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Using Command Lines, Paths, and MRUs

You can execute command strings in a variety of places: on the
Run command line (the command line that appears when you
choose Run from the Start menu), on the Target line of a shortcut's
properties dialog box, in a Command Prompt window, on the
Address toolbar, on the Address bar in Internet Explorer, and even
on the Address bar in Windows Explorer. Several of these venues
maintain lists of your most recently executed command strings.
Command strings can specify the name of an .exe file, a .lnk file (a
shortcut), a batch file or script, or a document whose file type is
associated with a program (for example, a .bmp file). If any file
name in the string includes spaces, you should enclose that file
name within quotation marks.
Like MS-DOS, Windows 2000 uses the Path environment variable
to find executables. To inspect your Path variable, choose Run
from the Start menu and type msinfo32. That launches the System
Information console in MMC. Expand Software Environment in
the console tree, click Environment Variables in the console tree,
click Path in the details pane, and then rest your mouse on the part
of the variable text that appears to the right of the variable name.
The full text then becomes visible as a ScreenTip.
To edit the Path variable, choose Settings I Control Panel I
System. On the Advanced tab, click Environment Variables.
Under System Variables, select Path and click Edit. You must be
logged on as an administrator to edit any system variable. (You
can also use the System Properties dialog box to simply inspect the
Path variable, of course, but the dialog box is severely scrunched,
and you can't read the entire contents of the variable unless you
scroll horizontally.)
Some executables that don't reside along the path can nevertheless
be executed from command strings without a full path
specification. That's because their registry data includes path
information. The simplest way to find out whether the program
you're interested in can be run that way is to try invoking it
without the path and see what happens.
Windows facilitates command reexecution by maintaining separate
MRU lists for command strings entered via the Run command, the
Address toolbar, and the Address bar in Internet Explorer. The