Comments on: Running Windows Programs From the Keyboard

By: Stephen

Stephen — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 18:33:26 +0000

My evolution in using Firefox went something like this:

“Hey, this search box on the left is great! And I can add new search engines besides Google!”

“Huh, I can push Ctrl-L to get to the URL bar, and Ctrl-K to get to the search bar. Now I don’t have to leave the keyboard. But using Ctrl-Up/Down arrows to page through the search engines is slow.”

“Whoa, if I use Smart Keywords I can set up bookmarked searches so that I can type “wp” to search Wikipedia or “imdb” to search IMDB. I’m set!”

By: Josh Janus

Josh Janus — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 23:54:23 +0000

Ctrl+L — I never knew! My first computing experiences were under MS-DOS… as others have written, I’ve always been a keyboard junkie. The mouse — and, when undocked, trackpad on this laptop — is so slow by comparison! :-Þ

I’ll look into Launchy… thanks for raising the topic.

By: Paul O'Brian

Paul O'Brian — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 04:26:36 +0000

I went to a software conference a while ago where a guy named Neal Ford talked about a whole boatload of this kind of stuff. He’s writing a book called “The Productive Programmer” that examines ways to help people better use their time — like keeping away from the mouse.

Conference slides are here and here, if you’re interested.

By: Limax

Limax — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 18:41:28 +0000

Hm. I’m going to have to take a look at Launchy for my Vista laptop. I really hate the new ’start’ menu as well. I’ve been using computers since before there were GUIs and mice… and that’s the one thing I criticized the original Mac about. In all the ads, they never showed a keyboard. I thought it didn’t come with one.

By: siliconchef

siliconchef — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 18:00:13 +0000

I love Launchy. It’s being installed across the wide variety of Windows systems I use.