Can't find C:\Program Files...

Sounds like it might be you. Maybe you are trying to make the run dialog do something it is not meant to do.

When you open the run dialog, a message appears saying "Type the name of a program, folder, document, or internet resource, and Windows will open it for you."

Let's take these one by one.

program

That means, if you type "Regedit", a Windows program called Regedit will start.

If you type "C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\wmplayer.exe" then... Windows media player should open.

folder

If you type "c:\" then windows explorer will open in that folder.

document

If you type "c:\boot.ini", whichever program is registered to open files with the .ini extension (in my case, Notepad) will open the file. Assuming it exists. If I had the file d:\book\article.doc and I typed that into the run dialog, then on my computer, Microsoft Word would start with that file opened, since that is the program assigned to .doc files.

Internet resource

If you type "http://www.google.com", your default browser will open at the Google home page, if you are connected to the internet.

Are these things not happening?

Why are you wanting to type in c:\program filesxxx or whatever? What do those 3 x's represent?

Please give more details of your problem.

Entering C:\Program Files into the Run box should open Windows Explorer, displaying the contents of your root Program Files folder. Typing C:\Program Files into any browser address bar should do the same thing. To open Windows Explorer in a particular file within your Program Files folder, place a backslash (b]\[/b]) immediately after C:\Program Files - giving you C:\Program Files\. Append the desired folder name to the string immediately following the backslash; for example C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer. Be certain to type your parameters and arguments correctly; observe case and spaces.

Try copy-and-pasting

C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer

into both the Run box and then into a browser address bar, one at a time, execute, and see what happens in either instance.

BTW - you can open Windows Explorer directly, by simultaneously holding down the "Windows" key and the "E" key. Its easy to add an address bar to Windows Explorer:

Can't find C:\Program Files...
Thank you everybody, I'll follow your instructions and see what happens.

BTW - the xxx simply meant "whatever file or program I want to run".

Incidentally, what you're attempting to do is use what are termed "Command Line Tools". See Microsoft: Command Line Reference and the associated links on that page for detailed information.

Windows XP's built-in Help has a fairly good section on command line tools - open the Run box, type or copy-and-paste the following into it:

%windir%\hh.exe ms-its:C:\WINDOWS\Help\ntcmds.chm::/ntcmds.htm

Click "OK" or hit <Enter> and browse around some.

That is a little misleading and incomplete. The Run dialog will do much more than run the command line tools. It will run windows gui applications too. Winword is not a command line tool, and neither is perfmon.msc, yet I can type them into the Run dialog.

Incomplete perhaps, but adequate to the task of satisfying the query as posed, and not misleading at all; it addresses the question as the question was presented. My response specifically addressed that particular concern, then went further, offering links to more complete information both from Microsoft's Windows XP website and from within Windows XP itself.

Oh, and essentially, though admittedly over simplistically, using the Run box more or less amounts to using a Command Line - implied by the properties and function of the Run box itself - as opposed to executing an operation by some other method, such as typing an address into a browser's address bar and clicking "Go" or hitting <Enter>, or by clicking an application's icon to launch that application.

Yes, but the command line can run anything, not just DOS /NT commands, which is what you were suggesting.

over simplistically... more or less... Suck it up! You told him he was trying to use the command line tools, which is inaccurate and incomplete, like I said.

What puzzles me is that the original poster asks about running programs which are in the C:\program files\ tree. These programs, surely, tend to be the Windows apps where the installer usually dumps a helpful shortcut in the Windows start menu, and sometimes on the desktop too. Using that is a no-brainer compared with remembering (or browsing to) the executable's full location, so why bother, except for reasons of curiosity?

Can't find C:\Program Files
OK, here's a good example of the problem - In order to get rid of a Yahoo Widget, I'm told to enter the following in Start>Run:

C:\Program Files\Yahoo!\Yahoo! Widget Engine

But when I do this, I get the message "Windows cannot find C:\Program Files".

This is typical; I can get MSCONFIG and REGEDIT, but that's about it.

Can't find C:\Program Files
This is the complete message, BTW:

Go to the YWE's installation folder (usually: "C:\Program Files\Yahoo!\Yahoo! Widget Engine") and search for an uninstallation file. It might also hide in one of the sub folders so check these too.

What happens if you just type

C:\Program Files\Yahoo!\Yahoo!

? It looks to me like you'd need a \ before the Widget Engine part, but it's also possible that there's an intermediate folder. So if you type

C:\Program Files\Yahoo!\Yahoo!

and then dir to see what's in the directory, what do you see?

It is possible that the file is hidden, read only or both. Right click on the folder and select properties. Check to see if hidden and/or read only are checked. Uncheck them if they are.

Why don't you open the "Run" dialog box, and instead of trying to type out the path to the file you want to run, click on the "Browse" button, and find the file that way?

That is a well known message often seen by users of command boxes and the RUN dialog.

Tomkitten, the reason you get that message is because Windows balks at full path names containing spaces, unless you enclose the whole thing in starting and ending quote marks. Windows cannot find C:\Program Files, but it will find "C:\Program Files".

Don't type this:-

C:\Program Files\Yahoo!\Yahoo! Widget Engine

Instead type this:-

"C:\Program Files\Yahoo!\Yahoo! Widget Engine"

But you could just as easily open Windows Explorer, and browse all the way down from My Computer to drive C:\ to Program Files to Yahoo! to Yahoo! Widget Engine, and double click on that. At least that way you will know if it actually exists.

Can't find C:\Program Files...
Well, I never knew that about keeping the quotation marks! But just for the record, Start>Run won't get me to "C:\Program Files Yahoo" anything, saying it's inaccessible. Interesting.

But I'm certainly glad to know about the quotation marks after all these years.

Have you tried this yet?

If the folder exists, and if it is in your Program Files folder, its address will be

C:\Program Files\Yahoo!

Whether entered into a browser address bar or the Run Command dialog box, that will take you to the Yahoo! folder - provided, as mentioned, that the folder exists and is in your Program Files folder.

It's more a question now of knowing that I can access things in various ways.

Since I find that I can access files beginning with "C:\" via Start>Run AND Windows Explorer, I would certainly prefer the Explorer route. But I always deplored that fact that I couldn't get anywhere with C:\Program Files. Now, at least I know why, and don't have to worry that something is funny with the computer.

As I see it, even if something isn't essential, but it's there, it should be able to work.

PLEASE HELP DELETE FILES
I HAVE THIS FILE THAT I NEED TO DELETE ...
C:\PROGRAM FILES\ERRAOL\CACHE
238 FRAGMENTS, 1,008KB CAN ANY ONE HELP!! (NOT COMPUTER SMART HERE!!