How Do I Add Text Shortcuts to the Windows Run Dialog Box

Windows comes prepackaged with a ton of handy run-dialog shortcuts to help you launch apps and tools right from the run box; is it possible to add in your own custom shortcuts.

The Question

SuperUser reader Nic finds the run-dialog shortcuts to be handy and wants to expand upon them.

When I hit Windows+R, I can type in calc and get a calculator really quickly. Same thing for mspaint. My question is, how do I adjust this so I can type “netbeans” and have it open the program?

The Answer

SuperUser contributor John T offers a quick and simply way to accomplish the shortcut addition.

The easiest option would be to add the following location to 

C:\Program Files\NetBeans X.X.X\bin

replace X.X.X with your version of Netbeans.

Alternatively you could make a shortcut to the netbeans.exe executable in the above path, and place that shortcut in a location that’s already in your path (e.g. C:\Windows\System32).