Windows XP in a Nutshell

Name

Address Bar

Synopsis

The Address Bar (see Figure 3-3) is a special toolbar with an input field and (optionally) a “Go” button. It appears in Internet Explorer, Windows Explorer, and on theTaskbar. When you type an Internet address, the name of a program, or the path of a folder, and then press Enter, the Address Bar will respond in one of many ways, depending on its location and your system’s settings.

Figure 3-3. The Address Bar, shown here on the Windows Taskbar, allows you to quickly open programs and web sites by typing their filenames and addresses, respectively

The Address Bar is one of my favorite features in Windows. While its main purpose is to make it easy to type in a web address and point your browser to that address, it also can be used to type a command or application to launch, just like Start → Run. This means that you can easily choose between point and click and command-line operations — whichever is easier for completing a given task. Because I keep the Address Bar visible in the Taskbar all the time as well as in each open folder window (which makes it easy to jump to any folder without having to hunt for it in the branches), it’s become my primary command-line interface.

One major difference between the Run prompt and the Address Bar is how they treat an unknown address or command. The Address Bar assumes that any unknown text string is a web address. So, for ...