Creating Program Alias

This is one feature that I use extensively and it helps me a lot in quickly firing up the tools that I use frequently. We got desktop shortcuts, start menu shortcuts for programs, but how about making use of “Run” dialog shortcuts? That is exactly what we are talking about – creating a program alias. It makes life a lot more simpler when we got to type “n” instead of “notepad.exe” in the “Run” dialog to bring up notepad to life, doesn’t it?

Okay before we get started, here goes the warning : Registry modifications are permanent; you may consider taking a look at this link before you make any modifications to registry and take a backup if required before making any changes to it.

 Here is how you do it:

· Run RegEdit.exe and navigate to the following path: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths]

· Create sub-key and give it your alias’ name (“n.exe” in this case)

· Modify the default value of the sub-key with the path and filename of the application you wish to be fired up using this alias (Should be "C:\Windows\notepad.exe" here)

· Exit from the registry and test your new alias from “Run” dialog (Start menu -> Run command) by typing in the name of the alias ( “n” ) to see notepad.exe getting invoked.

Here are some of the most common aliases that I make use of:

n Notepad

i Internet Explorer

w WinDBG Debugger

f FileMon

r RegMon

p Process Explorer

Okay there are quite a few more and I am not listing them all here.

Note that you can also create a shortcut (.lnk file) to a folder that you make use of very often and get an alias created for that. This should be something like making use of an alias (say “o” ) to open “C:\SampleDir” using the Windows Explorer.