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Forget Launchers, Just Do It With Windows! - How To
First, create a new folder that will contain your shortcuts. If you've got a data drive or partition, put it there so it'll stick around after a reformat. Next, right click my computer, and open system properties.
Click the advanced tab, then click the environment variables button. In the bottom box, find path and click the edit button. Now scroll all the way to the right, add a semicolon to the end, and input the path to your new folder.
Now for your shortcuts. Set yourself up a lazy man's dual-pane explorer: close all other windows, right click the start button and choose explore all users, and then open a second explorer window in your shortcut folder. Right click the taskbar and choose tile windows vertically.
Click and drag your shortcuts into the new folder and do some renaming. For example, I've created a link to FileZilla and then renamed it FZ. Now to launch it, I can just Windows+R to open the run box, type FZ[enter], and there it is. While you're doing this, you may as well set up some hotkeys, too.
If you've never done that in Windows, right click an icon, choose properties, and click in the shortcut key box. Press your desired key combo, and click ok to confirm. Windows, unlike most hotkey apps, will only allow Ctrl + Alt + [key] combinations, but it'll do the job.
The bonus is you can also create a launchbar for yourself by right clicking the taskbar, selecting toolbars and new toolbar, and then browsing to your shortcut folder. I've dragged mine to the top of my screen and set it to autohide and always on top, no titles, no text.
That's all there is to it. Now you've got three more quick, easy ways to access your favorite apps without giving up 40+ mb of ram in the process.
Comments
30
Subscribe to commentsScottAug 23rd 2008 5:59PM
All I do is hit the Windows key by itself and type in the program name. No run dialog necessary.
Oh wait.. you weren't talking about Windows Vista, were you? ;)
SifJarAug 23rd 2008 5:11PM
Cheers. This is a great idea, really simple, incredibly useful.
unruledAug 24th 2008 6:41AM
you CAN use other shortcut keys:
For example, any of the function keys which have no default actions in windows, like F6 forexample. :)
sampatAug 24th 2008 8:41AM
nice post , i will try it instead of any launcher
Lee MathewsAug 24th 2008 8:59AM
Someone had posted "Can you use URLs?" - yes. Do it like this:
Right-click and choose new shortcut in your chosen shortcut folder, browse for ie or firefox and click next
Once you've got "c:\program...\iexplore.exe" add "www.website.com" to the end and click next.
Rename shortcut, and you're done!
Pazu LhasaAug 25th 2008 8:00AM
Hi, thanks for your blog and I like it a lot.
And the launcher that I've been using since a long time ago (perhaps 2004?) is Slickrun.
http://www.bayden.com/SlickRun/
It uses only 260kb space on your hard disk and 7MB in your RAM.
The first setup is a bit time consuming, but you can define a lot of keywords for the same program. e.g. you can define "fx" and "firefox" for the same program, then when you type "f", Slickrun will check your history and auto-complete fx or firefox.
Slickrun can also be used to display your battery level, date and time, etc.
This program is less flashy but very stable, I've been using it for a very very long time and it never updated anymore, simply because it's almost perfect and extremely stable, it hanged my system perhaps once or twice a year!
afredpAug 26th 2008 2:03PM
If, like me, you have Firefox in use most of the time adding a link to a file or program to the Bookmark Toolbar is a much quicker option than using the run dialog or a launcher
Lee MathewsAug 26th 2008 1:57PM
Hmm...ok, but then you have to confirm the file open dialog? Doesn't seem any faster in my testing. ;-)
HeshamSep 3rd 2008 9:55AM
Well... it depends.
If you like using the mouse more than keyboard then its ok for you to open FF from the toolbar.
Some people, like me, preferes to use keyboard shortucts more than pointing the mouse and clicking, even if it took 100 ms more :D
jfjbOct 30th 2008 8:32AM
I use Qliner HotKeys for quick keyboard access -- and disabling the caps key -- but I click mostly the Quick Launch. I use a codename convention for my pointers (shortcuts): the initial is the category (A: art, B: backup, C: CD/DVD (virtual or not), G: games, M: media etc., etc., W: web, X: miscellaneous). So I always have a visual meaningful order. Examples:
AG is GIMP
BS is SyncBack
CP is PowerISO
GO is Oblivion
GS is Solitaire
MV is VLC
MX is xnView
WF is Firefox
WS is Skype
WT is ThunderBird
XS is ScreamerRadio
blah-blah-blah... but, again, I do not use "many" programs all the time.
I do have, though, system shortcuts, like to turn network connection on and off, my W_ codename calling its own unmistakable CSLID.
Is this too nerdy?