Mention Quicksilver and the more techie OSX users out there will wax lyrical about its ease of use and its powerful features. They have a point! Windows has always been a bit rubbish when it comes to the CLI, even adding Powershell isn’t a huge improvement.
So, enter stage left Launchy.
Launchy is fantastic.
It’s not a full clone of Quicksilver but it does index any folder that you specify so that as soon as you launch it (with ALT+Space) and start typing you’ll get a diminishing list of likely candidates, press enter and you’re away, press Tab and you’ve more launch options (for example Run as a different user). How cool is that?
It also comes with a number of plugins my favourites being the Putty launcher, system power and Tasky.
Use cases
1) That twice a year scenario where you need to use IE to access a website because the developers didn’t code it properly.
ALT+Space type In by now IE should be selected. Press enter and you’re
away. If you want some IE options, for example to open the favourites folder. Press tab.
2) You use Putty and you need to SSH somewhere.
Install the Plugin from the link above.
Type ALT+Space then ssh then press Tab, all of your saved sessions should be listed, keep typing to get the correct one, or select with arrow keys.
3) You want to shutdown
Install System Power from the link above.
Type ALT+Space then shu (for me it’s just sh) then press Enter.
Such a powerful tool for everyday users.If I did have crtisism that would be that the installation of plugins is a bit faffy. Non-techies might not bother.
If you do use it then don’t forget to send some money to the developer. You’ll be saving so much time.
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