Jump to specific Settings in Windows 10 from the Run window

Going through the Windows Insider program can lead to a lot of confusion. You hear different things about the goal of Windows 10 and then with each new build that comes out, you find it moving further away from that goal even if it started out standing on the finish line. You could take the “Windows 7 + Windows 8” appeal that Windows 10 was supposed to have. They got rid of the familiar Windows 7 folder structure in the Start Menu at some point so now, the Windows 7 contribution seems pretty minimal.

Another claim was getting rid of PC Settings and the Control Panel so you only had one place to go instead of two redundant locations. Yet, even in the latest build we have Settings and a Control Panel. Worse yet, some items have been removed from Control Panel and are only available in Settings now, such as Windows Updates. This is further divided through the user interface – Settings is available from the Start Menu while Control Panel is available from right-clicking the Start button.

While Control Panel might be more colorful and familiar, Windows 10 has URIs that you can enter at the Run window to jump to specific Settings pages. You can open the Run window by right-clicking on the Start button and choosing ‘Run’ or my preferred method of using the Windows key+R keyboard shortcut.

Once you have the Run window available, you can type in the corresponding URI and click OK to be taken directly to that Settings page. For example, typing ms-settings:colors takes you directly to the Personalization, Colors section of Settings. See the table below for other options.

Of course, you can also just type the name of the setting in the Start search/Cortana like ‘Date’ to get to the Date and Time settings page.