Inspired by a post over at Lifehacker (which is great reading by the way) - I’ve written a quick guide to setting up run commands in the MSN Search Toolbar (which is free - and works excellently as a search tool for your PC - and Outlook). Check out the guide after the jump…

So - you’ve downloaded the MSN Search Toolbar (haven’t you? if not - go and do it here, now!), you’ve installed it -and its done its thing indexing your PC.

Here’s the easy way to set-up run commands from within the toolbar:

1. Click in the window for searching - I keep mine on the taskbar, but you can have it on the desktop if you prefer

2. Type @shortcutname,=[program command] so, for instance @outlook,=c:\program files\outlook.exe

3. Then…to start Outlook - you can just type !outlook

You can use this call files you use regularly as well - just by replacing the [program command] with the path and filename of the file you wish to access - I have !daily and !weekly for report templates.

So there you have it, a very simple tool for setting up frequently used commands that can be easily and quickly accessed from the toolbar - MSN Search handles these well - its a good byproduct of a useful tool.