How to Add a Program to the RUN Command

If you have to run some specific software everyday to start your day, then you will know that you are not given enough facilities by Windows alone. For some specific programs such a Microsoft Office Word, you can easily type 'winword' in the Run command from the Start Menu. Similar process stands for Microsoft Office Excel which is 'excel' in this case. But suppose you are programmer and you are leading a team of programmers and your daily task is to check the code prepared by the team members for bugs detection and you use your favourite Integrated Development Environment which in this case is supposed Notepad++. Now you have to double click the shortcut every now and then to open it up or manually navigate to it in the Start Menu. As most programmers you are a heavy keyboard user and hate using mouse. Now you condition is bad enough.

But there is no need to get disappointed as there is a way to configure the registry through registry editor and add your program to it. So every time you just type the shortcut you assigned in the Run Command and you are on with your software. As simple as that! So let's know how to configure the Registry.

Navigate to Start Menu --> Run and type 'regedit' in it and press enter. This will open up the registry editor. Now on the left panel, locate the key that says HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE. Then locate Software. In it navigate to Windows and in it go to Current Verson. Now locate App Paths in it.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE --> SOFTWARE --> Microsoft --> Windows --> CurrentVersion --> App paths

Now right click App Paths and click on New --> Key. Just type in the shortcut you want to assign in the Run Command as the title of the key. Now right click the new key that you just created from the right panel and then click on the Modify option. Now enter the full path of the software in the as the value of the key and press ok. Now right click in an empty region in the right panel and select new string value. Name it shortcut you just assigned and put the path of the executable that you just copied in the value before this step.

Now just close the registry editor and restart your system. The changes have taken place and you can just type in the shortcut you just assigned in the Run Command and your are on your way.