Datasheet

CHAPTER 3

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MANAGING THE WINDOWS DESKTOP

The antitrust icon

The United States Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit against

Microsoft, saying that Microsoft was using unfair business practices to

prevent competition. They presented evidence that Microsoft ignored or clob-

bered other programs’ settings when those programs were installed, specifically

Web browsers, e-mail clients, instant messaging clients, media players, and Java

interpreters. The courts agreed and ordered Microsoft to play well with others.

Microsoft’s response was to create the Set Program Access and Defaults

option in the Add or Remove Programs dialog box (see Figure 3.19); this

option appears in Service Pack 1 and Service Pack 2. Shortcut icons are

added directly beneath the Control Panel icon in the Start menu and at the

Run! Run!

Unless you have really good reasons to hide the Run command

from users (pesky inquisitive children, for example), you should think

twice before disabling it with either the Group Policy Editor or Tweak

UI. The Run command is like a bridge between the GUI world and the

command line, capable not only of saving you time but opening up

powers you didn’t know you had.

Any application that is in Windows’ application path can be

launched by typing the executable name, such as winword. Most

Windows-specific applications, such as Regedit, are in this path and

can be launched in this manner.

Many management functions can be launched directly from the Run

command, such as the Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc) and the Local

User Manager (lusrmgr.msc). For some of these, such as mscorcfg.msc

(.NET configuration), using the Run command is the only way to gain

access to them.

You can also open shares across the network without browsing

through My Network Places. Type \\computername\sharename and

then click OK. The share opens up in a new window.

Finally, you can open up Control Panel components without the

seemingly endless drill-down. To open the Add or Remove Programs

component, type appwiz.cpl, or open the Network Connections com-

ponent with ncpa.cpl.

So keep the Run command around. You will find yourself using it

with increasing frequency.

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