Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Productivity, Microsoft, How-Tos
Forget Launchers, Just Do It With Windows! - How To
by Lee Mathews Aug 21st 2008
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.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Halo2Master said 10:45AM on 8-21-2008
Thats a cool post, thanks. The only thing I would say is that, compared to something like Launchy, there is a lot of setup here.
If you install Launchy, it automatically starts indexing the programs in your start menu, and can easily be told to index other things (like documents, etc) in other places. No edits of path variables, copying of shortcuts, setting up of hotkeys, etc. It basically works "out of the box".
There are of course advantages to using the built-in run box, like avoiding running another program that can use system resources. Still though, I have been happy with Launchy.
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Alex M said 11:04AM on 8-21-2008
And compared to Enso, Launchy requires a lot of setup, too. Of course, Enso is in development limbo now :(
Kevin Rossen said 10:56AM on 8-21-2008
I stopped reading the instructions after the first two paragraph. As Halo2Master pointed out there is a lot of setup required to make this work. Also, do you have to manually add shortcuts every time you install something? That's a pain.
There are two things that Launchy does that I don't think your setup will. First, it interprets what you're typing in without having to fully spell it out. For example, when I want to run Notepad++ all I have to type is "+" and launchy gives me it as the top choice.
The other feature that Launchy has is the ability to add plugins. I've created a shortcut to my work's web-based email in launchy. All I have to type in is "v" and it takes me there.
Of course for people who are VERY conscious about system performance this could be a good option. But for me, it's worth the 13,736K of memory to have Launchy running. I use it ALL THE TIME!!!
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Lee Mathews said 11:10AM on 8-21-2008
It looks like a lot of work, but it's really not - keep reading and try it. It's basic Windows stuff, but I tried to be as demonstrative as possible ;-)
ben said 10:39AM on 8-22-2008
You can accomplish all of those things you listed with this method. For instance the web-email can be accomplished with a shortcut to that specific web page.
Also it really isn't that complicated to setup.
Ben Carlson said 11:04AM on 8-21-2008
Maybe this accomplishes the same thing, and if it does it sounds way easier:
1) CTRL+R: Type ".." without the ", just two periods.
2) Navigate to your folder
3) Copy any shortcut in there, F2 to rename it to whatever yo uwant
And you're done. Now just CTRL+R and type in whatever shortcuts you renamed in that folder.
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Amit said 4:33AM on 8-22-2008
Dont you mean Windows+R.?
mskadu said 11:07AM on 8-21-2008
Agree with Halo2Master here. I am happy investing resources in a install and let it work automatically detect new applications instead of doing this everytime. A near idea though :) I still use the Run box, though a lot less after launchy.
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TheOneAndOnlyJH said 11:13AM on 8-21-2008
I've been doing this the simple way for years now.
-First make a folder of all the shortcuts you want and rename them as you wish. (ie: Moz for mozilla, fox for FireFox, etc...)
-Then, simply copy all of those shortcuts directly into the c:\Windows\Sytem 32\ folder (directly there, NOT in a subfolder).
-They launch out of the run dialog exactly as described here, only no variables to fool around with.
-Save the folder you copied to a spare drive for when you reformat your computer and then just copy them into 'System 32' again. You can also add it to your taskbar as a toolbar as described in the article.
A few notes on shortcuts:
-Capitals don't matter, it will run whether you say FireFox or firefox.
-If you use it often, give it a simple shortcut, like 'FF' or "Fox" for FireFox. 'DL' opens my DownLoad Accelerator, and it's easy to remember. (Likewise, AV->Antivirus)
-For programs you use less often, you can give it the exact name so it's easier to remember. (Like PowerPoint or Mathmatica)
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ILAMtitan said 12:00PM on 8-21-2008
Rather than messing with environment variables (which require a reboot), you can just drop a shortcut to the app into "c:\windows\system32"
You can also rename the shortcut so you can enter whatever you want in the run box to open it up.
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Ben said 10:42AM on 8-22-2008
Changing the path environment variable does not require a reboot
James said 12:02PM on 8-21-2008
Of course, none of this is as quick and easy as just using the damn Quicklaunch bar that's built in for precisely this sort of thing, or using normal Vista start menu where you can type a few letters and filter all your shortcuts at once. I'm just sayin'.
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TheOneAndOnlyJH said 11:31PM on 8-21-2008
I still use the quick launch bar, but once you get over 10 programs, it gets cluttered, and it's just as bad as the Start Menu. With this, it's all nice and tidy in my head.
As for the Vista filter, I'm still on XP, so once I upgrade I'll look into it. Habit may keep me using the same technique though, as it's all ingrained in my head.
For other quick launches, my program of choice is ComfortKeys. It's not free, but I have the whole suite and it's very helpful in my book.
Mark Dean said 12:20PM on 8-21-2008
Or if you have vista, you can use 'Winkey + 1-9' to pen any of your quick launch icons. E.g if I had firefox the furthest left, I would use 'Winkey + 1'
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Jeff said 3:58PM on 8-21-2008
LOL....I've been doing this for years...never thought of creating blog for it...great job...
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Elphizmo said 10:05AM on 8-22-2008
Like Jeff I've been doing this for years, long before programs like Launchy became popular (on the PC at least).
I'm a control freak when it comes to my computer so this method suits me perfectly.
Also saves on yet another indexing application running in the background.
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Mehmet Yilmaz said 5:36PM on 8-22-2008
I've been using this method since 2001. I was thinking I was the only one using this :)
I've tried all other launchers but this one is the best method. It's very easy to use. One time setup and you save a lot time
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scottyjay said 5:56PM on 8-22-2008
This is good for me because installing software at work is frowned upon. However, it doesn't seem to work for internet shortcuts. Any ideas?
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nolan said 2:56AM on 8-23-2008
An easier way is to simply add C:\Documents and Settings\username\Start menu to the path file,so everything that is in the start menu get indexed :)
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Lukasz said 8:07AM on 8-23-2008
I've been using it for a quite a while now - but what I did was to add Quick Launch dir to the PATH variable - just to keep the system clean - if you've got one dir with shortcuts, why make another one? :)
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