Launchy and Digsby
Over the past couple weeks, I’ve been using some new programs that have had big impacts on the way that I use my computer. They have been so useful, I’d like to share!
The first one up is Launchy, a keystroke launcher for Windows. What is a “keystroke launcher,” you ask? It’s a program that lets you launch programs using keystrokes instead of the Start Menu. Launchy is pretty simple: All you do is hit Alt-Space and start to type the name of a program in your start menu. It will recognize what you are typing and give you the option of opening it with the enter key.
So, for example, if I want to open Firefox, I just press Alt-Enter and start to type “firefox.” By the time I’ve typed “fi” the option to open Firefox appears, and I can just click enter. Or, if I want to open Google, I type “goo” and I can hit enter.
What makes Launchy great are all of the options you can give it. You can associate your favorite websites with Launchy commands. You can associate programs outside of your Start Menu with Launchy commands. And here’s the kicker: You can point Launchy at a directory and have it index any file type you wish. For example, if you point Launchy at your music folder and tell it to index your .mp3s, you’ll be able to play any mp3 simply by typing in some words in the name of the mp3 file. Personally, I use Visual Studio most of my work day, so I pointed Launchy at my projects folder and told it to archive all of the .sln files. Now I can open any project just by typing the name of it in.
As silly as it sounds, I think you’ll save more time than you know by skipping over your Start Menu when you want to open a program. All you have to do is think of the program you want to use, start to type its name, and it appears on your screen. I took a few screenshots to show how the program works.
Let’s say that you want to look up the latest news on net neutrality. Normally you’d go to your internet browser, go to news.google.com, and then search for “net neutrality.” With Launchy, you can just press Alt-Space, type in “News [TAB] net neutrality” and you’re there!
Now let’s say that you want to work on a Vitalist API .Net project that’s almost ready to be released. Just press Alt-Enter, then type in “vitalist,” the option will appear.
Just give it a try for a week or so, and I bet you’ll never want to go back.
The next program that I want to introduce is Digsby. Digsby is a program that integrates IM, email, and Facebook into one application. It doesn’t have all of the features that Trillian supports, but I think it’s friendlier. And for those that use online mail services like GMail, Hotmail, or Yahoo Mail, it lets you manage your email without going to the particular site. If you get an email alert that you know is spam, you can mark the email as spam from Digsby. Again, big time saver.
It even lets other people talk to you through Facebook or HTML widgets. If you look near the upper-right portion of the screen, you’ll see a Digsby widget that will tell you whether I’m online. If you want to send me an instant message, all you have to do is type it, click enter, and it will appear on my computer! Here’s an example of what I’ll see:
Thanks to Flibbertigibbet for showing me this Digsby feature. After I saw it on his blog, I had to have it!
Launchy is available here. Digsby is available here, but it’s under a private beta. There are a number of invite codes floating around the
internet if you don’t want to wait for the first public version.
Comments
Leave a Reply