More locations will be searched, including the entire contents of the PATH environment variable and “app path” shortcuts defined in the registry (a way of shortening long executable paths using aliases). However, the launch mechanism is slightly different - Command Prompt will hand off to Windows itself, which will take care of finding the right program. This has the same effect as the above example. When the executable resides elsewhere, you’ll need to specify its entire path - C:WindowsSystem32notepad in this example.Īn alternative way to launch programs is via the start command: Command Prompt automatically searches the working directory (the path shown at the start of the prompt line) and Windows system directories when you run a program in this way. The example works because Windows already knows where Notepad is. To launch a program from Command Prompt, simply type its name: We’ll look at a few basic procedures for working with programs and processes. Using the Command Prompt can be a quick way to launch programs, especially Windows management utilities which might be fiddly to find through search.
Command Prompt basics: Starting and stopping processes
