GeekByte: 3 Things to Run with the Run Command

I’m always looking for an easy way to do tasks while working on the computer. I use the Run command located under the Start menu a lot. The Run command is simply that…it runs whatever program you tell it to. To get to the Run command, just click on Start and click on Run. You’ll see a new window open that has an “Open” field and the buttons OK, Cancel, and Browse. Here are three programs that I run using Run on regular basis. Just open the Run command, type the name of the program, and click OK.

1. MSCONFIG: If you have Windows XP you should familiarize yourself with this program. It’s the easiest way to check what is starting up when you boot your computer, and the easiest way to get rid of the things you don’t want starting up. You can check all of this under the Startup tab of this utility. Never fear…if you uncheck something you find you need later, you can always run MSCONFIG again and simply recheck that program.

2. CALC: This command opens the Calculator. Yep, that about covers it.

3. NOTEPAD: Notepad is the simple text editor that comes with Windows. I use it when I want to strip out formatting from something I am trying to paste into Word usually. For instance, if I copy something off of a webpage and it has a ton of formatting to it, I will paste that text into Notepad first. Then recopy the text inside of Notepad and paste it into Word or whatever other program I need for my end result. Sounds like a lot of trouble, but it’s really an easy way to get just the text and not the fluff.