How do you add Start->Run shortcuts in Windows XP?

Question

Does anyone know how you setup new commands to launch an application from the Start->Run box?

ie. you can type "firefox", "winword" or "excel" into the Run box and those applications will open even though they're not in the system path, but others won't. For example, with Firefox, there's no files named firefox.* in any of my system path directories: Path=C:\WINDOWS\system32;C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\System32\Wbem;C:\Program Files\Subversion\bin;c:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Tools\binn\

So there must be some way of linking applications with this path to create a shortcut command, maybe in the registry?

For example, I want to be able to launch Google Talk from the Run command, but typing the executable's name "googletalk.exe" doesn't do anything, which makes sense because it's not in the system path, but neither is firefox.exe, and typing "firefox" works.

Does anyone have any ideas?

Cheers

Answer 1

Run works with search paths, which include the Path environment variable and some others. There might be more information in the MSDN, give me a moment and I'll look it up.

Answer 2

Googling found this. Here is bit taken from under the heading 'Adding applications to the Path':

Alternatively, the Registry can be edited to explicitly contain the path to the desired executable file or files. The Registry key involved isHKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths

1. Create a new sub-key with the name of the executable file that you wish to add to the path. e .g., HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\somefile.exe
2. In this new key, add a string variable named "Path" containing the value of the the path to your new executable file, e.g., C:\Program files\newprogramfolder\
3. The new key will already have an empty variable (Default). Edit it to have the string value of entire address of the new program executable , e.g., C:\Program files\newprogramfolder\somefile.exe

Answer 3

I put a link to the application I want to launch in the "c:\windows" folder, and I use it all the time. You can also rename the link file, of course, to speed up things: for example, I type w, x or pp to launc Word, eXcel or PowerPoint.

Answer 4

3 steps.

1. Create a shortcut to the foo.exe you want to run (foo.lnk)

2. Copy the foo.lnk to your C:\windows directory.

3. Run foo.exe by simply typing "foo" in your run dialog. ("start foo" in cmd prompt works too)

Answer 5

You could also use an application launcher like Launchy, Slickrun or Executor. That way you wouldn't have to mess with the registry. I use Executor and I can just select "send to -> executor" to create a shortcut for any app (or folder or whatever).

Answer 6

Thanks Tom, this really helped. Trust me it wasnt easy googling .. I installed Visual Studio 2005 over 2008 (dont ask me why!) and it messed up my default devenv location. But with this I could correct the current run path.

Thanks a Ton!!