Windows 10’s Run window is a treasure trove of secret commands that many people don’t use to their fullest. While the Run window is usually a quick way to open programs, it can be a quick way to access Windows features and unique commands.

Here’s a roundup of some of the best Windows 10 startup commands that everyone should know about.

How to open Run Box on Windows 10

To use any of the startup commands described in this article, you need to use the startup box. You can open the Run window in Windows 10 by pressing the Windows + R keys. This will immediately open the Run window.

You can also click to open the Start menu, type Run, and then click the Run desktop shortcut that appears in the search results. However, the first option is much faster.

With the launch window open, you can follow all the suggestions below for useful launch commands. To keep things simple, I’ve put all the commands in quotation marks – remember to remove them before trying them yourself.

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# 1 – Turn Off Timer On

If you want to start a countdown until you shut down your computer, open a startup window and type “run -s -t xxx”. Replace x with any number. This number will represent how many seconds you want the timer to run before your computer shuts down.

For example, 3600 seconds would be one hour and 600 seconds would be 10 minutes. You can also replace “-s” in this command with “-r” to set a restart timer.

# 2 – Open your C drive

Want to quickly access your C drive to find files and folders? Just open the Run window and type “” and then press Enter. A new Windows Explorer tab will open with the contents of your C drive.

# 3 – open the “user” folder

Another command, similar to the “Drive C” option described above, involves entering “.” into the Run field. You will be taken to the user folder on your Windows 10 PC. From here, you can quickly access specific user files.

# 4 – Open the calculator

If you want to quickly open the calculator, you can simply type “calc” in the Run box and then press Enter. Pressing Windows Key + R and then pressing calc is much faster than opening the Start menu, typing in a calculator, and clicking on an application.

If you often use a calculator app for quick calculations, this tip will surely save you a lot of time over the years.

# 5 – Quickly access Windows services

If you want to quickly access all the Windows services running on your PC and make any changes, just open the startup window and type “services.msc” then press Enter.

I mentioned earlier that disabling a Windows service to improve performance might be a bad idea, but sometimes it is necessary to fix the problem.

# 6 – Turn Windows features on / off quickly

If for any reason you need to turn Windows features or components on or off, you can quickly access it by typing “optionalfeatures” in the Run box and then pressing Enter.

# 7 – Quickly add or remove programs

You can quickly access the Program Features page from Control Panel by using “control.exe appwiz.cpl” in the Run box.

You can use this page to find programs that you don’t regularly use, and this is one of the best ways to free up disk space.

# 8 – Open Device Manager

It is likely that you will log in and out of Device Manager from time to time, so remember the “devmgmt.msc” command for the “Run” window.

It takes you straight to Device Manager, saving you time by avoiding navigating through the Control Panel or Start Menu.

# 9 – Check for performance issues

Noticing performance issues, or want to quickly check how your computer is managing resources? Use the “resmon” command in the “Run” box to quickly open the Resource Manager.

From here you will see information about how your processor, disk, memory and network are used by the programs and services installed on your computer.

# 10 – Perform a search instantly via your browser

Want to quickly search for something on Google without trying to open your browser? You can do this by opening a Run window and typing chrome “? SEARCH “. Just replace SEARCH with the phrase you want to Google.

Press Enter and you will be taken to Google search results immediately. Not using Chrome? No problem, replace “chrome” with your browser name.

For Microsoft Edge use “microsoft-edge:”, for firefox use “firefox”. In Internet Explorer, use iexplore.

# 11 – Search YouTube quickly

It is debatable whether this will speed up the process or not, but it is still worth trying this nifty trick.

You can quickly search YouTube by opening a Run window and typing chrome “youtube.com/results?search_query=SEARCH” – replace SEARCH with the search term you want to search for and replace chrome with the browser of your choice.

# 12 – Open Microsoft apps

If you want to jot something down quickly, you can use the Run box and type write. After that, just press Enter and you will be taken to WordPad.

Want more apps? Check out the list of quick launch commands below.

• Paint – ‘mspaint’
• Sticky notes – ‘stikynot’
• Command line – ‘cmd’
• Notepad – ‘notepad’
• Media player – ‘wmplayer’

# 13 – Manage, clean, and defragment your disk

In the next section, we have several commands for managing your drive.

• Use the cleanmgr command to quickly access disk cleanup.
• If you have a hard disk, you can open Disk Defragmenter with the ‘dfrgui’ command
• Use the ‘diskmgmt.msc’ command to manage the disk.

# 14 – Adjust mouse settings

With the ‘main.cpl’ command from the launcher, you can access your mouse settings.

Here you can adjust settings such as mouse pointer speed, double click speed, default mouse cursor, mouse wheel settings, and more.

# 15 – Open Facebook messages

Want to see your Facebook posts quickly? Use the chrome command “facebook.com/messages” and you will be instantly taken to your messages. If you are not logged in to Facebook, you will need to log in first.

Note that you must replace “chrome” with whatever browser you are using.

Summary

Find any of these Windows 10 startup commands helpful? Which ones do you use most effectively? Tell me.

If you have any other helpful commands you want to share, feel free to leave them in the comments section below. Enjoy!

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