Using Enviornmental Variables as shortcut.

Many Times we don't want to create the shortcut of Software but still want an easy way to access it. I guess most efficient way to start a program is following these two steps

Windows Key + R
Name of program and enter

It takes maximum of 2 seconds to start the program. Advantage of this approach is only you know how to run that program as you haven't created shortcut of that program so nobody else knows about it.

You can do that by performing the following 2 steps.

• Go to the directory where your program resides
• Copy the exe and paste it in your windows directory.
  If you don’t know which is your windows directory go to command prompt and type Set windir the path that is given is your windows directory.

Second option and easy option is to add the path to your program in path environmental variable

• Right Click My Computer => Properties => Advanced Option => Environmental Variables
  (This might be slightly different depending on the version of windows you are using)
• Got to System Variable Section
• Locate a Variable called Path
• Click on Edit
• The paste the path of the directory in which your program is located at the end.

Just make sure that the path that was existing should have semicolon in the end. Different paths are separated by semi colon. So it should be something like

C:\windows;c:\java;c:\yoursoftwaredirectory

And you are done. Once of perform one of the 2 alternatives given above you can start your program by just typing the name of your program in run window.