How to run a program with command line parameters. How to run a program with command line parameters How to run an exe file with parameters

We use various computer programs every day to perform a wide variety of tasks. Some of them have a large number of settings and capabilities, and in order to use them all, you need to perform a lot of manipulations. For example, you regularly use several operating modes of the application, enter your username and password, or use special modes. In addition to office workers, computer game lovers often need such opportunities. All these manipulations can take a significant amount of effort and time, and are simply annoying.

Reflecting application start conditions in a shortcut simplifies working with programs.

It is worth noting that such a need, which was mentioned above, arises extremely rarely, and for the most part is solved effortlessly by the application or game settings themselves.

Based on this, the whole issue should be considered only as an additional opportunity for extended software launch, because the feasibility of such actions is questionable, and they certainly will not save time for the user.

The Windows operating system provides each user with the opportunity to specify launch parameters in the program shortcut. As part of the issue 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 on the start screen, and launch the program with the necessary parameters with one click buttons.

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 each time and look for the launch file. In this article, we will look at how to significantly expand your capabilities when working with software and learn how to enter launch parameters in the command line of the desktop shortcut. We will divide the entire procedure into two stages.

Stage 1. Select the executable file and transfer 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 file yourself. How?

When installing an application, pay close attention to which folder the installer prompts you to select. Typically this is C:\Program Files or C:\Program Files (x86). Most developers provide the opportunity to independently select the default folder, but if you do not change the proposed option, the program will be installed in the specified folder.
Using Windows Explorer, go to the directory where the software is installed and find the startup file. It has the extension exe. Often its name coincides with the name of the software itself. If you can’t decide, try to find out this information on the developer’s official website in the help section or in technical support.
Right-click on the file name and select the “Create Shortcut” function.
Confirm the system prompt “Windows cannot create a shortcut in this folder. Should I place it on my desktop?”

If you don’t 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 use Windows 10, the procedure will be slightly different:

Go to the start screen by clicking 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 your desktop via the context menu or simply by dragging it to the desired location.

Step 2: Specify startup options

After we have successfully transferred the icon to the desktop, we will begin specifying the necessary parameters in its properties. To do this you need:

Right-click on the icon and select “Properties”.
In the menu that opens, go to the “Shortcut” tab and find the “Object” line. You will see that the input field in it is active. This is where we will enter the necessary commands.
After entering the required data at the bottom of the window, click Apply - OK.

What commands to write

Having figured out how to write launch commands, let's try to figure out what exactly to write. Unfortunately, there are no universal commands that work for absolutely all programs. Therefore, if you want to create shortcuts for quick launch with the specified parameters, you will have to study the program help or contact the developer 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. Specifying parameters became most relevant during the period of mass interest in the game called “Counter-Strike”. Why this interest has become so widespread specifically in “CS” is an ambiguous question; some used it solely for entertainment, others (like, for example, some professional players) in order to individualize the gameplay as much as possible.

For example, here is a list of options for the game "Counter-Strike: Global Offensive" that some users use when starting:

Parameter	Meaning
-novid	Disabling the intro video
-w 640 -h 480	Installing the 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 antialiasing
-nosync	Deactivating Vsync
-fullscreen	Run in full screen mode
-language English	Setting the language

Conclusion

To what extent the given 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, as well as talk about what programs you are launching, indicating the launch parameters. This data may be useful to someone.

Often, for various programs, it is necessary to specify special command line parameters that must be activated when the program is launched. For example, in the QIP program, in order not to be bothered by unnecessary services, you must specify the “/isolated” key in the parameters. How to do it?

By the way, I personally always use this key in QIP - it turns the program into the good old QIP that it once was, without a crowd of annoying services and all sorts of rubbish. All that remains is “ICQ” itself.

Well, we digress. Running the program with command line parameters is easy. To do this, you must first create a shortcut for it on the desktop or in the taskbar.

Click on the program icon in the folder Program Files or in the list All programs right click and select command Send to > 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 there, after the quotes, that we should add the command we need. In this case, the key is “/isolated”.

However, this method seems somewhat labor-intensive to me. Create a shortcut, then enter parameters... wouldn’t it be easier to be able to immediately launch any program by specifying the necessary command line parameters in the context menu? In other words, you just right-clicked on the file, specified the necessary parameters, and it was done.

The ExecParm program will help us with this.

Command line options with ExecParm

First, download the program for the system of the required capacity.

Download a regular archive, which you can unpack anywhere. It will contain only three files – ExecParm.txt, Execparm.dll and Execparm.inf.

Where is the executable file, you ask, how to install it? Very simple. Just right-click on the Execparm.inf file and select the command Install.

In essence, this simply adds a few entries to the system registry. Now just right-click on the program executable file and select the command Execute With Parameters(i.e. run with command line parameters).

All that remains is to specify the necessary parameters and click on the OK button. Perhaps someone will like this method more than the first, more traditional option.

On this page you will find detailed instructions on how to launch the game using parameters and launch keys. “Why is this necessary?” - you ask. To answer this question, it is necessary to tell what parameters, launch keys are and what they can influence. When you start a game with options, you will activate hidden features that in most cases cannot be enabled any other way. It should also be said that each game has its own individual launch keys, without knowing about which you will not be able to activate something.

So, what needs to be done to launch the game with the parameter? It should be said right away that you can launch games along with parameters and launch keys only through a shortcut or command line, but since this is easier to do through a shortcut, the second method will not be discussed here.

Create a game shortcut

Before creating a shortcut for a game, you need to find the file that is responsible for launching it. All these files have the extension exe, that is, the game launch icon will have the following name format: name.exe It should also be said that the extension exe may be hidden (not displayed). The required startup file is located in the location you specified during installation - this could be the following path:
C:\Program Files\game_name\game_name.exe

And so, you have found the necessary file. Now let's create a shortcut for the game on the desktop. You can create a shortcut using several methods - use one.

Right-click on the icon. Find Send to - Desktop (create shortcut).
Press the key combination [ on your keyboard Ctrl] + [Shift
Hold down the [ key on your keyboard Alt] and drag the icon to your desktop.

Adding launch options to a 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 Properties. A window will appear in front of you in which you will 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 a space. 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 separated by 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 parameters (keys), if there are several of them, 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 clicking the “Play” or “Run” button, then by adding launch parameters to the Launcher.exe file shortcut you will not launch the game with additional parameters (keys), but only the program for launching it - the game will start without parameters.