Open Folder With An Alias Name Through Run Prompt

I was trying to get the quickest way through which i can open my favourite folders and programs through run prompt, you must be wondering why I should  rather make desktop shortcuts for those programs and folder and place them directly on the desktop and access them quickly.

But I don’t want flood my desktop with more shortcuts as I want it to be as clean as possible. So, I thought of accessing these folders and files with some alias names like through run prompt.

1. d for open C:\Downloads directory

2. a to open C:\abhi directory

3. i to launch iTunes program

and so on.

Finally after some googling and hit and trails I was successful to access any of my favourite program or directory with alias names as commands through run prompt directly.

Read on to know more about how did i do it.

Before starting I would like to state out some windows basics behind it, Any file or shortcut you place inside C:\windows folder is a command for run prompt and this applies from all the windows version including Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 also, This fact forms the basis of the trick.

1. In my case I have a favourite folder called downloads, first I need to make a desktop shortcut for this folder, by right clicking on the folder and select Send To >> Desktop ( create shortcut )

2. Now, open you windows Desktop and rename that shortcut from Downloads to d or any other short name with which you can recognise that folder or program

3. Cut and Copy the new renamed shortcut d to C:\Windows folder, that’s it you can now type the d only in run prompt and press Enter to open that folder.

You can apply the procedure to open any other directory you have on your local hard drive or on network share, you can also open your favourite programs with short an easy to remember alias names through run prompt.

Update: ( Another Method To Open a Folder With An Alias Name Though Run Prompt )

We have just received a comment from Rohit about another method to do the same thing in more cleaner way, here is the method suggested by him. This method was also suggested by Shantanu Goel. Would like to thank both Rohit and Shantanu for updating me and us with this method. 🙂 thanks guys

Step 1 : Create a folder on your computer’s c:\aliases
Step 2 : Right click on computer > Properties > Advanced > Environment Variables > Click on Path variable and Edit it. while editing, do not delete anything, just at the end of the all path, put a semi colon and write “;c:\aliases;”

The step 2 will add aliases in path variable, so u can now run anything placed in this folder just by typing its name in run command or even on DOS prompt

Step 3: Go to aliases folder, right click > New > Shortcut, and create any shortcut with a simple name, and u can run that shortcut simply by typing its short name, hope u like the idea, give it a try.