UPDATE: New version 2.1 has been released which comes with many performance enhancements, few bug fixes and a brand new UI.
We have posted a tutorial in past about opening a program by just typing its name in RUN dialog box in Windows:
How to Open Any Program by Typing its Name in RUN Dialog Box in Windows?
One of our reader ".Rain" also created a small utility to do the whole task automatically which was called "RunIt".
The same tutorial again inspired our one of very active reader "Hackerpunk1" and he created a similar tool called "Run Editor".
"Run Editor" is another very small and portable utility which allows you to add any program reference to Windows Registry so that you can launch it by just typing its name in Start menu RUN dialog box. For example, you have installed 3rd party software "Internet Download Manager" and its executable file name is "IDMan.exe". If you try to launch it by just typing "IDMan" in RUN, it'll give error that Windows cannot find the exe. But if you add its reference in Registry using "Run Editor", you can launch it by simply typing its name in RUN.
How To Use:
1. Either type full path of the program's exe in the text box or click on the browse button and select EXE file.
2. Once you select the EXE file, either select "Set Name Automatically" to let Windows assign an automatically generated name to your shortcut or select "Set Name Manually" option to assign your desired name to the shortcut and click on "Create" button.
3. Now provide your desired keyword name and again click on "Create" button. It'll immediately add the reference to Registry.
4. Now you can launch the program by typing its name in RUN dialog box.
You can download it using following link:
You'll need .NET Framework 4.0 to run this program.
NOTE: Some new and not very popular security software might show malware warning message when you try to download or run this software. Please ignore the message, its a false positive. Since this tool tries to modify Windows Registry, the security software incorrectly detects it as suspicious item. The software is absolutely safe to use.
Posted by: Vishal Gupta | Categories: Software, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP
Enoch
Or you can just go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths
And create a new key (such as yourprogram.exe). Then go to the default value and change it to the path of the program. That works, but be careful when editing the registry.
FrancisForward
I haven't tried out this proggie yet. But I don't see the difference to Launchy which works under win8 like a charm. I use it and there seems no need for me to replace it by this utility. What is the secial benefit from Run Editor in comparison to Launchy?
Greetings Francis
VG
^^ Many programs cant be executed by simply typing their names such as IDM as mentioned in the screenshot but using this tool you can assign a keyword to the program and you can launch that program by simply typing that keyword in RUN dialog box.
Windows Fan
awesome update VG. thnx to you and Hackerpunk1 :)
Samantha
Its a very useful utility. A big thanks goes to VG and Hackerpunk1 for sharing it. I am a new reader of this site and I am enjoying the articles very much. Keep up the good work. :)
Francis Forward
Okay then ;-) I tried it and find it more praktical than launchy. ^^
The only thing... It costs some time to enter all the progs one needs.(Launchy has a scanning engine for this annoying job)
Anyway big thanks to you guys for sharing :clap:
Francis Forward
I have faced some problems: The Run Editor doesn't run shutdown, restart etc-commands. Can you fix that for the next update??
VG
^^ Thanks for your feedback. Lets wait for the next version. ;)
Nick R
What a fantastically useful little app, many thanks.