name of the program. For example typing ‘excel’ will start MS Excel, typing ‘winword’ starts MS Word.
However, not all programs can be started this way. But with a little registry tweak you can achieve this. Here is how to do it:
1. Start the Registry Editor (Start>Run>”regedit”) (See how easy it is to start the registry editor through the run dialog?)
2. Navigate to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths and expand the tree – you’ll find a lot of entries for different .exe files.
3. Right-click on App Paths and select New > Key and give it a name – MyProgram.exe for example.
4. Select this value, and in the right-hand pane, double-click on the “Default” value. Under Value Data, enter the path of the program – “c:\windows\MyProgram.exe“., for example.
Now, when you go to Start > Run and type “MyProgram”, the program you selected will come up.
Hint: You can even edit the existing keys to suit your needs. For example, to start MS Word, you have to type ‘winword‘ not ‘word‘. To change this just edit the Key ‘Winword.exe’ to ‘word.exe’. Now just typing word in the Run dialog will launch MS Word.
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