{"id":22786,"date":"2022-01-04T08:41:43","date_gmt":"2022-01-04T13:41:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/?p=22786"},"modified":"2022-01-04T08:41:43","modified_gmt":"2022-01-04T13:41:43","slug":"open-programs-and-a-lot-more-with-taskbar-search","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/open-programs-and-a-lot-more-with-taskbar-search\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Programs and a lot More with Taskbar Search"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Open Programs and a lot More with Taskbar Search<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Cloudeight<\/span><\/p>\n

This article applies to Windows 10 and Windows 11.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

A couple of days ago, I wrote an article about zipping through the start menu<\/a> and came under fire from people who didn’t agree with my way of opening programs. Several commented on the article, others emailed me, and Darcy slapped me and reminded me that you can open programs by opening the Start menu and trying the name of the program.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yep, it’s true, you can open programs by typing the name of the program in the Start menu search. Just open the Start menu and type the name of the program. Most of the time that works great. I just never do that so I never even thought of it.<\/span><\/p>\n

And speaking of typing the name of the program in the Start menu, did you know you can also open programs (and a whole lot more) using the taskbar search?<\/span><\/p>\n

Want to open Word? Type MS Word in the taskbar search. Want to open the Calculator? Type CALC in the Taskbar search.\u00a0 How about a command prompt? Type CMD in the taskbar search. How about Chrome? Type CHROME in the taskbar search. You get the picture.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yes, it’s true, one of the most under-appreciated and underused features of Windows 10 is Taskbar search.\u00a0 We use it all the time, and you should too. Why? Because it will save you a lot of trouble and a lot of time. It’s not only good for quickly opening your favorite programs, but it also has a multitude of both uses – some of which we’re going to discuss right now.<\/span><\/p>\n

First, you can show Taskbar search in your taskbar as a search box or as a search icon. We prefer the Taskbar search icon because it takes up less room on the taskbar. Right-click on the taskbar and choose “Show search icon” or if taskbar real estate is not important to you, choose “Show search box”.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Cloudeight<\/span><\/p>\n

And if you’re a minimalist, you can choose “Hidden”. But don’t worry, even if you hide it, you can still use it. Just press Windows Key + S and Taskbar search will pop right up for you.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here are some examples of how taskbar search can save you time.<\/span><\/p>\n

First just opening taskbar search shows you the apps you use most. As you can see my top four are File Explorer, FastStone Capture, Google Chrome, and Firefox.<\/span><\/p>\n

You’ll also see recently opened folders and apps and more.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Cloudeight<\/span><\/p>\n

And you can use the taskbar search for a lot more.\u00a0 For example, if you are looking for System Restore, you can fumble around in Settings and be redirected to System Information\/System Protection. But if you type System Restore in the taskbar search, you\u2019ll find it as fast as you can type System Restore.\u00a0\u00a0Just by typing \u201csystem restore\u201d (no quotes) in the taskbar search, you\u2019ll immediately be able to create a manual restore point. And if you need to use System Restore to restore your computer to a previous time? Type “RSTRUI” (no quotes) in the Taskbar search and press Enter.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here are more examples of things you can do with the taskbar search that will save you a lot of time.<\/span><\/p>\n

To open Notepad, type note and click “Open”.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Cloudeight<\/span><\/p>\n

To open MS Word (if installed) type word<\/strong>. To open WordPad, type wordpad<\/strong>. Open Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Emsisoft, and many other (but not all) programs. Just type the program\u2019s name and press enter.<\/span><\/p>\n

And you can also run some commands from the taskbar search. Here are some of them:<\/span><\/p>\n

Just type the command (or word) in the taskbar search. <\/span><\/p>\n

Here are some to try (words to type are bolded<\/strong>):<\/span><\/p>\n

Cmd
\n<\/strong>Opens a command prompt. If you need a command prompt with administrator privileges, type cmd in taskbar search, and click “Run as administrator” when the command prompt options open.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Cloudeight<\/span><\/p>\n

winver<\/strong> <\/span>
\nTells you the Windows 10 version you\u2019re using<\/span><\/p>\n

services<\/strong><\/span>
\nOpen Windows Services where you can start, stop and configure other settings for each service.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

control<\/strong> <\/span>
\nOpen the Control Panel.<\/span><\/p>\n

cleanmgr
\n<\/strong>Run the Windows disk cleanup app.<\/span><\/p>\n

default apps
\n<\/strong>Choose your default apps<\/span><\/p>\n

msinfo32<\/strong><\/span>
\nOpen System information where you can find out almost anything about your computer.<\/span><\/p>\n

wuapp\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>
\nCheck for Windows updates<\/span><\/p>\n

power<\/strong> <\/span>
\nOpen Power & sleep settings<\/span><\/p>\n

run<\/strong><\/span>
\nOpen a run command\/run box<\/span><\/p>\n

SFC<\/strong> <\/span>
\nOpen System File Checker. You’ll need to click on “Run as administrator” to run it.<\/span><\/p>\n

about<\/strong><\/span>
\nLearn all about your PC<\/span><\/p>\n

info<\/strong> <\/span>
\nOpen System Information<\/span><\/p>\n

weather<\/strong> <\/span>
\nOpen the Windows 10 weather app<\/span><\/p>\n

event<\/strong><\/span>
\n Open the Windows 10 Event Viewer)<\/span><\/p>\n

User<\/strong><\/span>
\nOpen user account control settings<\/span><\/p>\n

You can also open other programs using the taskbar search such as Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Internet Explorer, Windows 10 Mail App, and more. Just type the name of the program you want to run into the taskbar search. Note: This does not work with all programs, so you\u2019ll have to experiment a bit with it.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are a lot of things you can do with taskbar search, and the examples we\u2019ve shown you should be enough for you to see that the taskbar search is a quick way to perform different tasks, launch programs, run commands, and more.<\/span><\/p>\n

And if you type a file path like C:\\Windows\\System32 and press enter, you\u2019ll go directly to that folder. No more digging around in File Explorer.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re not using the taskbar search, you\u2019re missing a lot. Try some of the things we discussed in this article. And don\u2019t be afraid to experiment with the taskbar search on your own. We think once you start using it, you\u2019ll keep using it, we tells ya!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Open Programs and a lot More with Taskbar Search This article applies to Windows 10 and Windows 11. A couple of days ago, I wrote an article about zipping through the start menu and came under fire from people who didn’t agree with my way of opening programs. Several commented on the article, others emailed me,\u2026 Read More »<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22147,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3948,4299],"tags":[4329],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22786"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22786"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22786\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22788,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22786\/revisions\/22788"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}