How-To Geek
How to Search in the Start Menu Without Typing as Many Characters
Over at Digital Inspiration, they’ve posted an extremely interesting tip that we’d never heard about before: you can search in the Start Menu without having to type the entire word for applications or Control Panel items that have multiple words—all you have to do is type the first initials.
For example, if you wanted to start Windows Media Player, instead of typing it all into the start menu search box you could simply type the initials w m p and Windows will find it.
Here’s a video of it in action, or you can read more over at Digital Inspiration.
How to Launch Programs from Windows Start Menu Quickly [Digital Inspiration]
Got Feedback? Join the discussion at discuss.howtogeek.com
Comments (7)
Programmer by day, geek by night, The Geek, also known as Lowell Heddings, spends all his free time bringing you fresh geekery on a daily basis. You can follow him on Google+ if you'd like.
- Published 09/4/10
You could also type one word from the program’s name…
That s cool thanks for advice.
That’s neat. Never would of thought of that.
A yet quicker way is to simply click on “Start”>point to “Programs”, >click on “(whatever program you want to open)”. All done without moving your hand from the mouse. This works with Classic Shell, it may not work in Windows default start menu………..but why would anyone be using the Windows default start menu, anyway?
Thanks! when i type “a o r” which means add or remove programs so i like that shortcut.
WOW..when I type w m p in my start search, I get Microsoft Works! Don’t think that’s what I want…is it?
I always done this, even with the big V (Vista)