How To Redirect Application Calls in Windows

Windows Admins can redirect application calls by users where, for example, if a user launches Application A, Debugger B launches instead. This can be useful if for example a developer would like to debug the startup of an application that is launched by another process. This can be done as below (here I'm redirecting notepad.exe to calc.exe):

1. Open Regedit and go to: "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options"
2. Create a key with the name of the executable you want to redirect. ex: notepad.exe
3. Create a String value in the newly created key with any name and the value specifying the pathname of the executable (debugger) you want to launch instead. ex: String name: Calc String value: C:\Windows\System32\calc.exe

Now launch notepad :)