Let me start by saying I love the keyboard. For you people that grew up with a mouse in your hand for your first computers, or don’t enjoy using command line stuff, you might find it odd for me to say this. But I’ve personally found that I can type a lot faster then I can click. I know my girlfriend’s the same way, typing upwards of 100 Words Per Minute (WPM) and I can pull off a still impressive 35 WPM without looking down at my keyboard. And I love shortcuts, like Control+P to print, Control+Z to undo, Control-C/V to copy and paste… my hands when I’m going around the internet are often placed on the keyboard, even to scroll though a page. I credit this love of the keyboard to my first computer, the Commodore 64, because at that point, you had to type everything in by hand. It was not something you could master without lots of trial and error, and if you mistyped that one special command, you just hoped to heck you didn’t delete something important.

Even today in Linux and Windows, like I said, I find myself using the command line a lot. If a site might be down, I ping it, I still compile some programs from source because I have to, and I wrote a batch file to help those who don’t wish to learn the command line. But Launchy is my lifeblood and lifeline under Linux and Windows, helping me in ways I can’t even begin to understand how I did without it for so long.

Default skin for Launchy, text that you see behind it, is this actual review

After installing Launchy, it should come up by default, and a simple right click on the window will allow for you to configure the options, allowing you to see how much it can do without any problems. You can change the skins, where it looks for shortcuts and things to launch, as well as what you want it to load up for you (which I’ve personally added in .lnk extensions for shortcuts and a custom folder for launching Iron and other stuff that won’t launch normally by default with Launchy) and many many more. What’s absolutely amazing is if you wish, Launchy can also be used for a highly competent tool, because you can use it to Google something, which will load up in your standard browser, perform quick math without a calculator because it has one built in, and you can also use it to open a certain directory without having to go searching for it. And that’s not all, you can also add in more add-ons to add in more functionality, like ampy which allows for you to control WinAmp, iTunes, AIMP2 and other players from the Launchy interface. You can also have a skin for it and make it look the way you’d like it to look. I’m personally using one from deviantART that you can see below.

J-Glassy custom skin, you can download and add them into the Skins folder to add new skins

Many people argue there are better alternatives, like Executor.tk and Enso, but I’ve personally used them and find them rather lacking. Enso I actually stuck with for a bit, nearly three months of use, but in the end, went back to Launchy simply because I missed having the ability to type in folders and directories, to open automatically, rather then one at a time. I highly recommend Launchy to anyone out there whom would love to have an application that helps you get more done faster. It works for Windows, Macintosh, and Linux distros, so no matter what platform you use, Launchy is at least worth a look, especially because it feels like a power-user’s best friend to me.

– Launchy –

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