One of the easy ways of launching applications is to use the Run command. For example, if you want to launch the calculator, simply open the Run command and type ‘calc’. If you wanted to open Microsoft Word, simply type in winword, press Enter and the program opens.

You can customize the name used to open an application. For example, instead of having to type winword you could type in “Word.” This can be accomplished in a few simply steps. Using the Microsoft Word example:

1. Locate winword.exe in the Program Files\Microsoft Office directory. Right click the executable and click Create Shortcut.
2. Right click the shortcut and click cut.
3. Locate the Windows directory and paste the shortcut in here.
4. Right click the shortcut and choose rename.
5. Type in the name you want to use to open the application, such as Word, and press Enter.
6. You can now open the Run command and type in Word instead of winword to launch Microsoft Word.