I just installed a cool utility I found on the Internet. For some reason the utility will not launch when I try to run it from the run box (Start - Run) and an error message appears that Windows can not find the program. I don't want icons littering up my desktop and prefer to launch programs from the run box, by just using Win+R and typing the name of the program executable. How can I fix this?
It sounds like your problem has to do with the installation of the utility failing to create an entry in Windows path statement.
What is the Path statement? It is a set of directories used to search for executable files. So when you type cmd.exe or word.exe, Windows will first check all the directories specified in the path statement, and if it is found, will launch the application or program.
If Windows cannot find the executable, an error message appears that the file cannot be found. At this point, you can either enter the full path to the executable or add the directory to the path statement as follows:
- Click on Start \ Run… and type sysdm.cpl then click OK.
- In the System Properties window, click on the Advanced tab, then click the Environment Variables button at the bottom.
- In the Environment Variables window, highlight the Path variable in the Systems Variable section and click Edit…
In the Edit System Variable dialog box, scroll to the right in the Variable value: field and after the last entry, add a semicolon followed by the path to the folder where the program executable resides.
In the example below I entered:
;C:\My Utility
Click OK
Now you should be able to run the program from the Run box or a command prompt with out seeing any errors.
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