Launchy: The Open Source Keystroke Launcher

I have a new favorite toy and it's name is Launchy. Launchy is what's known as a "Keystroke Launcher". A Keystroke Launcher is a program that lets you launch other programs, files, web pages, etc. by typing what you want on your keyboard. The idea is that, if you know what you want and have a Keystroke Launcher with a good selection algorithm, it's easier to type what you want than to have to search through menus to find it.

And Launchy has a very good and very simple selection algorithm. It "remembers" what you commonly launch and will make assumptions about what you mean as you type. For example, I commonly launch Firefox with Launchy. At first I had to type out "firefox" into Launchy's interface before it picked up what I meant. Now I only had to type "fire" and it knows what I mean.

But what if Launchy's assumption is incorrect? No worries: If you wait about a second in-between keystrokes, Launchy will display a drop-down list of possible answers to your inquiry. It can even handle most misspellings and typos.

Launchy also has myriad plugins - many of which come preinstalled. For example Calcy provides simple calculator functionality to Launchy. Just type "4+5" into Launchy and as you type the "5", Launchy displays 9. My favorite plugin is Runny which allows you to run customized commands (complete with arguments) from Launchy. Coupled with the Weby plugin which allows you to launch webpages by typing the URL into Launchy, you can set up Launchy to allow easy and immediate access to your favorite web-based applications such as Google Calendar, or Remember the Milk. More user-submitted plugins can be found on Launchy's official plugin Forum.

Launchy isn't just for launching programs and web pages, either. You can have Launchy index whatever directories and file types you want. So, you could have Launchy index your My Documents folder, giving you quick access to those hard-to-locate documents. Using Launchy on your laptop is particularly useful because it further frees you from that cumbersome touch-pad. Coupling Launchy with a macro application such as AutoHotKey allows Launchy to do damned well anything! ...But you'll have to wait until my next blog for that.

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