If you're like me, you have a few programs that you use regularly and a lot of programs you use sparingly. I recently formatted my computer and applied the Mac Style (see Mac Style post) and after putting all my icons on my desktop, I thought it looked too cluttered. I knew most of them I wouldn't use often, but I didn't want to have to find them through the start menu if/when I did need them.

Then I found the run command (Start > Run or Windows Key + R). Some of you probably use it for DOS based tasks, like winipcfg or config. You can access a lot of programs with it too. Some defaults are:
winword - Microsoft Word
excel - Microsoft Excel
iexplore - Internet Explorer

But what's even better is setting your own run commands. I had a few programs that didn't have a default run command, like filezilla (my ftp client). Here's what you do to set one:

1. Open up regedit and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVer
   sion\App Paths\
2. Right click and create a new key. Call it file.exe (where "file" is what you want to type into the run prompt). Note that you need the .exe, even if the file you are calling isnt an exe file... You wont need to type .exe into the run prompt.
3. Open up the file.exe key and set the default value to an absolute path that goes to the program you want to run (eg: C:\Program Files\blah.exe)
4. Type it in run and test it out.

It works great. I have it for all my programs now. I even have some folders set up. When I type in as it opens my Aesthetic Studios folder. Now I don't have any icons on my desktop except recycle bin and a temp file.