Windows Run dialog

On Windows, most often you run an application by finding and double-clicking it's .exe file. What a lot of people don't realise is that you can launch any application or open any file you want by typing a single command. That can be achieved inside the Run dialog.

Opening the Run dialog

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To open the Run dialog, you can either:

A) Press Win + R key combination

or

B) Right click on the Windows menu, and then press Run

Commands

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Folders

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You can open any folder by typing in it's full path. So, if you have a folder named Work inside your Documents folder, the full path will be something like C:\Users\John\Documents\Work\.

If your desired folder is directly in your account folder, so Desktop, Documents, Pictures, etc. you can just type in the name of the folder. For example, if you want to open your Pictures folder, just type in pictures and it will be opened.

There are, of course, some more special location, some of which are:

Command	Location
%ProgramFiles%	Program Files Folder
%AppData%	User's App Data Folder

Bonus: %appdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu will open the Start Menu folder, from which you can edit what goes inside your start menu.

Programs

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You can always run any application by typing in it's full path. So, to launch something like FireFox, you'll need to type in C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe.

But, whats more important is that you can more easily launch some Windows apps, like Calculator or Control Panel. Here is a list of commands and the application they launch:

Command	Application
calc	Calculator
mspaint	Microsoft Paint
snippingtool	Snipping Tool
notepad	Notepad
sndvol	Volume Mixer
soundrecroder	Sound Recorder
wuapp	Windows Updates
shutdown*	Shutdown or restart computer
cmd	Command Prompt
powershell	Windows PowerShell
control	Control Panel
taskmgr	Task Manager
msinfo32	System Information
winver	Windows Version Window
cleanmgr	Disk Cleanup
dfrgui	Disk Cleanup (defragmentation)
mstsc	Remote Desktop Connection
regedit	Registry Editor
msconfig	System Configuration Settings
dcomcnfg	Component Services
sigverif	File Signature Verification Tool

*: The shutdown command requires parameters:

• /s will shutdown in one minute
• /r will restart in one minute
• /t specifies after what amount of time to shutdown or restart (a number needs to be entered afterwards, so /t 0 for immediate execution)
• /f forces running applications to close (might result in data loss!)

Windows settings

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There are also many "shortcuts" to different Windows settings windows. Those include:

Command	Setting
mmsys.cpl	Sound Properties
powercfg.cpl	Power Options
timedate.cpl	Time and Date Options
ncpa.cpl	Network Connections
inetcpl.cpl	Internet Properties
compmgmt.msc	Computer Manager
devmgmt.msc	Device Manager
diskmgmt.msc	Disk Management
firewall.cpl	Windows Firewall
sysdm.cpl	System Properties
services.msc	Services
comexp.msc	Component Services
gpedit.msc	Group Policy Editor
lusrmgr.msc	Local Users and Groups
certmgr.msc	Certificate Manager
taskschd.msc	Task Scheduler
fsmgmt.msc	Shared Folders

Note: cpl stands for Control Panel Item and msc stands for Microsoft System Configuration.

For more

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For more commands, check out windowsruncommands.com. They have a much bigger list of commands and shortcuts you can use.