No slickrun? There are entire GTD communities build around sr!

Thanks for the article - it introduced me to quite a few new ones I may try should SR die, but for now SR does everything I need a desktop launcher to do, and with minimal memory requirements. Think of it as like fbrun versus katapult - sr being fbrun.

jambarama

Launchy version 1.25 is still probably the best for slow computers. Considering we're talking Windows, that's pretty much every case here.

Launchy version 2 is shinier, but a bit slower, and all ver. 1 plugins have been invalidated and have to be recreated, so now I don't have my precious Go-y plugin. I'm gonna have to revert back to v1.

I'm going to check out Skylight; there didn't seem to be much information on that.

Caidence

I've been using Dash Command for over several months now, and i converted to it, after using Launchy for some time. I really love the way Dash works, once you get used to it, it becomes a necessity. I had some issues when i upgraded (or downgraded for some!) from XP to Vista, but the developers are great people, and they helped me out within hours...I love it, it's worth its $20.

TheConstantGardner

@SciotoSurfer: I'm not sure where you get that idea... Autohotkey get's far more attention than any of these apps individually have!

Adam Pash, LH Senior Editor

katapult and gnome-do are great tools too.

nikoPSK

Agreed! LH missed the boat on Skylight and its latest version. The new version is terrific. It convinced me to drop Launchy and SlickRun. It has great search functionality, allows you to add folders for additional search capability. What I love most: a very simple interface for adding abbreviations to almost anything. The biggest drawback to Skylight is its inability to get you to many website, except certain pre-loaded ones (e.g., Google, IMDB, Amazon). I also found that the developer is not good about responding to emails. Otherwise, is well worth a try!

MitchMan

I use a combination of Find & Run Robot and AutoHotkey (which never seems to get much love here). Yes, AutoHotkey may not be for everyone, but I'm an old programmer and I love that I have so much control in making it do anything I need.

SciotoSurfer

@greeze: Yikes, don't know how I missed that. Thanks for the heads up, I've updated the post.

Adam Pash, LH Senior Editor

I'm looking at the skylight website right now and it looks like they released a major update on Jan 8. I haven't downloaded it yet, but what's this business about it not seeing any development since July?

greeze

I started with Slickrun and loved it. I used it to do other things like twitter, rtm. gcale and xpen$er. But it has not been updated for some time and I was looking for new features. Tried Launchy for a month and did not like the multiple choices (too many), tried Skylight, I forgot why I did not like it. I tried a few others such as Zenkey & Keybreeze, and now settled on Executor.
It depends on the needs and skill levels. I send Launchy/FARR to people in my group who are less computer savvy, but I prefer to configure the computer the way I want.
Off the topic I use Firefox addressbar to do Twitter etc stuff now.

wwni60

I got 2 gigs, so launchy works fine for me (v2.0).

for real deep searches, I actually use google desktop. right now, I have both google desktop and microsoft desktop installed, and am trying to decide between the 2.

I know this is a tangent, but google desktop has a bug with outlook that seems unresolved. You can't open .msg files with google desktop on. It will do nothing and not open your message.

[groups.google.com]

qrius

I would think 320mph (now apparently called nDroid) would deserve a mention here, especially for all the AHK fans out there. I use it at work and at home - the only real complaint I have is that when you add new folders to be scanned, it takes a little too long to scan and index the various pathlists.

soulguidedtelescope

Launchy is good for me....its simply great for my work files it keeps all my CAD drawings for projects organized...so i cant complain. Mighty box looks pretty cool though!

super_bryant

Find & Run Robot for me. I like the real-time search as opposed to the pre-indexed search in some others. I bought dash, but it's too buggy for me and i hate that when you install a program it doesn't show up until you reindex.

naveed

I always wonder why Lifehacker never includes SlickRun ([www.bayden.com]) in such comparisons. It is the most non-intrusive application I have used. On pressing a shortcut, a tiny little window appears on bottom right (or where ever you want it to appear) Pic: [i28.tinypic.com] It does what launchy does and much more. It also acts as a command line calculator. I just need to type "=[whatever math expression]" in that little window.

kaushalmodi

@TheConstantGardner: Agreed. Dash Command kicks ass!

Prior to using Dash, I was a dedicated SlickRun user. I never liked the interface though.

I have also tried Launchy which was too clunky for my tastes and Find & Run Robot which does not have all of the features I was looking for.

Sure you have to dish out $20 but if you are a keyboard freak and a power user, it's worth every penny.

jarhead

"Considering we're talking Windows, that's pretty much every case here."

Speak for yourself, fanboy.

holymogwai

The new start menu in Vista is actually a really awesome launcher/searcher. Focus is automatically set to the "search" textbox whenever the start menu is opened. I can hit the Win key and type the first two or three letters of any program and it'll find it, I just hit Enter and there it is. Same for documents. It indexes pretty much everything you'll need so the search-as-you-type is plenty fast enough to keep up.

I still use launchy because I use XP at work and my fingers are addicted to the alt+space combo, but honestly I think Vista basically has all launchy's features built right into the Start menu.

jdueck

I used to use slickrun, but switched to Launchy. The big difference for me was that Launchy automatically indexes everything in the directories you tell it to -- and starts with the Start Menu directory. That's a great start, but then I configured Luanchy to index files in My Documents and now any of those documents are available via Launcy -- even those that I created an hour ago.

With slickrun I had to define aliases for each thing I would ever want to run or open.

Slickrun fans, has that changed?

dharris

I'm a Dash convert. I've used SlickRun, Launchy (extensively), Vista's built in search (ugh - slow) and Start++ and, truly, none of them can compare with Dash's power, speed, features, footprint and feel. It is easily worth $20. Easily. That's only a tenner here in the UK. I think a sound commercial footing for a product such as this is actually a good thing. I also find it somewhat ironic that having to pay for it is considered such a drawback when over on the Mac side there is such a strong shareware culture and actually paying for software is the norm. Talk about role-reversal.

The real cons for me in regards to Dash are the website, which I find somewhat annoying to use (it's a heavily modded Wordpress install). It just feels clunky and the text is too small. This may sound pedantic, but when a piece of software counts its community as a crucial factor, then the website better be spot-on. I also think the keywords configuration UI could be more intuitive. At present it's very confusing. Oh, and their crippled trial is a terrible idea; they've crippled nearly all of the neatest features. They should just release a time limited full-version.

Overall, though, Dash is by far the best (both objectively and subjectively, in my humble opinion). I'm keeping an eye on MightyBox too, though. At present a 50MB footprint is just greedy, and it's unlikely to get much better seeing as it's Java. Dash wins again in this department as you can easily set how much memory it uses. I've got mine set to use a maximum of 5.75MB but it's currently actually only using 3.5MB. Nice.

charlesroper

@JaimeZX: Good point. This article presumes the readers know what Quicksilver does. I'm a happy Launchy user, but I never really understood the excitement about Quicksilver. Perhaps that was due to its vague website (Act without doing?)

Basically, these programs are supplements to the usual ways that you open documents or start programs. What sets these apart from double-clicking desktop icons and the Start menu is that they are based on exclusive keyboard use and computer-aided search. The idea is that it's faster to type than to mouse, and you should let the computer search for you rather than digging through your own folder hierarchy.

Posco Grubb

Enso is definitely not abandonware. In fact, they are working on a new version that looks very promising. I loved the first version, despite it's downfalls, and am really looking forward to the new release. I've found that Launchy doesn't integrate into my workflow well. More info on the new version of Enso (and an open discussion for it's direction) can be found here:
[humanized.com]

n00ge

I'd love to see one of these showdowns for Linux. ATM i am using deskbar-applet, but is there anything better out there?

the_boffin

Launchy is the one and only program for me for now. The older version of Launchy was faster and less buggy (as well as less customizable), but my biggest complaint is that it cannot export/import settings. After setting up v2, I am loath to go through the 45-minute effort of setting up the previous version. The down-side of customization..

CheGordito

Hm, first off, nothing in Windows has yet to come close to Quicksilver (QS) in terms of elegant power (which I find interesting, I think this is as a result of OS X vs. Win32 API differences, OS X is simply more unified, thus allows QS more power). The noun>verb>action metaphor, the ability to stack multiple nouns, the ability to bind full noun>verb>action stacks to key triggers, the ability to contextually specify actions in such detail, the way it "learns" to predict what you want, the plugin breadth, and the transparency of its workflow is unmatched.

In my XP VM I use FARR as the best Windows alternative. The predictive heuristic rules in FARR are way better than Launchy/Enso and others, and it is much more configurable. It doesn't have the power of QS but is better than the alternatives (I haven't tried MightyBox)

For me, Enso is a love/hate relationship. Unlike Adam Pash, I think its ability to handle OS selections is mightily impressive and innovative (ALL CAPS being but one of many functions); especially powerful *if* you use the beta plugins ([www.humanized.com] the latex plugin is amazingly cool!). But predictive heuristics suck and you have to type in too much to get what you want, too much forced natural language. I actually really like the pseudo-modal concept, I just wish it was more flexible (instead of "open opera" I just want to type "oper" and enter), and learnt the fragments I used over time.

iandol

I can't for the life of me figure out what any of these programs are for. (At least based on the descriptions in the above writeup.)
It's a different start menu? Eye candy? What?
<-- Feeling silly

JaimeZX

the best tool of this type for windows is Powerpro [powerpro.webeddie.com]
i don't know why lifehacker never reviewed it as it's powerful enough to satisty everyone. but i think what get people away is the win95 looks and nowadays there's so much love for shiny and pleasant gui's that sometimes good apps are dismissed right away (default foobar2k comes to mind)

anyway, it's not easy to learn either but after some time understanding how it works, you'll never want to use windows without it.

the screenshots in powerpro website are old, once again don't run away by it's looks, give it a shot and see how your productivity will increase.

it's freeware and has small footprint btw.

note to lifehacker: Please review it!

code3

@MojoFilter: But... Launchy is ~fabulous~

Seriously though... I haven't even gotten into the super-configuration that's supposedly possible with Launchy, and it's absolutely indispensable. Might give some of the other freebies a shot, but I'm pretty happy with the old and new versions of Launchy.

DogHead

You missed the major new features of DOMercury! It's completely plugin-ready (with multiple plugins already written), and there's an SDK available for any .NET programmer to add their own stuff. There's a much nicer default skin available in the latest version, and he's working on an LCARS skin. (yes, Star Trek geeks rejoice!)

It also supports automatic & intelligent prioritization of items displayed along with manual modification of the priorities. I use it daily to launch all those obscure management apps needed to develop ASP.NET applications. It's also thumbdrive-capable for your transient types.

Sure, it's a little rough around the edges, but the functionality is there, and it works. Windows users longing for WinQuicksilver owe it to themselves to give DOMercury a try.

minameismud

Someone's going to get upset that I made this comment, and it admittedly has nothing to do with the main content, but describing an app with a phrase ("light in the loafers") that is commonly used as a derogatory term for gay men is mildly offensive.

Bubarubu

Not that I use Windows any more, but I've always been a huge PowerPro fanboy. It's doesn't have the best ui, but it an amazingly powerful utility that I just couldn't survive on Windows without.

Hieronymus

@Adam Pash, LH Senior Editor: In looking through the list you linked to, I think I was probably skimming over a lot of that, not realizing that AutoHotkey was behind the scenes. I guess I need to pay closer attention. Sorry!

SciotoSurfer

I'm not sure that "light in the loafers" means what you think it means.

MojoFilter

If you're using Vista, Start++ does a lot of what these others do by integrating with the search box in the start menu. You've already got an easy hotkey built in (the Win key), and it's very customizable.

trent

Leaping lizards! MightyBox is Java-based, you run it from a .bat file, there's no settings GUI, and it eats 50MB of RAM! You might as well have just said that it reformats hard drives and eats your children!

I cranked up my 12-year old Thinkpad 701 laptop (with the butterfly keyboard) running the initial release of Windows 95 the other day. Screen resolution aside, it did everything faster than my current "powerhouse" workstation. Way faster.

jarmod

nDroid is not as pretty as these apps but it blows them out of the water imho, speed, ease of use, customizable. You can build your own extensions in AHK. I can't live without it now. [www.codenite.com]

david.kingham

@SciotoSurfer: you're probably unaware that Adam's in-house apps are all built via autohotkey.

qrius

@Adam Pash, LH Senior Editor: Cool. I'm really liking Skylight so far. I've been looking for one of these things that makes it easy for me to type a two-letter shortcut for my directories (for example, type "pf" to get to my Program Files folder). Skylight does it. I can finally get to my most-used directories quickly, without the clutter of shortcut icons all over my desktop, and without having to manually construct the aliases. From there, all other features are gravy for me. (Although 35 Mb does seem a little steep, come to think of it...)

greeze

I am surprised you haven't mentioned Keybreeze, which is now free for non-commercial use. It is not as pretty as some fo these others but I found it very flexible, powerful and easy to use and modify.

caputo737

I've used Colibri ([colibri.leetspeak.org]) before switching to Launchy for a little while until its latest release. Unfortunately, Launchy seems to have some memory issues (at least in the build I had) -- sometimes consuming over 100 MB. So, I've switched back to Colibri and haven't looked back since. It has not been updated for a while, but so what; it works.

AdmiralQuesadilla

Off topic: why do (almost?) all launchers for Windows feature a robust integrated calculator?

user2

@holymogwai: Sure thing. I speak for myself frequently. And others, too.

Windows's virtual memory paging layer is shit, and obviously written by people who've never profiled or stress tested a program in their life. It's all hunky dory until it's been 10 hours and 100 compiles later, and then it can't even switch tasks without a catatonic system call. The proselytization of .NET isn't helping matters, either.

.. pray, tell me: what am I a fanboy of?

Caidence

@wwni60: I agree with that. You have to have very unique names if you don't want to be searching through a huge list. The Windows Desktop search can be more productive at times for document searches.

da5id_nz

I'm using Dash as well after having read praise for it on a thread last year here in Lifehacker.

It's very good and has come nice plugins. eg, type in 'dashnotes' to get an onscreen 'yellow pad' type notepad where you can type notes to be recalled at any time. It also can resize images by selecting one or more images in explorer, typing 'image resize' and typing in width or height or both, or just a percentage and dash will resize them for you. It also has a zip plugin. Select one or more files and you can create a zip file through Dash.

The keywords you enter into dash are fuzzy now as well. You only have to enter in a few letters to get a command to come up.

da5id_nz

Using launchers to search and launch documents is not very efficient if you have thousand documents. That's why I stayed away from Launchy and FARR. I just want to use it to launch applications that I define and do some command line stuff. There are other ways to find documents.

wwni60

Slickrun slickrun slickrun. The only thing I see in this thread knocking it is it's file search is limited to certain directories.

I don't use a file indexing launcher intentionally, for 2 reasons:

1) chews CPU during indexing
2) having my auto-complete launching of files limited to certain preset locations forces me to place my files - You guessed it - IN ORGANIZED LOCATIONS.

Launchy's search features let a slacker like me get my files distributed all over hell, and that makes backup/email/etc more of a chore.

I won't call it a feature, but slickrun makes me do buckets for my files, and that keeps me very focused and organized.

I have been ceding some of my slickrun stuff to AutoHotkey though, as I read more of Adam's crazy examples of what can be done with it.

ferroptic

Hi,

Doesn't know if it fits completely in the profile but I have heard fingertips ([getfingertips.com]) does a lot just like Quicksilver on the mac.

Kiddokay

if you questioned MightyBox for being built in java, then you are probably interested in the news that it is being rebuilt in C++. if you've never tried MightyBox, you should still download and try out the latest java version to at least get an idea of all that had been done prior to the choice to rewrite the code. check out the main site for the news post (posted in response to this article, surely =) the decision was made to rewrite a few weeks or so ago)
[www.eyalw.com]

sk8dork

@caputo737: I have to second Keybreeze. I've tried most of these other apps, but Keybreeze does the job for me, without drawing a tremendous amount of memory.

I like to save the memory for other more important apps.

jataylor

Hmm, it seems that I am the only one using Executor here. I still have breeze installed on my system but I am using it less and less. I find Executor handle command line better.

Memory usage on my system:

Keybreeze: 4M
Executor: 8M
FARR 15M

wwni60

Another vote for Keybreeze. I like Launchy but I have a lot of mp3s and Launchy was using way too much memory indexing them. Keybreeze is very fast, hardly uses any memory and is easily customized to do only what I need without any extra fluff.

gfrobe

@TheConstantGardner: yes. you said everything i was thinking when i read this article. i love Dash's advanced features. :-D

dekay46

@user2: I'm going to make a wild guess and say that the software libraries that each developer uses, be it .NET or whatever, has some inbuilt function that can take an arithmetic string and return the results. So it's virtually free function for the developer. I can't imagine any developer actually writing the code to do this from scratch -- it wouldn't be worthwhile. Personally speaking, I think it's almost always a pointless feature.

jarmod

Nice, I had no idea so many options existed, Dash looks pretty cool, but how can you beat free like Launchy?

prospero

Dash gets my vote. I've used it for over a year and setting it up to launch with a Win-J key combo just works for me. One of the best GBP10 that I ever spent on software.

tolleranza

I realize development on DOMercury has come to a standstill for the last month or so, (i've been working on embedded systems projects) but this column has "kicked me in the butt" to program for it again. I am completely aware that it is ugly :-) I have always concentrated on programming for functionality and ignored the aesthetic side of things. Being an engineer and not an artist, I'm glad to have anyone design a better looking skin for it. Features such as file zipping, searching outlook contacts and Gmail are on the way, as well as fixes for framework flaws like the "tid bit of slowness" and the "zombie child thread" problem. Alot of the functionality of DOMercury did get ignored in the review, however I'm not going to complain, I'm glad I finally made it on Lifehacker and I guarantee DOMercury will become a better app because of it.

Dom

Ran Launchy and Dash side by side and then gave 'em $20 bucks .....dash blew me away for speed.

rtipping

whoops, after you type firefox, you have to tab, then start typing the website names. i wish you could edit comments...

qrius

quick launchy tip for those who don't know:

launch, then type 'firefox', then type in 2 or more sites, like 'lifehacker engadget cnn' and watch all 3 open up in different tabs. (don't type in quotes of course)

for non '.com' ones, i believe you have to enter the suffix, as as .org, .net, etc.

qrius

I've only used Launchy, but I can tell it'd be greatly improved by the ability to add arguments -- "thunderbird nm mom" to start composing a message to my mother, or "itunes playlist pink floyd" (I have it set up to index my music directory, but that won't do playlists).

The other thing I'd love would be integrated voice recognition. Just say, "Command line: google brazil chief exports. Execute."

SeanOHara

If you're a technically minded Dash user (which I'm not) you can tap into the sendkeys commands and piping of text to the console etc. See the bottom of the page here for how to do it.

da5id_nz

Still no mention of Keybreeze? I've tried all the above except Skylight and only SlickRun and Launchy came anywhere close to Keybreeze. Try it out Adam, you'll be glad you did.

rickdob

Also, a cool thing to note - Skylight is built with the latest .net 3.5 stuff, and if you use Internet Explorer (7 only, I think) to visit the website, you can use the new "ClickOnce" installer - it's like a live installer from the web, and it installs locally for the user, so you don't have to give it UAC privileges (assuming, of course, you're on Vista, like I am).

And Skylight HAS changed quite a bit since the last Lifehacker article - I tried it back then, but went with Launchy because Skylight was slow and, well, not so good. I just wish they would add forums and plugins and such so people can help add on to it.

jaredharley

I bought Dash and have been using it for a few months, but it's been really buggy, and the devs seem to have dropped the ball, there. I can find forum threads for most of the bugs I've had that are eight months old or worse, some of which have quick-hack fixes explained, but the bugs are still in the software.

I tried Enso for a couple weeks. It was ugly and clumsy. Having to type "open" to launch anything is bad enough. Having to hold down the caps lock key while I type several words is worse.

Jezebeau

I absolutely love Enso. However, it has a few problems which are being worked out. I bought it after trial and love it so much that I wrote the first C# sample extension which is available in their C# plugin page.

raasiel

"Before I owned my first Mac, Quicksilver was the application that made me wish I did."

Same here. But I gave up on it a couple of months ago; I have no use for an app, even if it can do what Quicksilver can, unless it can do it reliably and consistently, and Quicksilver never managed that for me. A massive, massive disappointment. Now I use Spotlight for some things, and just do others the old-fashioned way.

NineTailedFox

Another vote for Colibri here; why no mention LH?

oneiros

I'm loving and using Launchy for almost two years - yeah, since it was first shown in Lifehacker. Launchy is my first "command-line" debt.
I complimented on its simple UI. ...but I hated the new version of Launchy(2.0).
Launchy2 using CPU too heavy - its always 100% !!
so, now I'm using its old version(1.25).

firealien

I don't understand the appeal of these apps, is it because you are allergic to your mouse, or are you obsessed with shaving off every spare millisecond?

xenobyte72

I am ridiculously impressed with Skylight. Not as configurable as QuickSilver, but it's very responsive, and dead simple to use. I agree with JaredHarley above; forums and the like would be really nice, as the documentation is pretty sparse.

jmontana

@iandol: I just wish it was more flexible (instead of "open opera" I just want to type "oper" and enter), and learnt the fragments I used over time.
Slickrun does that - it auto-completes keywords you've already use. Assuming you don't have any other keywords that start with "oper" you could type "oper" and be done with it. You could potentially get away with (or even define) just 'o'.

I also don't "get" the appeal of an auto-indexing file searcher. I know where the files are; I just want to get there faster.

Troy F.

@xenobyte72: I think it's just one of those rare cases where you get a benefit without any real downsides. I can type a program name in about 1/4 of a second whereas finding it on the Start Menu may take 2 or 3. Finding bookmarks when your browser is closed or documents takes even longer. So it's just a very handy thing to have.

Kylotan

I haven't used Quicksilver but from what I've read about it, it's virtue seems to be to select an object (a file, an application, some text) and then do stuff with it. In other words it's really "the right click menu, evolved" whereas Slickrun, Launchy et al. are really "the command line, evolved". They're a nice way to shorten and sort lists of old school "do this" instructions. The trouble is that very quickly you get a mish mash of commands, app names, search engines and the start menu begins to seem attractive again.

It would be really nice to have a fancy right click interface with big graphics, rather than a menu, and Windows Desktop Search indexes well and unobtrusively and lets you right click. The trouble is that it never learns. If "Word" starts off at item six on your list, it will never go higher no matter how many times you click on it.

Doing things with text on Windows is hampered by the OS not having system wide access to what's currently selected (I think Linux does...). The programs that try to do fancy stuff with text - Enso and Dash in particular - fake it by sending copy and paste clicks but then run into endless trouble with window focus, character encoding and so on. Ugh.

In my computer use I have a mixed approach - slickrun for fancy commands and nDroid for application/recent file indexing, with a bit of Windows Desktop Search thrown in (for file contents or "date:yesterday"). It would be nice if someone combined them and do a nice interface but I think that's still some way off.

rogerh72

QS is highly useful on the mac due to the plugins but i've always return to launchbar. on XP dash have the smallest footprint by far. (i've installed and tested all). anyone wanna share a purchase for dash :)

tedt

For clarification, the Windows API does let you see what is selected, you can use it to pull out values selected from combo boxes, list boxes, etc. For an example in DOMercury, select some stuff in Windows Explorer and then invoke DOMercury, you will see a list of files in the items pane, and the actions pane will give you a list of actions you can do on those items (open, rename, delete, send as outlook attachments, etc)

Dom

My last post was created on a computer at work (during my lunch break) which doesn't have ActiveWords - [it's not my computer] and is not to blame for the typos.

Philhellene

As a fan of Activewords ( [www.activewords.com] ), which seems to me is just as versatile as Quicksilver, I am surprised it has not been covered.

The unlimited individual licenses per customer drastically reduces the $49.95 selling price for the user version - I have it on a notebook, a tablet and a desktop ( [www.activewords.com] ).

ActiveWords enables text substitutions, program launching, opening documents or folders, navigation to internet sites, opening and sending emails, opening Windows control panels and scripting. It has user defineable triggers and also a series of pre-created sets of triggers (known as applications [www.activewords.com] )for use with programs such as MindManager and Outlook (great for standardising perhaps in an Enterprise environment, with their Enterprise version [www.activewords.com] ) so all staff can operate it on all machines) and the abiltiy to create your own .

Speedwise I have found it to be quick on everything from a bottom end xp laptop (not quite up to the minimum specs for xp) to my HP2710p.

I am trying not to sound like an advert for the program but I wanted to give a comprehensive answer.

It saves me so much time, it is a must have program for me. I am not part of the company, just a very satisfied customer.

Philhellene

I've tried most of these tools. For me - Google Desktop's CTRL CTRL and Auto Launch beats them all!

You dont have to set up any keywords. And it works as you expect it to.

jivtesh

May I suggest tagging this article with "Windows" -- I've adjusted my feed to exclude Windows articles, but many, like this one (even though Windows is in the title!) get through.

bluemuse

I am surprised that no one has suggested a program I use all the time ActiveWords ( [www.activewords.com] ) as an option. It has provides the ability to launch programmes, substitute text, open documents, navigate to internet sites, launch emails, open folders, open windows settings and if that isn't enough it has a complete scripting option.

There are sets of pre-made shortcuts ( [www.activewords.com] ) for a range of contexts, such as for use with Outlook, MindManager, controlling programmes, text substitution amongst others.

I work mostly by inking on this tablet and there is an ink input panel that floats and is easily accessible;my last 2 computers I have used it by typing the characters I have assigned as a trigger and hitting the F8 key - that simple. Whatever program I am in the F8 triggers the process but I have control over that too.

In addition, installations per license are unlimited for customer use which means for the one payment of $49.95 one can use it on all your equipment - a great saving in this day of multiple computer ownership. (There is a 60 day trial version too [www.activewords.com] ).

I am not connected with the company but am a loyal customer and speak up for the product when I can, as I do for those programs I find I don't want to work without.

Philhellene

@jarmod: No such library call comes to my mind. However, it's so damned easy to write a tool that does infix-notation math, half the programming jobs I've applied for had me write one on the whiteboard as part of my interview (postfix notation is simpler, of course, but that's so easy there's no point to asking it in an interview). So -- it's not necessarily as easy as a library call, but (1) it demonstrates that the plugin architecture is sufficiently capable to do things other than "search for and open something", and (2) it's still pretty damned easy.

Charles Duffy

After reading about Dash Command in these comments, I finally bought it. I think I will convert from SlickRun to Dash as it seems that Slickrun is a total subset of Dash.

kaushalmodi

@xenobyte72: then obviously, you don't have too many files on your computer, or not enough things to do with your computer overall... i don't mean to sound sarcastic - not the intention, but my launchy saves me a lot of time at work in finding and opening my files. and there are too many of them!

qrius

@Philhellene: seems like you work for them based on the 3 links you put there. also, i checked out the site. seems like it was built on windows 3.1... sorry, but the interface is ugly.

qrius

@Qrius I always try to include links to things I refer to in posts these days to help save time.

I am a charity Admin in the UK and have no other job (no time!). I don't benefit in any way from recommending software I find very useful.

As for the interface, all I can say is that it works for me - I don't need anything fancier.

Philhellene

To the folks that mentioned nDroid: THANK YOU - I'm still playing with it, but so far it seems like just what I need.

SciotoSurfer

I've personally tried three of these. Once I was a strong slickrun follwer. Reluctantly switched to Launchy and was hooked. Tried DOMercury for more than month (I uninstalled Launchy 1.25 so that I wouldn't be able to use it, even if I wanted to, to give DOMercury a fair chance) I was impressed. The 'smart search' didn't always select what I wanted in first go. It crashed a few times. Change the default theme immediately.

When ENSO was 'free-ed', I tried it for few days, but apart from quasi-modal coolness, it doesn't have a whole lot of functionality/plugins.

Then I tried Launchy 2.0, and that is it. Currently that is what I'm using.

desipenguin

I suspect that Enso has been abandoned since its prime developers (including the son of Jef Raskin) have since been hired by Mozilla.

Much of the work on Enso is based on Raskin's Archy project (and his concept of the Humane Computer Interface).

These guys are incredibly talented developers and I look forward to seeing what innovations they bring to Firefox. The new, unified, address bar in Firefox 3 is a perfect medium for their talents.

angusprune

Skylight looks cool... but after tying to use it I just gave up.

Used dash for a bit ( along with most other the other options listed plus more ) and found it nice but lacking some fancy features.

Was hard to push out the $20 for dash but I did it and have not looked back. I very rarely run into issues with it and the development team is very helpful. The biggest issues I see with dash is that sometimes it seems to have a slow start up and the next release rarely comes out when expected. They listen to the forums and I personally have made recommendations and seen them in the next release or at least on there to do list.

The only fear I have for dash would be that it might get overloaded someday. All in all a solid launcher that has yet to have me feeling like I am missing out.

All thumbs up to Dash, worth the money no prob get it while it is a 20 pre-release. When they are done it will jump to $50!!!

jsummers

Wow - great comments here. I have a question, though:

I'm trying to find a replacement for Google Desktop's "ctrl+ctrl" functionality - specifically, its ability to go to websites that you type in. I liked FARR, but if I type "cnn.com," I want it to launch www.cnn.com.

Any of the lighter-weight launchers do that?

linsalad

I've tried all the free ones listed here and two now listed. I've found I'm not into auto-indexing. It's a resource pig, and it isn't portable.

I was a SlickRun user for several years - built my whole work-flow around it. Can carry it on a USB stick (with a little work), and use it everywhere.

Recently started using Executor, which is VERY similar to SlickRun. If Executor could use transparent PNGs for skinning (like Launchy), ghost-mode (like SlickRun), the only thing missing would be auto-indexing, which I don't want - but people could use locate32 and put it in there - like they do with SlickRun.

byenduranceweconquer

DOMercury has been updated to 2.5 today, complete with 3 new skins, it also has more improved functionality, such as the ability to Regular Expression search through files and folders. [www.odierno.com]

Dom

Because so many people here really like Launchy, I've installed it and am giving it a try. I tried Dash last month. These programs all seem a bit clunky compared to AutoHotkey.

I have a master script running all the time that will take me anywhere on the web or my computer I'd like to go. I type "goamazon" and it takes me there without having to open a separte program. I type "sgoogle" and a box pops up asking me for the search term. I type "windows key + N" and it will open Notepad++ or, if it's not installed, take me to the dowload page for that program.

In short, I don't have to wait for someone to write a plug-in; I can write it myself on the fly. There must be something I'm missing that makes Launchy et al so valuable. AHK has a tiny memory footprint and the learning curve is not *that* steep if I can do it.

Adam, I know you are a fan of both programs. What does Launchy give you that you couldn't easily get in AutoHotkey?

blmjr

I use DirectAccess from Nagarsoft [www.nagarsoft.com]

You may want to give it a try, unfortunatly its not free ;(

richarddavidlee

linux anyone?

cetheriel

I am currently trying out skylight and it looks promising. but i can't seem to get it to index any of my documents. any ideas?

gpzbc