Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Productivity, Freeware, Open Source
Hotkeys - Today's Free File
by Jason Clarke Feb 24th 2006
We recently went through a phase of showing a number of different application launchers. I thought we were done with
that, at least for awhile, until DownloadSquad reader Martin submitted this utility through our tip form. Dubbed
simply (and accurately) Hotkeys, this utility is pretty
fantastic.
Like most hotkey configuration utilities, Hotkeys allows the user to setup specific key combinations to launch applications, switch between open instances of a running application, control volume (via an add-on) and even remap your Caps Lock key to be a Windows key. But where Hotkeys shines is in how it is configured; setting up a new hotkey is a matter of displaying the on-screen keyboard, and dragging and dropping a shortcut to the key you would like to use to launch it. This in and of itself is pretty great, but they've taken this visual aspect a step further.
One of the reasons most people don't bother to learn hotkeys is that they simply can't remember them long enough to stick into their long-term memory. Hotkeys helps you out with this by simply showing the on-screen keyboard with icons representing each configured hotkey when the user holds down the Windows key for more than 3 seconds. In practice what this means is that when you know the key combination you need, Hotkeys stays out of your way and is very fast. But when you realize you can't remember the key combination, by the time you've decided you need to look for another way to launch the application, the on-screen keyboard has popped up showing you what you needed to know.
Did I mention that the visuals are very appealing? Hotkeys is a product of qliner software, who have decided to release Hotkeys as an open-source project.
With Halloween fast approaching, it's a great time to get in some practice defending your territory against zombies. In Graveyard Shift, you take aim at zombies and other creepy-crawlies, blasting them into splatters of cartoony green guts. It's a casual first-person shooter, and it's very easy to get the hang of - use the mouse to aim, click to fire. Graveyard Shift has at least 15 levels, and it might even have some secret stages I haven't unlocked yet.
They key to getting good at Graveyard Shift is learning to use ...
