Launching programs from the Run Command

Dears,

There are various software like ms office for which just typing the name of the application like excel ,winword and powerpnt etc. start that application through run command.
There are also other softwres as well, but others do not show such characteristics and the whole path of such application is defined to run such applications.

Is this inbuilt property of the software or can manually be such command
fabricated? Moreover if i want to start notepad through this way, what i have to do?

My OS is WinXP Pro.

Kind Regards,
Gulam Dastgir

 

Dear PeteC,

I think this is not a generic rule eg i have wordweb dictionary installed and its exe file is wweb32, but it does not start with such command.

Kind Regards,

Gulam Dastgir

 

The executable has to be in a directory that is on the system PATH. If not, you must supply the complete path to it with your command.

You can add any directory to the system PATH and make the executable easier to run by simply typing it into the RUN window.

 

Hi dastgir,

It's quite obvious I'm reading your post wrong, but, me being me and all, here goes:

Since you've got XP, is there a problem with accessing the apps you want from Start\All Programs? Or, creating a shortcut and putting it on the Desktop? And, if you want to access Notepad easily, click on Start\Search\All Files and Folders, type in notepad.exe and click Search. When you see Notepad.exe, right click on it, click "Send To Desktop ".

Also, MSOffice has a little program called MSOffice Shortcut Bar. You can put your most used programs there. You can put one, or a dozen, shortcuts there and access them with just one click.

 

Hi, Gulam.

If you want to learn more about editing your PATH environment variable (that surferdude mentioned) to include paths that are not already included, then have a look at the following link.

• Environment Variables in Windows XP

Be careful when you edit the PATH though so you don't mess up the syntax or accidentally delete the contents that are there already.

Looks like Microsoft's add-on setx.exe program discussed further down in the article might be a little safer way to add program paths to the PATH variable. It's discussed in the section titled "Using the add-on tool Setx.exe ".

DISCLAIMER: I have not fiddled much with the PATH since the DOS/config.sys/autoexec.bat days and I am not familiar with vlaurie.com linked above. Therefore, proceed at your own risk.

 

Dear jpChris,

You are right. This is the simplest way to go through any programme. But curiosity is something in human nature which force us to do things
round about.The question is natural why something can be done in one way and why the others can't be done on the same without any plausible explaination. I say sorry for my such nature.

Regards,
Gulam Dastgir

 

Dear Surferdude,

I define path system for the exe file which directory is
C:\Program Files\WordWeb\wweb32.

Path system defined was like below

Variable name - wweb32

Variable value - %PATH%\C:\Program Files\WordWeb\wweb32

But it does not work.

Please help.

Kind Regards,

Gulam Dastgir

 

Gulam, Shorten the path to read %PATH%\C:\Program Files\WordWeb leaving off the wweb32 part.

Or possibly %PATH%C:\Program Files\WordWeb; leaving out the \ symbol from in front of the C:. That may vary depending on the program you are using to append the PATH.

Path statements must contain directories ONLY. Never include the executable file name.

Another thing to check, when appending the PATH statement by using the %path% variable, verify that your existing PATH statement is terminated properly. It must include a semi-colon symbol ( ; ) to be properly terminated.