Every day we use different computer programs to perform a wide variety of tasks. Some of them have a large number of settings and features, and in order to use all of them, you need to perform a lot of manipulations. For example, you regularly use several modes of the application, enter the username and password of the user, apply special modes. In addition to office workers, gamers often need such opportunities. All these manipulations can take a significant amount of effort and time, and simply annoying.
Reflection of application start conditions in a shortcut simplifies work with programs.
It is worth noting that such a need, which was mentioned above, occurs extremely rarely, and for the most part is solved effortlessly by the application or game settings themselves.
On this basis, the whole question should be considered only as additional opportunity on advanced software launch, because the expediency of such actions is doubtful, and they definitely will not save time for the user.
The Windows operating system provides each user with the opportunity to prescribe launch options in the program shortcut. Within the framework of the question under consideration, instead of switching between menu items, you can create several shortcuts with the necessary parameters once, place them on the desktop or taskbar, and in Windows 8 and 10 and on home screen, and run the program with the desired parameters at the touch of a button.
All these parameters are written in shortcuts, which are special files with a link to the executable file. You do not need to go to the folder where the software is installed every time and look for the startup file. In this article, we will look at how to significantly expand your options when working with software and learn how to set launch options on the command line of a shortcut on the desktop. We will divide the whole procedure into two stages.
Stage 1. Selecting the executable file and transferring the shortcut to the desktop
Despite the fact that in the vast majority of cases, when installing software, the launch icon is placed on the desktop, in some cases this does not happen. Then you need to find the executable yourself. How?
- When installing the application, carefully follow which folder the installer suggests choosing. Usually this is C:\ Program Files or C:\Program Files (x86). Most developers provide the ability to choose the default folder yourself, but if you do not change the proposed option, the program will be installed exactly in the specified folder.
- Through Windows Explorer, go to the directory where it is installed software and find the startup file. He has .exe extension. Often its name coincides with the name of the software itself. If you cannot decide, try to find out this information on the official website of the developer in the help section or in the service technical support.
- Click on file name right click mouse and select "Create Shortcut".
- Confirm the system prompt "Windows cannot create a shortcut in this folder. Put it on the desktop?".
If you do not remember in which folder the software is installed, you can do the following:
- Go to the Start menu, find the software you need in the list (you can even use the search function to speed up the process).
- Right-click on the name and select Send - Desktop (create shortcut).
If you are using Windows 10, the procedure will be slightly different:
- Go to start screen by pressing the start button.
- Find the program launch icon in the list of all applications or on the home screen.
- Right click, select Advanced - Go to file location.
- After the Windows Explorer window opens, copy the icon to the desktop through the context menu or simply by dragging it to the desired location.
Step 2: Specify launch options
After we have successfully transferred the icon to the desktop, let's specify the necessary parameters in its properties. For this you need:
- Right-click on the icon and select "Properties".
- In the menu that opens, go to the "Shortcut" tab and find the line "Object". You will see that the input field in it is active. It is here that we will prescribe the necessary commands.
- After entering the required data at the bottom of the window, click Apply - OK in sequence.
What commands to write
Having figured out how to write startup commands, let's try to figure out what exactly to write. Unfortunately, there are no universal commands that work for absolutely all programs. So if you want to create shortcuts for quick launch with the specified parameters, you will have to study the help of the program or contact the developers' technical support service.
Very often, such information is indicated on the official forums of the application or game. More experienced users or representatives of developers or copyright holders publish detailed information there.
Returning to what was said at the beginning of this article. The indication of parameters received its greatest relevance during the period of mass interest in the game called "Counter-Strike". Why this interest has received such a distribution specifically to “CS” is an ambiguous question, someone used it solely for entertainment, someone (like some professional players, for example) in order to maximize the individualization of the gameplay.
For example, here is a list of options for the game "Counter-Strike: Global Offensive" that some users use at startup:
| Parameter | Meaning |
| -novid | Turning off the intro movie |
| -w 640 -h 480 | Installing an extension |
| -console | Console activation |
| -freq 120 | Setting a Screen Refresh Rate Limit |
| -high | Run with higher priority |
| -condebug | Saving logs |
| -low | Run with reduced priority |
| -noaafonts | Disable anti-aliasing |
| -nosync | Deactivate vertical sync |
| -fullscreen | Run in full screen mode |
| -language English | Language setting |
Conclusion
How much of the above procedure is appropriate and relevant for the middle of 2019 is up to everyone to decide for themselves, and in the comments we invite you to discuss this topic, and also talk about which programs you run with the launch parameters. This information may be useful to someone.
On this page you will find detailed instructions for launching the game with parameters, launch keys. "Why is this necessary?" - you ask. To answer this question, you need to tell what parameters, startup keys are and what they can affect. When you start the game with the parameters you activate hidden opportunities, which in most cases cannot be enabled in any other way. It should also be said that each game has its own individual launch keys, without knowing which you will not be able to activate something.
And so, what needs to be done to start the game with a parameter? It should be said right away that it is possible to launch games along with parameters, launch keys only through a shortcut or command line, but since it is easier to do this through a shortcut, the second method will not be considered here.
Create a game shortcut
Before creating a shortcut to the game, you need to find the file that is responsible for launching it. All these files have the extension exe, i.e. the game launch icon will have the following name format: name.exe It should also be noted that the extension exe may be hidden (not displayed). The required startup file is located in the location you specified during installation - it could be the following path:C:\Program Files\game_name\name_name.exe
And so, you have found the necessary file. Now let's create a shortcut to the game on the desktop. You can create a shortcut in several ways - use one.
- Right click on the icon. Find Send to - Desktop (create shortcut).
- Press the key combination [ ctrl] + [Shift
- Hold down the [ key on the keyboard alt] and drag the icon to the desktop.
Adding Launch Options to the Game Shortcut
The shortcut has been created and you can add game launch options. To do this, right-click on the created shortcut on desktop and select the item Properties. A window will appear in front of you in which you need to edit only one field with the name An object.In order to start the game with parameters (keys), they must be added at the end of the field An object through the gap. It should be said right away that there can be more than one launch parameters and they are all written in the following format at the end of the field An object through a space:
-parameter_1 -parameter_2 -parameter_3
Example: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Skype\Phone\Skype.exe" /parameter
Notes:
- in most cases, the parameter name should be preceded by a hyphen ( - ) or slash ( / ) depending on the game, but for many games these signs are identical, that is, it does not matter which one to put;
- between the parameters (keys), if there are several, there must be a space;
- double quotes from the Object field, if present, do not need to be removed;
- if you launch a special loader (Launcher) and only after that launch the game by pressing the "Play" or "Run" button, then adding the launch parameters to the shortcut of the Launcher.exe file will not launch the game with additional options(keys), but only the program to run it - the game will start without parameters.
Often for a variety of programs you have to specify special parameters command line, which should be activated when it starts. For example, in the QIP program, in order not to bother with unnecessary services, you must specify the “/isolated” key in the parameters. How to do it?
By the way given key I personally always use QIP - it turns the program into that good old QIP, which it once was, without a crowd of annoying services and all sorts of rubbish. Only “ICQ” itself remains.
Well, we digress. Running the program with command line options is easy. To do this, you must first create its shortcut on the desktop or in the taskbar.
Click the program icon in the folder Program Files either in the list All programs right click and select command Send > Desktop (create shortcut).
The shortcut will appear on the desktop. Right click on it and select command Properties. A window will open in which we are interested in the field An object. It is in it, after the quotes, that we should add the command we need. In this case, the key is “/isolated”.
However, this method seems to me somewhat laborious. Create a shortcut, then prescribe parameters ... isn't it easier to get the opportunity to immediately launch any program by specifying in context menu desired parameters command line? In other words, I just right-clicked on the file, specified the necessary parameters, and that's it.
The ExecParm program will help us with this.
Command Line Options with ExecParm
First, download the program for the system of the required bit depth.
We download a regular archive, which can be unpacked anywhere. It will contain only three files - ExecParm.txt, Execparm.dll and Execparm.inf.
And where is the executable file, you ask, how to install something? Very simple. Just right-click on the Execparm.inf file and select the command Install.
In essence, in this way, a few entries are simply added to the system registry. Now just right-click on the executable file of the program and select the command Execute With Parameters(i.e. run with command line options).
It remains to specify the required parameters and click on the OK button. Perhaps this method will appeal to someone more than the first, more traditional, option.
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