Use the Run menu item to summon a dialog box containing a command line, as shown in Figure 3-4. A command line is a text-based method of performing a task. You type a command and click OK; something happens as a result. (The Run dialog is the functional equivalent of the Command Prompt, except with a graphical interface that enables you to browse for a particular file, if you like.)
Figure 3-4. Top: The last Run command you entered appears automatically in the Open text box. You can use the drop-down list to see a list of commands you've previously entered. Bottom: The Run command knows the names of all of your folders. As you type, you're shown the best match for the characters you're typing. When the name of the folder you're trying to open appears in the list, click it to avoid having to type the rest of the entry.
Working at the command line is becoming a lost art in the world of Windows, because most people prefer to issue commands by choosing from menus using the mouse. How ever, some old-timers still love the command line, and even mouse-lovers encounter situations where a typed command is the only way to do something.
If you're a PC veteran, your head probably teems with neat Run commands you've picked up over the years. If you're new to this idea, however, here are a few of the useful and timesaving things you can do with the Run box:
As noted later in this discussion, one of the most important Start menu commands is the Programs submenu, where you'll find the name of almost every application on your computer. You can open one of these programs by typing its program file name in the Open box and then pressing Enter. That's an extremely useful shortcut for both pros and novices alike, because it's frequently faster to launch a program this way than to use the Start→Programs menu.
Unfortunately, the program file name isn't the same as its plain-English name; it's an abbreviated version. For example, if you want to open Microsoft Word, you must type winword. That's the actual name of the Word program icon as it sits in your My Computer→C: drive→Program Files→Microsoft Office→Office folder. Some other common program-file names are shown here:
|
Program's real name |
Program's familiar name |
|---|---|
|
iexplore |
Internet Explorer |
|
msworks |
Microsoft Works |
|
msinm |
Outlook Express |
|
wmplayer |
Windows Media Player |
|
palm |
Palm Desktop |
|
sol |
Solitaire |
|
regedit |
Registry Editor |
|
calc |
Calculator |
|
…and so on. |
Tip
To discover the program file name of a favorite program, see "Which One's the Program?" on Section 3.10.2.2.
If, like efficiency freaks worldwide, you believe that it's generally faster and more efficient to use the keyboard rather than the mouse, get this: You can perform this entire application-launching stunt without using the mouse at all. Just follow these steps in rapid succession:
Press the Windows-logo key on the bottom or top row of your keyboard.
Doing so makes the Start menu pop open.
Press the letter R key.
That's the underlined letter for the Run command, whose box now opens.
Type the program file's name.
If you've typed it before, just type a couple of letters; Windows fills in the rest of the name automatically.
Press Enter.
Windows opens the requested program instantly. Keystrokes: 4, Mouse: 0.
Using the Run dialog box is handy for launching favorite applications, because it requires so few keystrokes. But you can also use the Run dialog box to open any file on the computer—if you're willing to do some additional typing.
The trick here is to type in the entire path of the program or document you want. See the sidebar if you're new to paths.) For example, to open the budget spreadsheet that's in your Projections folder, you might type c:projectionsudget.
Tip
Typing the path in this way is also useful for launching applications that don't appear in the Start→Programs menu. For example, some advanced Windows utilities (including RegEdit, an advanced program described in Chapter 19) are accessible only through the command line. (If a program doesn't appear in the Start menu, you may have to type its entire path name.)
You can also use the Run command to open some older DOS programs that don't come with a listing in the Programs menu. (On the other hand, making a shortcut to such a program, as described in Chapter 5, is probably easier.)
When you double-click the My Computer icon on your desktop, you'll discover that Windows assigns a letter of the alphabet to each disk drive attached to your machine—the hard drive, CD-ROM drive, floppy drive, and so on. The floppy drive is always A:, one hard drive is always C:, and so on. (There hasn't been a drive B: since the demise of the two-floppy computer.)
By typing a drive letter followed by a colon (for example, c:) into the Run box and pressing Enter, you make a window pop open, displaying the contents of that drive.
You can also use the Run dialog box to open the window for any folder on your machine. To do so, type a backslash followed by the name of a folder (see Figure 3-5, bottom). You might type, for example, Downloads to see your downloaded files. To open a folder whose name includes spaces (such as Program Files), enclose the entire command in quotes ("Program Files"), or include the drive letter (c:Program Files).
Figure 3-5. The Browse dialog box, new to Windows 2000, makes frequent appearances. If you enter a drive letter and a colon in the Run dialog box before clicking the Browse button (such as c:), this dialog box opens with a display of that drive's contents.
Note
The Run command assumes that you're opening a folder on Drive C. If you want to open a folder on a different drive, or if you have identically-named folders on two or more drives, add the drive letter and a colon before the name of the folder (for example, D:data).
Furthermore, if the folder you want to display is nested several layers deep, you must specify the entire path to that folder from the root of the drive, as in DownloadsMusicMP3—not just MP3.
You can even open a folder that's sitting on some other computer on the network. To do so, you use the folder's UNC path name: type two backslashes, the computer's name, and the shared folder's name. For instance, to access a shared folder called Budgets on a computer named Admin, enter \adminudgets. (See Chapters 13 and 15 for more on sharing folders over the network; see page 32 for more on UNC path notation.)
Tip
In any of these cases, if you don't remember the precise name of a file or folder you want to open in the Run dialog box, click the Browse button to display the Browse dialog box, as shown in Figure 3-5.
Here's another use for the Run dialog box: You can launch your Web browser (such as Internet Explorer) and jump directly to a specific Web page by typing its Web address (URL), such as http://www.realbigcompany.com, and then pressing Enter.
Again, you may not have to type very much; the pop-up list in the Run box lists every URL you've previously entered. Click one (or press the down arrow to highlight the one you want, and then press Enter) to go there.