« HOWTO: Read New York Times Editorial Columnists For Free | Main | Google Book Search, meet Amazon's Mechanical Turk »

December 12, 2006

10 treasures you can get to with Start > Run...

Although I spend nearly all of my day in pointy-clicky Windows and OS X, I am a CLI geek at heart. I launch a bunch of programs merely by typing in things into Windows' pathetic excuse for a command line, the Start > Run... box. Here are some of the niftiest things you can access from the Start > Run... box in Windows XP:

A way to start a screensaver instantly
Start > Run... > scrnsave.scr and the screen blanks instantly. Useful for when you need to step away from the computer and don't want prying eyes to see what you had on your screen.
A comprehensive system information tool
Start > Run... > winmsd, for when you get hardware conflicts, driver problems or other low-level issues. This tool gives it all to you in one place, free of sugarcoating.
The trusty Control Panel at your fingertips
Start > Run... > control brings up the Control Panel without having to point and click your way through the Start Menu.
A way to clean your hard disk of junk
Start > Run... > cleanmgr and a disk cleanup assistant appears. Although storage is hardly an issue anymore, it's really surprising how much space you can reclaim by deleting your browsing history, cookies, downloaded program files and other crap you didn't even know you had.
An on-screen keyboard
Start > Run... > osk, for when you need to shut down the computer after suddenly spilling java into your keyboard messing it up beyond repair. You can even hover over the keys to press them!
A way to transfer files to your BlackBerry
Start > Run... > fsquirt, enables you to "squirt" (eww) files from your Bluetooth-enabled computer to another Bluetooth-enabled device, like your BlackBerry.
A one-stop startup configuration utility
Start > Run... > msconfig, for when you are sick and tired of your startup being delayed by the 18 million teeny-weeny programs that crowd the system notification area (not system tray).
A definitive answer to "What version of Windows am I running?"
Start > Run... > winver, et voila!, a dialog box with your operating system version (including any service packs you applied) appears.
A way to design your own Klingon font
Start > Run... > eudcedit, gives you a drawing surface using to fill up your own Unicode Private Use Areas. This way, even fewer of your Klingon-speaking friends will know when you write that their mother has a smooth forehead.
An el cheapo chat program
Start > Run... > winchat brings up a really basic chat program using which you can talk to users of other computers in the same Windows workgroup or domain. It was clearly written by a Microsoft developer who sorely misses talk from Unix.

You knew there was a bonus! Start > Run > %WINDIR%\media opens up a directory with the Windows sound schemes. The MIDI (*.mid) files in there are the half-decent lost works of an unknown composer (Brian Eno?). They're somewhat dated, which makes them sound tacky today. The file called "flourish.mid" vaguely reminds me of the Seinfeld theme for some reason. Start > Run... > clock.avi pops up a movie of a cheesy-looking clock that counts to 12.

I'd like to honorably mention Start > Run... > osuninst. I thought it was going to end my love-hate relationship with Windows, but all it did was pop up a cryptic error message instead.

Posted by Vishy at December 12, 2006 09:28 PM

Comments