Command Prompt Utilities from Shortcuts

I found these instructions very helpful and wanted to pass them along.

Run command prompt utilities from shortcuts in Vista/XP

If you have ever tried to create a shortcut to ‘IPCONFIG’ or any of the other myriads of useful command prompt utilities included with Windows Vista/XP, you have probably noticed that it does not actually work Or rather, it does, but the command prompt window with your data opens and closes in a flash.

Here’s a tip that will allow you to create working shortcuts on your desktop for any command. We will use the IPCONFIG utility as an example

Right click an empty area of the desktop and select ‘new.’ Choose ‘new shortcut’ to open the shortcut wizard.

In the ‘type the location of the item’ box, enter ‘cmd /k’ followed by the program you wish to run. In the case of IPCONFIG, you would enter ‘cmd /k ipconfig’.

Name your shortcut something appropriate and give it an icon from the ‘%SystemRoot%\system32\SHELL32.dll’ location.

Now you have a fully working, very convenient desktop shortcut.