Execute programs from the Run box

You have probably often used the “Run” box so that you can quickly start a program with your keyboard, as the mouse can sometimes take too long. The problem with this is that not all the programs can be started from here. Well, not quite!!!

The “Run” box (accessible with the [Windows Key] + [R], or by using a shortcut that can be seen in this file) works in the same way as an MS-DOS command where if it cant find the file in the local folder it will use a system PATH variable.

This means that if you type “winword” in the “Run” field, your system will directly search for the winword.exe file in the folders that are defined in the PATH environment variable, and will execute the file if it can find it in one of these locations. In this case, Microsoft Word will be started.

The contents of the PATH variable are viewable and modifiable in one of two ways: the first method is with the graphical tool while the second uses a long command line command that we will not be looking at here.

• Right click on the “My Computer” icon and select “Properties”. You can also use the “Windows key” + “Pause” combination if you wish.

• Select the “Advanced” tab and click on the “Environment Variables” button that can be found at the bottom of the window.

• n the system variables list, select the “Path” variable and click on the “Change” button. You will be able to add at the end of the list a semi-colon and the location of the executable that you want to execute. If you want to input multiple locations for programs, don’t forget to add a semi-colon between the entries.

• Press the “OK” button and your changes will immediately be activated.

You can also start any other executables that can be found in the specified location, although you should note that any in subfolders will not work. You would therefore need to add the location of the subfolder to the list if you wanted to run any files from this location.