What is Reddit's opinion of
Launchy?
From 3.5 billion Reddit comments
100 reviews of this app found across Reddit:
Engineering life hacks = Excel tips & tricks = Learn all of the search and lookup functions like vlookup, match, etc., learn how to array formulas and learn how to use VBA
Also http://www.launchy.net/ with presets to all of your commonly used folders
Also, this? www.msworddit.com
Using google for unit conversion: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=convert+1+meter+to+feet
Thought of another: www.wolframalpha.com for a variety of things (see the the examples)
If anyone wants a good solution:
Combine Everything with Launchy, and you get everything there but infinitely better. This old Lifehacker article shows how to put them together.
Royal TS manages remote desktop connections. Ideal if you manage a serverfarm with RDS. Also, I still install launchy on every PC I use, even if it has Vista or Windows 7, where the taskbar can doe something similar. Lastly, Everything search searches for files on your desktop. It can't search IN files, but it finds files by name faster than any other search tool on Windows.
I’m a big fan of Windows 8.1. I’m not so attached to the old start menu, so I don’t use anything like classic shell, but the start screen is still too slow for me, so I do use launchy. It’s pretty much an instant way to start any program.
Non credo che per Windows esista un'alternativa con le stesse funzioni. Facendo una rapida ricerca ho trovato questi 2 software (ma non hanno tutte le funzioni di Alfred): WOX e Launchy. Per la sostituzione del testo e la programmazione di shortcuts da tastiera ti consiglio [AutoHotKey](autohotkey.com ), è molto potente ma è necessario scrivere i propri scripts (ce ne sono di disponibili già fatti online)
Similar thing happened to me. First day on the job, just finished setting up my computer for dev work, decide to look up launchy. I click on the "skins" tab to see what other skins it had, found one that I liked on clicked on it to get a better view. It takes me to deviantart.com, which my company blocks as pornography. Nothing happened.
No, you're not getting it. I'll try doing a better job of explaining. When I was using Windows 7, all my most used apps were pinned to the taskbar. My most used files were on the desktop. I very rarely used the start button, and when I did it was only to get at Computer, or Control Panel. I used Launchy to start the few apps I didn't already have pinned to my taskbar. That's the description of "how I use my computer", and the UI in Windows 8 is now centered around that usage pattern. For me, the Windows 8 UI is stronger than Windows 7. Microsoft amped-up how I was already using my computer.
The only real difference is the start menu. Don't like it? Use one of the many replacements or go with something like Launchy (which is my personal choice). There's really nothing wrong with the Start menu search (or Win+F) in Windows 8, but Launchy is much faster.
Luckily I had long stopped using the Start menu even on XP, ever since I discovered Launchy
> designed to help you forget about your start menu, the icons on your desktop, and even your file manager
MacOS equivalent is "Quicksilver". This inspired Launchy I believe.
Did you base that idea on him using total commander ?
It could be any windows OS, it seems he disabled/hid the start menu and is using launchy .
Although it would be XP , vista or win7 in "classic" theme since I doubt wacom would support earlier windows versions.
Just because Aero and that glass look isent enabled doesent mean it's an old windows version. Believe it or not, a lot of people have found the button to disable those.
Personally, I'm a much bigger fan of test based launchers. Windows Vista and above have the start bar, but launchy is my pick. alt+spacebar brings up a little window, type the first 2-3 letters of the program you want to run, enter. Or, say I'm working in FF, but I want to open a website in chrome, alt+spacebar -> type chr (auto completes to chrome) -> press tab ->type in url or website -> enter. Now that site opens in chrome. Or, I want to look up a movie: alt+spacebar -> type im (autocompletes to IMDB) -> press tab -> type in name of movie -> enter. Go straight to the IMDB search results page. It can also do math, or interact with the file system, and all kinds of shit (and there are plugins to do more). But the big advantage is you never take your hands off the keyboard, and typing a few letters is almost always faster than hunting for the right icon with your mouse.
There are many shortcut solutions out there which can quicklaunch applications faster than this gimmick.
for example, Launchy. Press alt+space, the first few letters of the application you want, and enter. I've been using it for a few years and it takes half a second to launch any application on the system. I guess if you hunt and peck then sliding your fingers on a spacebar will be convenient, but if you keep your fingers on the home-row there's really no improvement over the good ol' shortcut. And this solution is designed for having two hands on the keyboard, so I guess I don't understand why not just use shortcuts if your hands are already there...
A quick launcher like Spotlight on a mac but its highly customizable. Lots of plugins so you can basically do anything.
It's always the first thing that I install on a new machine and it basically replaces the start menu / task bar pins / desktop shortcuts
What's wrong with Linux built-in search? Everything is just a better tool then the Windows built-in search. Everything-This small software application bypasses Windows search. I haven't had any problems, finding things in Linux using it's search file system.
I guess you can try either tracker-search(tracker-gui). https://apps.ubuntu.com/cat/applications/natty/tracker-gui/
or Launchy http://www.launchy.net/
Here are a few more
http://alternativeto.net/software/ultra-file-search/?platform=linux
Use a keystroke to bring up a prompt which allows you to launch any program by typing part of the name. You can also set it to do other functions.
I use this program to allow me to keep my desktop clean by hiding all icons. Plus, it allows me to do quick calculations, searches, etc.
Does everything you want to do + more.
like skarface420 said elsewhere, you can add .cpl shortcuts to get to the control panel.
Mhmmmm, it's not too bad, if it's to replace to Windows 7 I'm not sure especially with the talk of MS already working on next OS.
There's been a lot of complaints about the UI, but I really don't care too much for it. I already use Launchy on Windows 7 to launch the majority of my applications so the new start menu replacement fits quite well with how I use windows.
Office 2013, bit flashy, but works, it can be clutter free if I want it to be.
Something that I have to say that has been a little frustrating is you have to move your mouse to certain areas of the screen to get access to certain features, I don't really dig that :P
But overall, it seems solid, quite fast as well (That may just be my SSDs talking though!) just a little quirky in some areas.
Yet to use it on a tablet sadly and it's definitely not to everyone's taste, but I really don't mind it.
A decent write up which I have to agree with a lot of is here
>Thing is, they have to replace it with something that actually works. Good luck.
Have you seen launchy? http://www.launchy.net/ The Ubuntu Unity shell has a very similar program launcher and it works quite well. I really appreciate the fact that it can launch a program without the need to remove your hands from the keyboard.
Good tip. Another suggestion is to use Launchy
It looks great, fully customizable and learns from your computer usage behavior. I've been using it for years and it's always on of the first programs I install on new computers.
edit: formatting
ALL THOSE FUCKING DESKTOP ICONS.
PLEASE.
PLEASE STOP.
Step 1: Choose to hide all of them. Step 2: Download Launchy. It's a free program that basically lets you launch any program really easily (just hit a shortcut like alt+space and type in part of the name) Step 3: Enjoy your nice clean desktop.
[](/fluttershy "But, you know, whatever you want is fine!")
Launchy. Launch programs with your keyboard.
Hit a shortcut (alt+space by default) and it brings up a text box. Start typing a program name and it will autocomplete to whichever one you use most, which it learns over time. It's essentially the Firefox Awesome Bar for your hard drive.
That's krunner...the ability to just type on a empty desktop and have it used as input for krunner is "relatively" new...traditionally krunner was started with <alt><f2> (KDE4) or <alt><space> (Plasma5). Getting the same experience as krunner on gnome could be pretty hard as krunner is a frontend for lots of different "plugins" that often depend highly on KDE (kio slaves, akonadi resources...)..but you can have a look a synapse or launchy.
Mavà non mi danno fastidio. E' che è più da fighi lanciare le applicazioni con la tastiera, quindi spotlight su Mac (CMD+spazio) o launchy su Win (ALT-spazio); al peggio il launcher di Windows, accessibile col tasto Start.
If you're fluent in keyboard shortcuts and use a launcher program like Launchy, the only noticable difference between Windows 8 and Windows 7 in the desktop environment (that isn't a genuine improvement) is the move from Aero Glass to the flat desktop UI.
(Examples of genuine improvements: better handling of UI scaling for high-resolution displays, native image mounting, improved file copy speed and UI, significantly improved boot speed, better multimonitor support, the vastly improved Task Manager, support for file version caching and restoration, improved system stability and power management, cross-computer preference syncing via Microsoft accounts...)
I say this as someone who owns and uses a Mac proudly and happily: Windows 8 is a great operating system.
If I can ask... what are the basic tasks you find yourself googling over and over again, specifically?
Use this. I have it on all my machines (2 laptops and a desktop, one laptop on 8.1 and the others on 7), can't live without it now. One of my three essential utilities (with f.lux and puush)
Wow, fantastic list! Thank you. It's awesome seeing just how much there is to optimize the PC experience. :D
To add onto that, I use F.lux which is something that tints your monitor's colour depending on the time of your location, making your nighttime internet adventures much less painful on the eyes. Uses minimal resources, too.
Also, Launchy. Something that more or less completely eliminates the start menu/desktop icons. I recently started using it and it's really nice.
And Trillian. Connects to your social media sites and different IM things from the same platform. I only use it as a replacement for MSN but even just for that...it's great.
I used Aston shell and litestep on xp they were great but I moved away from those because, while they looked nice, they didn't add any productivity for me. From those I would recommend litestep wich is free. There also is a lot of themes and it is heavily customizable.
I'm using Launchy now which is simply an app launcher.
I don't know about the two Shell you mentioned.
What are you trying to achieve?
Try Launchy for your second point. I don't use foobar, and I can't think of anything for point one off the top of my head, sorry. That's all I got, hope it helps.
Also, what you using down the bottom left, cos it is looking fine?
What was the interface like?
It's probably on this list:
http://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/10-windows-alternatives-to-quicksilver.html
My parents could afford our very first computer back in 2005 (which of course came with Windows) and like in 2006-2007 I learned about Launchy. I was amazed by that concept of just typing things instead of going through the nightmare of submenus from the 'start' menu - and, most of all, its looks.
I liked it so much that even when I could fully switch to Linux (ubuntu, specifically) in (late?) 2007, I looked if I could install Launchy on it. And after a while, it was available thanks to Qt. But had to miss it as I didn't wanted Qt stuff on my computer, I was using Gnome (when it was good, Gnome 2).
There was a Gnome alternative which name I can't remember right now, it was kind of clunky and didn't offered the same capacities as Launchy, I missed it. The turn of things on Gnome 2 was the last straw for me, actually I didn't waited to even test Gnome 3 and switched to KDE. So yes, in a way Launchy was one of the things that made me switch to KDE.
Yet the first thing I installed there was Launchy. Until I learned about krunner which was even better.
Well, not that much - krunner was waaaaaaay faster than Launchy, even back then, but I still miss some design details - like when it suggest an application, or folder, or whatever, it shows its icon.
>The "start" (or whatever new name they have for it) menu has an automatic search function that works quite similar to spotlight. It's significantly easier to type "mail" and hit enter as it finds it almost immediately.
The start-menu is a bloody joke is what it is.
Can't do simple maths, can't search for info within files, doesn't find contacts, can't show me flights, can't show me weather, can't do currency conversion.
The list goes on, I'm sure.
It can find Windows default programs and that's about it.
Hell, I have to download Launchy to get anything even resembling spotlight.
Other than that, Win10 isn't all too shabby of an OS but Start and Spotlight are two incredibly different tools.
A skin is a part of Rainmeter itself. What you have is an Overwatch Wallpaper and a collection of unrelated Rainmeter skins.
And about ten million more desktop icons than you need. You should consider Launchy to help clear some of that out.
I can't function without Launchy. I press Alt+Space, type a few letters and launch a program. For example "no" for Notepad++, "ev" for Everything and "vs" for Visual Studio.
The way it works is that it searches a few default locations like the desktop and the start menu for shortcuts and adds them to its database. I've extended it by letting it search a folder called "Links" where I dump shortcuts to everything I don't want to clutter my desktop with.
Like I said, can't live without it.
You might already have them, but just throwing these out:
Expose(Mission control) and spaces: http://www.betterdesktoptool.com/
Spotlight: http://www.launchy.net/
I've got to use windows for work as well (because reasons) but these software make life much easier for me. Also, tweak the registry to swap control/alt/win if you can :D
I stopped using the start menu back in XP (using good old Launchy), then switched to using the built in start menu search in 7, 8 and now 10. So I was never really into the "Start screen" hate that seemed to be the major issue for many people.
I almost have no idea what my "all programs" view looks like anymore.
BTW I do like Live Tiles as the new "widgets" of Win8/10, but there just aren't enough useful tiles (or I haven't tried hard enough to find useful ones) for me to bother actually setting it up properly.
The biggest one for me is "Launchy" application launcher. If it weren't for having to use other people's machines I could say I haven't touched the "Start" menu in over 3 years. And when I do have to use a foreign machine I'm lost without it. So awkward.
Another one for me would be KeePass. Between work, client systems, personal there is no way I could keep up with the passwords. It allows hotkey username/password entry into any windows (RDP, PuTTy, whatever) and has saved me countless man-hours over the last 8 years.
Those are items 1 and 2 that i install on any new machine.
Pardon my response if I misread your comment and it's not applicable (I'm running around like a mad person today).
I don't use launchers that often, but when I do, I use Launchy with Blueberry_Time skin.
The only thing it may not do is launch on the "active" monitor (mine always launches on Monitor 1). On the plus side, it's Cross-platform (last I checked), so if you ever are forced outside of Linux (work for example), you can keep your workflow habits.
Launchy does a lot of cool things, but mostly it's a task starter. Hit alt+space, and it opens a tiny dialog on your screen where you just type what you want. For example, you can do math equations, open applications using fuzzy searching, search google, and more. Oh and it's super super fast. Here's a link
launchy a task launcher for Windows. In win 7 and before I found the start menu search to be almost enough (now I install it on win7 anyway), but since windows 8 I just can't live without.
Start shell (msysgit), ssh to a machine (a cool plug-in makes aliases for your putty sessions), or start any app just by typing a few letters, and it's basically instant. It supports basic math too (sqrt +-/*() ) which I use all the time in dev and other applications. It is started by pressing Alt+space by default which I find very convenient. Not really a dev tool but it really improved my productivity on Windows.
I feel like r/minimalism is the place for everything related to minimalism, there just aren't enough categories defined when there should be tons of them. [Minimalist computing should be its own I think](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimalism_(computing\))
My personal interests lie in minimalist PC desktop organization (using stuff like Launchy to replace desktop icons, etc) and minimalist web design/functionality since I'm a web developer by trade. I hardly see any of that here though. Most of the emphasis seems to be on art rather than function.
I find that Launchy is very handy.
As per the statement on their site: "Launchy is a free cross-platform utility designed to help you forget about your start menu, the icons on your desktop, and even your file manager.
Launchy indexes the programs in your start menu and can launch your documents, project files, folders, and bookmarks with just a few keystrokes!"
I just got 8, first thing I did was a ninite install, then install launchy, and now I try to avoid touching the interface as muc as I can, and do the same things I'm doing at work on win 7.
FF31.
Can't see a way to rebind bindings. Alt-space used for Launchy at my windows and I'm pretty sure it does something on Ubuntu too.
typing
if(){<CR>}produces one redundant right curly brace. Well, at least it ate autoinserted right parenthesis.vim keybindings are borked
if(){ 324 }
If you put cursor of f in if(){ and press cW, it will join the lines and change first line code to i324. Furthermore, if you then return to normal mode and press u to undo the action, 324 will not be indented back: it will stay at 1st column at 2nd line.
So yes, it exists in some form, but you have to work for it, check these out - radial menus powered by autohotkey.
http://www.autohotkey.com/board/topic/46856-radial-menu-scripts-updated-13052014/
I'm not sure it's that good for productivity though, it's just a nice graphical toy, like /u/unnecessary_axiom said - doing things like that is a lot quicker on a keyboard.
I like Everything for search and launchy, both are keyboard oriented and do search stuff
Launchy - It's like the search box in the start menu but it works and has addon support and skin support. Just press the shortcut and then start to type "chr" press enter and chrome opens. It's amazing. http://www.launchy.net/download.php#windows
Launchy. It is absolutely indispensable to me. I'm too lazy to click folders and dig through directories -- so I just press the Launchy hotkey (currently CTRL+SPACE), search my app/document/whathaveyou and it launches whatever it is that I need.
Not bad.
But I'll stick to using Launchy. I can launch (Alt+Space) Chrome bookmarks (and programs, documents, directories, etc) from anywhere in Windows. Shortcuts are a thing of the past with Launchy.
It's a clone of Alfred for Macs. Task launcher, web searcher, calculator, etc. A similar tool called Launchy has been available for Windows for years.
I've used both and find them invaluable.
I use Launchy to launch my programs.
I keep all program icons in a Windows 7 Library called "Applications" organized into 3 subdirectories named "Games", "General", and "Security and Utilities".
I then hide all desktop icons, and put some sick Rainmeter skin up.
And because the start menu's search function is awful, I use Search Everything, which is accessible from Launchy by typing "Search <tab> [query]".
Any program I want is no more than a second away, and when I'm looking for a file I can use Search Everything to cut down the search process significantly, all while maintaining a clean, aesthetic desktop.
This is what works well for me, personally, as I am very disorganized and the indexing done by Search Everything and Launchy means that I don't really ever need to navigate anywhere.
Also as a quick sidenote, try putting your Windows 7 bar on the left or right sides of the screen because vertical screen real estate is more valuable than the horizontal. Or have it "hide" when not in use.
[>icons on desktop](/greentext!)
http://browse.deviantart.com/customization/skins/applaunchers/launchy/?order=9
http://www.stardock.com/products/fences/
[](/ppserious "fo' real")
Have you tried launchy? Way more powerful than the start menu. Works as a program launcher, basic calculator, direct search for multiple websites (I can search youtube without already being on youtube, or even in a browser yet), allows for custom triggers (for example, I can type 'pir' tab complete for pirate, and then type in a search string and it opens the pirate bay, searches for my query, and presorts the results by seeder).
Between that and everything I literally never use my start bar. I can launch my programs, search for files, and and alt tab between apps without ever taking my hands off the keyboard.
TL;DR: Fuck the start bar.
If you have the time and motivation, search up a program called Launchy. It will index all off your programs and files in your start menu and desktop (but really since you're planning on having a cleaner desktop, just the start menu) along with any other manually specified file locations and you can shortcut key to its UI and type out any program you want to use.
I personally find it's much more comprehensive and easier to use than having a whole bunch of things strewn between the start menu and the desktop. It also has lots of other functionalities which you can read about here
Launchy. Basically a program launcher, but the ability to do web searches on a list of pre-configured sites without actually having to have an active browser window is very useful.
In addition to Rainmeter and such, I'd also recommend launchy. It's a small application launcher that is like a faster version of the search menu in the start menu. It lets me keep a blank desktop, because I don't need desktop icons to launch programs.
I agree with the motion of removing desktop icons. Instead, I launch all programs with Launchy.
Whenever I install an application and it puts a shortcut on the Dektop, I use the send to menu to copy it to the folder that Launchy looks for files in, and then delete the icon on the Desktop.
I just want to add that Launchy is much more efficient for launching apps. It responds much faster.
It works best for just launching apps instead of indexing every file. But if you want to, there might be a way for it to index email as well... I know you can set which folders it indexes, and there's also plugins for it. Here's a lifehacker post on ways to extend it link.
ALT+Space
(the only thing that beats Win+R by a long shot! you'll love it once you get the hang of it!)
Remember to reload the catalog if you can't find an app after installing.
For me, it's launchy! . It hides quietly in the background until you press alt-space, and then you can run any program on your computer. Even neater, you can run Google searches, open Firefox to any website...It's such a handy tool, I have alt-space ingrained in my fingers' muscle memory. And its memory footprint is virtually nill.
I can't see the other comment here, and I don't have much knowledge on this, but how would a program know which .exe file is the main file of each program? (some programs come with several .exes), unless it had a database of each and every program out there (which maybe exists, I don't know).
Alternatively, I use Launchy to have a quick way to run those shortcuts. You can add the Start Menu into it (it might already come with it scanned as the default, I don't remember)
I used to love launchy but it has being abandoned for a while now. Indexer++ is ok but more for files.
And just an FYI, even if something is open source you're still relying on whoever compiles .exe to not include extra malicious code. Unless, of course, you want to compile it yourself and compare the hashes (not knocking OSS, "many eyes" still has many security advantages).
I'm probably one of the few who is still loyal to Launchy. I've tried alternatives like Hain and Wox, but keep coming back to it.
If you gasped at how tiny the default skins come up, fret no more! The following skin will work perfectly with any high dpi display and not necessarily just the Surface Pro.
Don't know what to do with it? Simply extract the zip file to your Launchy skins folder (typically C:\Program Files (x86)\Launchy\skins)
Meanwhile I'm sitting here with my desktop icons disabled and just using Launchy for everything...
Wanna make an argument against console UI's? Here's one: we've got keyboards, so we can use them way faster than you can scroll through your UI. Opening anything, anywhere, anytime.
Launchy > Launchy is a free cross-platform utility designed to help you forget about your start menu, the icons on your desktop, and even your file manager.
>Launchy indexes the programs in your start menu and can launch your documents, project files, folders, and bookmarks with just a few keystrokes!
Launchy - The Open Source Keystroke Launcher: Because I hate menus! It saves me a lot of time. If I know what application I want to open, I quickly type ALT+Spacebar and start typing the name, and bam. I haven't used the start menu in years.
Edit: After submitting this, I realized that some might not consider this a "productivity tool". But I have to say, it greatly increases my productivity in my daily work.
>Most of the touch BS from W8 is gone. Search is your best friend now. hit the Windows key then start typing something in. For example on my W10 laptop I hit the Windows key and start typing personalization. By the time I get to 'person' I can hit enter, and the Personalization screen from W7 pops up.
And while I would expect that to work I would also expect that I'd need to know the name of the panel I'm looking for and sometimes I don't know that. I think everyone's taking my 'Display' example a little to literally.
>Wanna play WoW? hit the windows key and start typing in World of Warcraft. By the time I get through 'World' I hit enter and the BNet app is open.
tihs is one i figured out eventually.. heck I should add it to my like list. Typing in start menu right off the pop up. But honestly I use Launchy and have been for quite a while and while the windows search is nice.. I think Launcy is better.
I typically use Launchy because there was no quicksilver for windows. I'm used to finding things by search that way. While it's nice to have it in the start menu (though I think it's really not intuitive that you can just type and I find that design choice a bit frustrating) with few exceptions I haven't found a use for it that haven't shown up in launchy and launchy tends to be faster.
Launchy, press alt+space and it opens a quick search bar faster than windows searcher (practically instant) along with a calculator. (just type the expression into the searchbar)
I love launchy.
It's like Window's search bar in the start menu, but you can add additional directories that it searches, rather than just the start menu, and additional file types (like batch files) to run.
I also use it all the time for simple math problems.
I'm not sure we're on the same page. Launchy is not a rainmeter thing. It's a separate program. You can get it from here:
It has it's own skins and I've included the one I'm using
I was using a program called Launchy in Windows 8, but I thought I’d simplify and do without in Windows 10, since its built-in search was several times faster (but still not instant, like Launchy is).
I should probably re-install it.
You can see all your start menu icons by going to two locations:
All users shortcuts:
%programdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu
User specific shortcuts:
%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu
You may also want to look into a piece of freeware I've been using for years for finding/launching start menu items called Launchy:
Sorry I don't know if there's an answer to your specific question. But you can also look at your shortcuts by looking at these locations:
All users shortcuts:
%programdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu
User specific shortcuts:
%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu
You may also want to look into a piece of freeware I've been using for years for finding/launching start menu items called Launchy:
Anyone know how to change the height of the start menu? I like something clean and tend to use Keyboard or taskbar shortcuts to access stuff (Launchy is a good little program for this) but now I have this massive space between my account name and tools
Anyway I can shrink the start menu down to have a nice, concise little Start Menu?
So you have a couple of options. (Note: Make sure Windows 10 is activated first, it's in the system settings somewhere. http://www.launchy.net/ can help you get places without relying on the start menu.)
I was able to get Cortana working enough to search for the reinstall option, so you may be able to try that.
If you can't get to the reinstall option, you can create an install disk or bootable flash drive (this seems to have good directions for this). Then running the install from here will allow you to do a clean install.
Good luck! Let me know if you have any issues
Oh wow, I never thought about the search bar. I think I also had that issue on my laptop (the now Windows 7 one), but I've used Launchy for so long, I didn't really think that it might be a flaw in 8.1 and not my computer.
Second for krunner. It works great.
If you do not want to use KDE or Unity, then Launchy is a cross platform launch tool that works very well. I have it on all my Windows machines and would use it on my KDE/Ubuntu machine except that KRunner is more powerful (IMHO).
Simple search interface to start programs, search the web, calculate quickly, find files and many, many other functions. Compressed into one input line wich opens via a shortcut.
Only application I have installed on every single one of my systems. (It's available fo Linux too)
Since I can't find anyone who's said it yet: launchy. Reduces starting most programs to a few keystrokes, can take you right into a Google/YouTube search, and a lot more that I haven't played with yet. http://www.launchy.net/
I use http://www.launchy.net/ to launch pretty much everything:
- Programs
- A bunch of files I open regularly
- Folders I open regularly
- Web bookmarks
- SSH + VNC sessions
It's a keyboard launcher, so you just start typing the first few characters of whatever you're after. It will learn based on your usage and bring the most used items to the top of the list.
By default it will index all programs and most files and folders under your account. For me this was too many results, so I've just got it indexing a folder full of shortcuts I've manually made for all the items above.
For web bookmarks, I mostly just use's IE's "Favorites" folder to store most bookmarks, even though I don't use IE, as this can be indexed by Launchy. I think there might be plugins to actually have it index your Firefox/Chrome bookmarks too without putting them in the "Favorites" folder.
I drag them into the C:\Users\username\Favorites folder and launch them with Launchy.
That way I have one single keyboard launcher for everything...
- Programs
- Regular folders I use
- Regular files I use
- Bookmarks
I like using a program called Launchy. And I set the hotkey to pop it up to Alt + F2. This makes it fast and easy to run programs, games, and more without having to have a load of shortcuts cluttering things up or tracking down shortcuts in the start menu. It has a large number of uses past that as well (eg: web searches) with a number of plugins to expand what it can do.
That's a cool idea, I'd like to know as well. It seems like windows search for the second picture gives priorities to folders when listing results. If there's some way to get the executable categorized as a "Program" (like in picture one with iTunes) it should pop up first.
There's also programs like Launchy (http://www.launchy.net/) that may suit what you're looking for. It's an application launcher that works kind of like windows search but you may be able to tweak its settings so it prioritizes the executable first in its results.
Hmm, I'm not sure. It's strange that it just stopped working too. I've got nothing besides live with it, install a 3rd party launcher like Launcy or reinstall. Sorry.
When they removed the start screen i was super sad, i had my shortcuts prefectly organized in 7 so i wanted to keep that in 8. I gave up with the 3rd parties and installed launchy and honestly i rarely if ever open the start screen (perhaps only for apps not in the registry). Also i don't use desktop icons so i found out how little we actually need it. But i understand how acoustomed we gan get to it
Launchy. It something like main menu, but can index anywhere, nut just main menu folder.
Display Fusion. makes multi-monitor life much easier.
Far manager. File manager. Norton Commander for Windows.
Shhh, you're going against the flow!
I can't believe people still rummage through the start menu. I haven't used it in > 10 years. I used to use Launchy, now just the equiv built into windows 7/8. Hit the windows key, type a few letters, and enter.
It's nice to have if you forgot what you installed, but I don't get why it seemed to be the killer feature (in a bad way).
If you want an easy way to a clean desktop, I recommend just turning off Show Desktop Icons in Right Click (on desktop) -> View.
I also love Launchy to launch programs with just a few keystrokes. Easier and seems to access them quicker than the Start Menu.
If you do need to access the Desktop you can just open a new window (either through the start menu -> computer or with the key combo Ctrl+N), and then click the Desktop icon in the top left.
Example of my desktop: http://i.imgur.com/Q0hBkAv.png
No more clutter for me.
Launchy for windows
It is an open-source tool, that allows to launch any program from the input field. Can be called by the hotkey, has autocomplete /w frequency dependance, can scan your Start/Program Files directory and any other that you specify, plus some other features and plug-ins.
TL;DR Forget about shortcuts on the desktop, this program replaces em all.
What I'm currently using is a program called Launchy. (http://www.launchy.net/) Taskbar is just hidden, and I use Launchy to open anything I need. I'm also using Enigma for my icons, including my recycle bin, so an alternative is just to open my recycle bin and navigate through there. Worse comes to worst, I can just go to the bottom where my taskbar is hidden.
There is a Windows/Linux equivalent of Alfred, in Launchy: http://www.launchy.net
Granted it's not as powerful out of the box as Alfred, but it did the job for me while I was stuck using Windows.
While it isn't a traditional shortcut, the best "shortcut" I use on the computer is a keyboard launcher. I'd highly suggest something like Launchy. You hit an assigned shortcut (I use alt-space) to bring up the bar (which is heavily customizable and can be anything from a small text bar to a giant garish graphic) and simply type the program you want. As you type, it guesses what you want and then once it guesses right, you hit enter. It sounds complicated, but it's really simply. To launch Google Chrome, I'd simply use alt-tab then type "chr" and then enter. Works flawlessly and is way faster than a keyboard once you get used to it. Also supports plugins for Google searching and such.
It's definitely the best way to launch apps. The same is true for windows, just hit the Windows Key and start typing. There's also Launchy which has some extra features and is cross-platform.
I'm a keyboard junky
>With Windows 7 everything was 2 clicks away. You wanted device manager? Sure 2 clicks. Control Panel? 2 clicks. MSconfig? 2 clicks.
So I've been a long time user of Launchy - apparently it works just as well on Windows 8 as it does on Windows 7.
disclaimer: I'm yet to use it on windows 8.
I'm a big fan of Launchy. It indexes programs, files, and bookmarks. To use it, just hit Alt-Space and then start typing. Once the thing you want to launch shows up, just hit enter. For example, if I want to use Google, it's Alt-Space, G, then enter. If I want to launch Excel, it's Alt-Space, Ex, then enter.