New Launchy version / add missing shortcut keys

Terry Thibodeau — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 08:16:00 GMT

Launchy is one of my favourite productivity tools. However, the one thing that has bothered me is the lack of support for some hotkeys. After looking at the launchy.ini file (%appdata%\Launchy or the install folder, depending on whether you choose portable mode in the advanced options), I noticed that the hotkey looked to be using virtual key codes

14 [Hotkey]

15 mod_key=2

16 vkey=186

I figured I'd try out some codes for keys that weren't included in the Hotkey drop down list provided with the application. I tried the code for the unlisted ';' hotkey and, voila! I can now start Launchy with CTRL+;

This will likely work for most other key codes but I have only tested a couple. "But, Terry", you say, "Launchy is open-source! Why not just modify the code to add the keys you want??!?". To which I reply, "I'M LAZY!" :)

There was also a new version just released with some cool new features in the form of plugins! This means that there should be a flood of great new functionality written by the community.

A couple examples of plugins that ship with this version (1.03):

Explorer plugin

This functionality has been sorely missed (JP, you can get rid of SlickRun now ;) ). The implementation is a little odd, however, requiring you to press TAB after the 'drive:' to get into "directory mode".
Browse from shortcut: If you type in “my docu”, hit tab, and then type in “my musi” and hit tab, Launchy will switch into browsing mode. Any directory or shortcut to a directory can convert into browsing mode.

Calculator plugin

A very simple calculator supporting +, -, *, /, and parentheses

Web plugin

Perform Web Searches: Launchy now supports the following search keywords: google, msn, yahoo, live, weather, amazon, wikipedia, dictionary, thesaurus, imdb, netflix, and msdn websearch. Type in any of these keywords, hit tab, type in your search query, and hit enter!

Launch Webpages: Type in the url such as ‘www.launchy.net’ or ‘http://www.launchy.net’ and hit enter

Terry Thibodeau's Blog : Launchy, hacks

New Launchy version / add missing shortcut keys