Application execution aliases can be used in the Windows Command Line Interface (CLI), which includes the Run Command box, the Command Prompt, and Windows PowerShell, to launch applications having a .exe extension directly. That said, some applications can have the same execution alias. For example, in Windows 11, the older version of Notepad and the newer version both have the name alias “Notepad.exe.” This can cause a conflict, and Windows can then only open one app using the same alias. Now consider wanting to open one app using its alias, but another one opens – this can be quite frustrating. Thankfully, both Windows 10 and 11 natively allow you to enable or disable using an alias for a specific app. Furthermore, you can also change an alias for an app that already has an alias, or assign a new alias to an executable app that does not have one by default. This can help you launch applications rather quickly.
How to Enable/ Disable App Execution Aliases in Windows 11
If more than one application uses the same alias, you can choose which app the alias works with and disable the other one. Here are the steps to do so in Windows 11:
How to Enable/ Disable App Execution Aliases in Windows 11 How to Enable/ Disable App Execution Aliases in Windows 10 Modify Existing App Execution Aliases using PowerShell Create New App Execution Alias using Windows Registry Final Thoughts
That’s it! Once done, only the enabled aliases will work, which you can then use to launch the respective application from either of the command lines. Note: In the case of Notepad.exe in Windows 11, running the application using its alias will still work, but will open an older version of the Notepad instead of the newer version. When an alias is disabled, running the alias to launch the app will return the following message:
How to Enable/ Disable App Execution Aliases in Windows 10
Here are the steps to enable or disable app execution aliases in Windows 10: If the same alias is used by more than one app, you can keep one enabled whilst the other is disabled. This way, using the alias will only open the selected app. These methods only allow you to enable or disable existing aliases on a Windows PC. Let us now show you how you can modify these aliases, or create new ones for other .exe applications.
Modify Existing App Execution Aliases using PowerShell
You can modify the aliases to be used to launch specific applications using Windows PowerShell. For example, you can set a custom alias for Notepad, and then use that alias instead of “Notepad.exe” to launch the app. Note: The following method only modifies an existing alias within PowerShell. Meaning, the modified alias will not work within the Run Command box or the Command Prompt, but only within PowerShell. Therefore, to use the new custom alias, you must enter it in a PowerShell instance, whilst using the default (old) alias on other command lines. Follow these steps to change the app execution alias using Windows PowerShell: You can now use the new alias to launch the app from within PowerShell. If you are curious about which alias has been assigned to which app, you can use the following cmdlet to obtain that information in PowerShell while replacing AliasName with the alias for the app:
Create New App Execution Alias using Windows Registry
Windows only creates predefined aliases for selected apps, and does not create them for the additional .exe applications installed on your PC. However, for those apps, you can create one yourself. Perform the following steps to create a custom alias for any executable app on your PC: Note: This process involves manual changes to the Windows Registry. Misconfiguration of critical values in the system’s registry could be fatal for your operating system. Therefore, we insist that you create a system restore point before proceeding forward with the process. That is it! No need to restart the computer. You can now begin using the alias assigned to the Key in step 4 above to run the respective application through the Command Prompt, PowerShell, or the Run Command box. Name this string “Path.” If you want to change the app to run with an alias, simply change the path and app name in the Default and Path values inside the respective Key using the Registry Editor. If you want to remove an alias entirely, simply delete the respective Key.
Final Thoughts
App execution aliases can be quite useful to run applications quickly when they are needed. Rather than browsing through the directories and searching for an app using File Explorer, you can simply launch the Run Command box using the Windows Key + R shortcut keys and enter the short alias for the respective application to run it.
