Almost everybody knows that you can run applications by typing their full pathname in the Windows Run dialog. The Windows Run dialog can be run using the Windows hotkey Win + R. But very few people know that you can create aliases for programs to be used in the Run dialog. This way you do not have to type in the full path or name of a program, instead you can just type in the short alias to run a program. Windows does not provide any way to create such aliases, but now you can use Win+R Alias Manager to add, edit and remove Win+R aliases in Windows 8.
Win+R Alias Manager is a small portable Windows application that can help you create or edit Win+R aliases. The aliases can be created on per user basis (for current user) or system-wide basis (for all users). Win+R Alias Manager can be downloaded from the WinAero website. The download is a ZIP archive containing portable applications to be used in Windows 7 and Windows 8. You can extract the contents of the downloaded archive and run the application.
When you run Win+R Alias Manager for the first time, it shows the system-wide aliases already set in Windows. The list shows the icon of the target application, its alias and full pathname. You can edit or remove a selected item from the list using the Edit or Delete buttons in the toolbar respectively. You can add a new alias by clicking on the Add button. If you choose to add a new alias, it would open a new Add New Item window.
In this window, you can type in the alias you want to set and the full path to the target application. You may use only letters, digits and dots in alias. It is better to keep the alias simple and short. You can also choose if the alias is only for the current logged in user or its for all users (system-wide). To set a system-wide alias, just check the checkbox labeled System-wide alias. If you leave this checkbox unchecked, then the alias would be set for the currently logged-in user. Finally click the OK button to add the new alias. You can immediately start using your new alias.
You can download WinAero Win+R Alias Manager from http://winaero.com/download.php?view.28.