HOWTO: Launch any app or doc in a few keystrokes

Launchy is a small and quick app to rapidly search and start programs or documents in very few keystrokes, saving time and frustration.

It is free software for any Windows or Linux machine. See below for getting it.

When you first use it, Launchy will start to index (search and remember) files, programs and documents on your computer and build a database based on their names. This indexing is actually very quick. You then have many items at your fingertips.

When Launchy starts, it will not show any window, it is, by default, tucked away until you summon it. This is customizable, but normally you can start it with Alt+Space.

Launchy is a free tool. It can be installed on Windows or Linux computers.

Download it here from sourceforge.

Launchy's home site is at www.launchy.net.

Launchy is distributed under the GPL license, which means that if you wish you can view and modify the code, perhaps contributing to a better version. If you find any bugs, or just want to add features, you are free to do so.

Press and Launchy will appear. You can start typing the name of an app here, it will offer suggestions. Press enter to take the top one, or Up/Down to select the one you want. You can now launch apps in a couple of keystrokes.

Launchy, as you can see is pretty clever, however it has more tricks up its sleeve yet.

Launchy need not have the whole name of something typed, and if 3 or more things start with the same word, it will soon become pretty hard to select the one you really want. Remember, I said a few keystrokes right?

Launchy automatically recognizes abbreviations for programs. For example "ff" or "ffx" will both launch Firefox. On many setups firefox will be the top option for "f" alone.

To launch internet explorer you can type "inet" or "ie" or "iexp".

Firefox and FileZilla both start with "f" so typing this would show a list with both, probably with Firefox first in the list as it is most used. To quickly disambiguate it, "fz" will select Filezilla and "ff" will take Firefox. It is that simple.

As in my app shot above, typing "TR" will on my set up launch ThinkingRock (another top tool I use for planning).

By default, Launchy has a fixed number of pretty sensible defaults, including the Start Menu and your Documents folder. However, sensible means it is trying to be the minimum common set between users, and your needs will probably differ. To change this, summon Launchy (alt+space) then click the options button (shown on the right).

You will see a number of tabs. Select the "Catalog" tab. Here you can add folders or file types.

To add a folder, click the large plus button. To actually update the indexes with the changes click the "Rescan Catalog" button.

Launchy can do simple maths.
For example type 20 * 5 and Launchy will show the answer 100.

This is really handy for quickly checking something without reaching for a calculator. of course do not forget that typing "Calc" in Launchy is all you need to summon it anyway.

Launchy knows how to interact with Google, and a number of other search engines, like YouTube, Amazon and Yahoo.

To search Google, simply type "goo" then press tab, and it will expand to Google and an arrow. You now type your search terms, press enter, and a Google search will be launched in your browser of choice with those search terms.

Launchy is like a well trained dog, it has many, many tricks.

Launchy can be used to quickly get around folders and files on your computer. It knows how to deal with Drive letters, and will autocomplete common places like "My Documents" and "My Pictures".

How do you use this? Start Launchy with alt+space. Now type "My Co" and Launchy will suggest "My Computer". Press enter to show an explorer window for "My Computer".

Okay - now for a drive letter. Lets say you wanted to look at the "C:\Program Files" directory. Simple. Start Launchy with alt+space, type "C:" and press tab. Then start typing Program Files, when you are at "P" it may already suggest this, press enter to show it in explorer.

If you get stuck, and cannot remember what other folders or files are there, then wait and Launchy will show a list of all the items under this directory which you can scroll through, and click.

How about opening the document "My Documents\Letters\Bank\5th December.doc"? Start Launchy (yes it is still alt+space), type "My Do" and it should suggest My Documents, press tab, then start typing "Letters", it should (if you have such a folder) autosuggest this in a few letters, tab again , "Ba" should suggest "Bank", tab to take this, then "5th " may suggest a few different months letters on the 5th, so either use a cursor to choose one, or start typing December, as soon as the right document shows up, press enter, and it will be launched in word.

So in short - Alt + Space, "My D", Tab, "Le", Tab, "Ba", Tab, "5th De", Enter. Sounds like a lot, but Launchy will be suggesting things the whole way making it really simple.

When you autosuggest on My Documents, it will autocomplete to the full path for your documents.

As navigating this way with Launchy helping you becomes familiar, you will be able to do this really quickly, much quicker than browsing to Start, run, typing the whole path, or "start", "My documents", double clicking letters, double clicking banks, scrolling through all the letters, double clicking on the 5th December one.

Launchy can start a command prompt, and a command in it easily.

To use this, summon Launchy, type "Cmd" and press tab. Here you can type a command, for example (common one I use) "ping 192.168.0.1" to check if your router has died. Press enter, and Launchy will launch the prompt, start the command, and leave you in the prompt so you you can do more, which can be quite handy.

For me, Alt+Space,"Cmd","tab", is quicker than Start->Run->. Leaving me interactive with the command line afterward is a bonus.

First, it is worth noting that although Launchy runs on Linux, it is not as well set up as it is in Windows, however a very (possibly more) capable equivalent known as Gnome Do exists.

Windows Vista has start menu extensions which offer a little of the functionality of Launchy also. If you know of other alternatives, feel free to mention them below in the Guestbook.

Ok you are now getting the hang of Launchy, indeed it may have already become one of your must have tools. However you want to collect and create custom shortcuts or abbreviations. You may even want to clear the cluttered desktop and put it where only Launchy indexes it.

Well, if you got through the last part and modified the indexed folders, this is easy. Create a folder for it (I normally call it "Launchy shortcuts" and place it in My Documents) then use the controls above to get it indexed. Now any document or folder you put here can be accessed.

Putty is a cool tool to deal with SSH, Telnet and serial terminal sessions. If you use such things, this app is basically the best of the bunch. Where to find out more about PuTTY and download it.

One of the things this page listed as desirable in Launchy was the ability to interact with PuTTY, to be able to autocomplete on and launch saved sessions.

Well, I am glad to see that it has been done! If you go to putty-launchy-plugin then you will be able to install this plugin and do exactly that. You do need to be running the putty tray icon with the saved sessions, but otherwise it works a treat.

The app may ask you to find the putty executable, in which case, launch the Launchy control panel (as shown above with the red circle) and navigate to plugins, on the plugins, select Putty, and then you should see the "path to executable" field. Hit the browse button to browse to that.

One caveat is that if you have been using launchy to launchy putty for some time, then the normal Putty shortcut (not the plugin) will be favoured and come up first. You either have to be patient with launchy, hide the shortcuts and recatalogue, or use the other alias - "SSH" then press tab.

Launchy can be used to quickly access Control Panel items. This is easy if you have successfully created the Launchy only shortcut folder.

Launch a view on the shortcut folder - Alt+space, "doc" (should show my documents), TAB (to complete)->"laun". It should show Launchy Shortcuts, select with arrows, press enter and it is launched.

Use your start menu to start control panel, and switch it to classic view. You can then drag the items into the Launchy Shortcuts view, and shortcuts for them will be created. I add shortcuts for stuff I commonly use like the Event Viewer, Services and Computer management (you will find this under administrative tools normally).

If you then tell Launchy to rescan its catalog, you will now be able to get to all of these controls quickly.