Launchy: Keystroke Launcher for Windows

November 14 by | 14 comments | Lifehack, Technology | Tags: , ,

A productivity goodie (and it is an open source application) for Windows user – enter Launchy.

It is an utility that obsoletes your start menu – because it can index any programs, documents, or folders with keystrokes.

Launchy

How many keystroke it involves to launch Firefox?

Press Alt-Space to activate Launchy panel, type ‘fir’ and it should choose Firefox for you. If it is not? Hit Down-arrow and run it by Enter key. As it stores the running frequency, next time when you type ‘fir’, it should prefer the Firefox shortcut than others.

Try it, it will help you to get to the files or shortcuts you need quickly.

Launchy – Open Source Keystroke launcher for Windows

  • http://www.mind-energy.net Jacob

    Nice, but still a long way to go until being like the Quicksilver (for the Mac).

  • Wahl

    It seems more like a Windows version of OS X’s built in Spotlight than an attempt at Quicksilver.

  • http://christopholis.com Chris

    Yeah, still not quite Quicksilver, but might do in a pinch at work. I’m guessing that it’d take a completely new OS architecture for Windows to support scripting and plugging into different functions of programs? Quicksilver is much, much more than a launcher; for most native Apple apps I can control them without ever clicking.

  • http://www.nagarsoft.com Andrea Nagar

    What do you think about Direct Access? It’s allows you to launch applications (and also insert boiler plate text) typing a word, in any application.

    I’d be happy to hear about your suggestions and comments.

    Available at http://www.nagarsoft.com

  • http://www.jwebnet.net/ Joseph Becher

    Been using launchy for a while now. I like it, and you can configure it to open folders as well.

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  • http://vintersong.stormbind.net/WP/ alia

    How do you configure Launchy to open folders? Didn’t find that functionality yet…

  • Richard Schmitt

    Try ActiveWords. There is a free version, but paying is well worth it.

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  • daddydave

    @alia: The folders search capability is a recent addition, I believe. Make sure you have the 1.0Beta!

  • http://www.venukb.com/blog Venu

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  • http://www.porganized.com peter

    This is very similar to what Google Desktop does. I’ve become so reliant on GD’s version of it that it’s my most needed feature in windows (when I get a new machine or format it, I install it before firefox).

  • John

    4yrs later…still trying to figure that one out (w/o typing the entire location syntax in “c:blahblah blah”)