Launchy Program Launcher

Ever have trouble finding a program? How about a bookmark? Launchy makes it very fast to run any program in seconds. You can not only run any program, you can open any file. When I want to run Quicken, I hit the magic keys to open launchy and type qui - Then press enter. Quicken runs. To open my mileage spreadsheet I type MI - and press enter. To open my newsletters to work on them, I type NEWSL and hit enter.

Launchy is a free program launcher that allows you to quickly run any program or any data file (like a spreadsheet). It will also let you play any of your music files or view pictures with just a few keystrokes. It will run use your bookmarks to launch those sites in your browser.

To get launchy or learn more click here: http://www.launchy.net⁄ . I made a screencast explaining  launchy here.

 

How it works

Launchy indexes all the files in your start menu automatically. You can add any folder and any file types to that list. I add my treepad types in my treepad data folder, my spreadsheet file type (like xls, or qpw) in my spreadsheet folder. You can add your music folder with extension .mp3 or your word documents from my documents with .doc as the extension. I also index my pdf files. Altogether, I have over 2,500 files and websites indexed for nearly instant access.

To launch a file or program you open launchy with a hotkey, the default is ALT-Space and type a few letters.

Launchy is an open source project, so it is free and has no scams or advertising in it. It is smart. It learns what you type most and moves those files to the top of the list. So if you type a few characters, it creates a list of possible files and puts those you use most at the top.

 

Plugins

Plugins are special programs that add to the basic program features. Launchy is written to make it easy to add extra little programs with special features. A number of people are writing such little extras. Two that come with the program that deserve special mention are:

• Calcy: This is a calculator. I frequently want to add a couple numbers or do a simple calculation. I bring up Launchy (alt-space) and type in the numbers and there is the answer.
• Weby: Weby allows you to enter a search term into a website from calcy. So, if I wanted to lookup the Ron Paul in Wikipedia, I could open Launchy (alt-space) and type a "wiki" to bring up the wikipedia weby then tab and "ron paul" and it would lookup Ron Paul in Wikipedia.