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Assign Application Shortcut Names in XP

By Mohammad Yousef | July 2005

If you’re a Windows user, you might’ve noticed that some applications can be launched from the “Run” dialog box by typing in a certain shortcut name or alias. For example, Paint can be run by typing, mspaint and Command Prompt can be started by typing cmd. Other installed software often assign shortcut names for their applications too, so they can be used in the same manner. Several readers have asked me whether it’s possible to do the same for their favourite apps and programs that they use on a regular basis. There are two ways I know this can be achieved; either a registry hack or a simpler trick both of which I’ll be describing in this article.

The Registry Hack

Before I start, I must warn you that the registry is a crucial part of your system and messing around with it is dangerous. No, it can’t set off some nuclear reaction but improper use of it can severely damage your system. So, I only recommend registry hacks if you’re familiar with computers or at least able to carefully follow my instructions.

1. Open Registry Editor: Click Start | Click Run | Type regedit | Press Enter

2. Navigate to the following key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths

3. Create a new key and name it whatever you want but make sure it’s followed by “.exe” (e.g. MyApp.exe). The name of the key is what you’ll type into the Run dialog box later on to launch the application.

4. Automatically, a string value called (Default) is created within the key. Double-click it and insert the full path of the application as the value data (e.g. C:\Program Files\MyApp\MyApp.exe). Click OK.

5. Next, you’ll need to create another string value called Path. Its value data will contain the path of the folder where the application is located (e.g. C:\Program Files\MyApp\).

6. Now close the Registry Editor.

Open the “Run” dialog box and test it. If everything was properly done, you should immediately see the changes. You can type the name with or without the “.exe” (e.g. both “MyApp” and “MyApp.exe” should work).

The Quick Trick

Although the previous method works fine, I prefer to use a much simpler trick. Instead of going into the registry, you can simply create a shortcut to the application and place this shortcut in the Windows folder (e.g. C:\WINDOWS).

To do this, open the folder where the application is located and copy the application.

Then go to the WINDOWS folder and paste a shortcut. You can rename the shortcut if you want to.

Now you can start the application from the “Run” dialog box by typing in the name of the shortcut (without “.exe”).