Save time with Vista Shell short cuts
In general English, the word Shell commonly stands
for a hard outer hard outer covering which appear on
the body of animals like tortoise, crab. But, it has
a different meaning and purpose in computers.
What is shell?
Before we see what shell shortcut is, we see what is
shell and their types, and the kinds of shells used
in different versions of windows. In computer science,
a shell is a small piece of software that provides an
interface for users. Shell accepts the commands given
by the user and directs kernel to perform tasks directed
by the commands. Both shell and the kernel together
forms parts of the operating system, which in turn,
manages both hardware and software resources.
There are two kinds in shells. They are namely, Command
Line and Graphical. The command line interface (CLI)
shell provides a command line based interface to the
operating system. The graphical user Interface (GUI)
shell provides graphical user interface to the operating
system. Some people argue GUI shell provides flexibility
in managing the computer. For example, if one wants
to delete a file, then he has to type the appropriate
command, i.e. one has to type the command as “Del
filename.extension”, in the command line.
Instead of typing this, one can easily delete a file
by placing the highlight cursor on the filename and
just press delete key. The file will be deleted. However,
the users of CLI based interface claim that CLI works
faster than the GUI shell while it comes to the point
of transferring files. This is also true as GUI shell
need to display the progress of transfer graphically,
which consume a lot of time and also resources, while
performing the transfer.
MS-DOS (Disk Operating System) & command.com
If we see Microsoft family of operating systems, the
earlier MS-DOS (Disk Operating System) had command.com
as the shell. This continued and stayed till MS-DOS
6.22. The Operating environment, Windows 3.x, which
worked with MS-DOS had ProgMan.exe, which stands for
Program Manager, as shell.
Windows Explorer
Microsoft made Windows Explorer or simply the “Explorer”
as shell for their Windows family of operating systems
from Windows 95 onwards. The shell became popular, and
is widely used till today. The designs of explorer might
have changed from version to version but the objective
and the name remains same till today.
In Windows Vista and also in Windows XP, it is the “shell:[Command
Name]” using which one can directly navigate through
the system folders. For example, the command “shell:ControlPanelFolder”
opens Control Panel window, from which one can change
the system settings.
Shell commands in XP & Vista
The following commands will work fine in Windows Vista.
However, there are some commands which can work on Windows
XP too. The commands are given in the list which is
as follows,
- AddNewProgramsFolder
- Administrative Tools ->Opens Present User, Administrative
Tools
- AppData -> Opens Present user, Application Data
Folder
- Cache -> Opens Temporary Internet files Folder
- CD Burning -> Opens CD Burning Folder
- Common Administrative Tools -> Opens All Users,
Administrative Tools Folder
- Common AppData -> Opens All Users, Application
Data Folder
- Common Desktop -> Opens All users, Desktop Folder
- Common Documents -> Opens All Users, Documents
Folder
- Common Programs -> Opens All Users, Start Menu
Programs Folder
- Common Start Menu ->Opens All Users, Start Menu
Folder
- Common Startup -> Opens All Users, Startup Folder
- Common Templates -> Opens All users, Templates
Folder
- CommonMusic -> Opens All Users, My Music Folder
- CommonPictures -> Opens All Users, My Pictures
Folder
- CommonVideo -> Opens All users, My Videos Folder
- ConnectionsFolder -> Opens Network Connections
Folder
- ControlPanelFolder -> Opens Control Panel
- Cookies -> Opens Present user, Cookies Folder
- Desktop -> Opens Present User, Desltop Folder
- Favorites -> Opens Present user, Favorite folder
- Fonts -> Opens fonts folder
- History -> Opens History folder of present user
- InternetFolder -> Open about:blank in Internet
Explorer window
- Local AppData -> Opens Local Settings Application
Data Folder
- LocalizedResourcesDir -> Opens Windows Resources
Folder
- My Music -> Opens My Music Folder
- My Pictures -> Opens My Pictures Folder
- My Video -> Opens My Videos Folder
- NetHood -> Opens NetHood folder
- Personal -> Opens My Documents Folder
- PrintersFolder -> Opens Printers and Faxes
- PrintHood -> Opens Print Hood Folder
- Profile -> Opens folder of present user name
- ProgramFiles -> Opens Program Files
- Programs-> Opens Programs Folder
- Recent -> Opens Recent Folder
- RecycleBinFolder -> Opens Recycle Bin
- ResourceDir -> Opens Resources Folder
- SendTo -> Opens Send To Folder
- Start Menu -> Opens Start Menu Folder
- Startup -> Opens StartUp items
- System -> System Folder
- SystemX86 -> Opens System Folder
- Templates -> Opens Templates folder
- Windows -> Opens Windows Directory
Save time with Windows Vista shortcuts
The Shell short cuts are often useful for developers,
system administrators, as they can quickly retrieve
the required system folders. Instead of navigating through
many folders and menus, one can go directly to a specific
system folder by running the shell command in the run
dialog in Windows XP and in search text box in Windows
Vista.
This saves the time required to open several other
folders before opening the required destination folder.
Any other folders other than given above in the list
can be opened by using “explorer” command.
For example, the folder C:MPEG can be opened using explorer
as “explorer c:Mpeg” in the run dialog box
of Windows XP and also in the search text box in Windows
Vista.
Shell shortcuts will be more powerful in windows Vista
as it adds some more commands to its bag of commands. |
