Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Freeware
Short Run turns Windows XP run box into a program launcher
by Brad Linder Apr 2nd 2008
While you can launch some Windows applications from the Run box (accessible from the Start Menu or by hitting Win+R), there's a good reason keyboard application launchers like Launchy, Slickrun, and Find and Run Robot are so popular. Many programs cannot be launched from the Windows Run box, and even those that can often have odd and hard to remember shortcut names.
But Short Run makes it a bit easier to throw out Launchy. Short Run is a free utility that will display every program that can be launched from the Windows Run dialog. You can add items by clicking Ctrl+A, or edit existing shortcut names and other properties by hitting Ctrl+E. Want to delete an entry? Just highlight it and hit the delete key.
Short Run will not auto-populate the Run box with every application in your Program Files directory or Windows Start Menu the way some other keyboard application launchers do. But if you just have a few applications that you want to launch quickly every day, and don't feel like installing a new program just to do it, Short Run can help you edit your Run settings.
[via gHacks]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Peter said 10:02AM on 4-02-2008
I don't understand all these "launcher" applications.
What's the big deal with navigating the Program menu or putting a shortcut on the desktop or Quick Launch bar for the apps you use all the time?
(And before someone says "What if I have 100 apps I use all the time?", well, who uses 100 apps ALL THE TIME and even if you have a very large number of apps something like this wouldn't help since you will still have to scroll through a long list or remember the shortcut to all those apps.)
Just organize your Program menu into subfolders so it's not 3 columns long and you can find any app you want in 3-4 clicks.
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piyo said 11:55AM on 4-02-2008
I tried out Short Run. The DS review seems a little lacking...
It seems it first lists the programs that can be run by Win+R, and then allows you to add/edit/remove shortcuts and their names. So instead of typing acrord32 to launch Acrobat Reader, for example, you could rename it to "ar" to launch it as "ar". Another example could be your CD/DVD burner software, etc. Once you rename acrord32 to ar, you cannot launch it as "acrord32", for some reason.
There's no explanation on how it works, so I did some investigation using some SysInternals sniffing tools. It turns out it stores the data in registry key HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths, and this is picked up by the Run box. It doesn't seem to create regular shortcuts. This is pretty novel. You probably need to have Administrator rights to use it. Also this setting does not propagate to a Command Window (cmd.exe), which is too bad. I think I'll stick with making shortcuts manually for my Run box needs.
Also it seems it can add itself to the Send To folder, so that if you find an program you want to run that's not on your %PATH%, you just Send To ShortRun.
@Peter: This is like the old Google Search vs. Yahoo Directory argument. Some people know what they want to do without reaching for the mouse. You may want to read up on "Revisiting "Keyboard vs. The Mouse, pt 1" (http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001088.html) I myself use the Start menu a lot, but I also use Win+R a lot as well.
keeves said 10:36AM on 4-02-2008
regardless of what people say about Vista, i reckon the search facility on the start menu is soo handy, especially if you restrict it to just programs.
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