Computer trivia

How would it be if you are able to launch any application or open any folder just by typing in one key in the RUN box in windows. This kind of keyboard shortcut would save a lot of time. Here I try to explain how this can be done.

Most of you might be knowing that typing ‘calc’ in RUN box launches Calculator application and typing ‘mspaint’ launches the Microsoft Paint application. Ever wondered how this works. The executable of both these files is located in the root directory (C:\Windows\System32\ or a similar path). So we see that anything typed in RUN box is searched for in the system directory.

So now we are ready to exploit this and create our own keyboard shortcuts. Suppose you had ‘Age Of Empires’ application on your desktop. Now create a shortcut to this application (right click and create shortcut). Cut the shortcut you have created and Paste it in the root directory we have seen above. Rename this shortcut to any thing you like, say AOE.

From now on, you can simply open the RUN box (Win+r) and type AOE there to open this game. You don’t need to traverse through the folders to find the game nor use your mouse to open the application. Similarly you can create shortcut for any folder, say songs and place it in the root directory. Whenever you type ’songs’ in the RUN box the songs folder will be opened saving you the effort of navigating through the folder structure to reach songs.

Hope you find this useful!

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