In Windows from a cmd.exe prompt you rely on the contents of %PATH% to access programs. This is a holdover. In Windows proper there are other methods; from cmd.exe you can use the 'start' program to invoke executables in a Windowsy way. The most convenient/reliable way to set up an easy to use/remember way to launch an executable in Windows is to go to the registry and locate hklm/software/microsoft/windows/currentversion/app paths/, inside of which are a series of keys. Each key is the name of an alias and its default reg_sz value is the path to the executable to invoke when the alias is passed to 'start' (or entered into the run prompt, or what have you). You will find a number of these already in existence on any Windows box, most notably iexplore.exe.