Thread: Share those tiny little (or mighty big) programs you could not live without.

The clue's in the title.

I'll start off by endorsing Launchy. It's a keystroke launcher for Windows, similar to Katapult and whatnot on other systems.

It's tiny and fantastic. Basically you press alt-space and a tiny window comes up. Type in a letter or two, and it guesses what you are trying to launch. It also learns from your previous choices:






(Uh... Firefox )

Anyway... it can even be used as a file navigation tool... no more My Computer, and with the proper plug-in, it even supports arithmetic, so no more calc. I haven't used the start menu in months nor have I clicked any desktop icon (nor had any icons there lol).

It's weird for half and hour. But after then, you're entirely dependent on it. I find myself pressing alt+space on other computers and being briefly perplexed.

So, yeah. Share the apps that you could not live without.

I don't go to My Computer...everything I have is in my Start menu programs, neatly organised into directories and subdirectories where needed.

I think it's faster to click Start and do a few smooth mouse movements than type something out simply because it takes your hands away from the mouse to the keyboard and then back again, so typing speed doesn't even matter much.

Ah, but I can't live without IrfanView.
Quick file saving, resizing and the most optimal size/quality optimisation I know of.

I adore my custom file system. I use explorer on both of my OS's. I find launcher programs boring. And stupid.

Originally Posted by Seismosaur

I adore my custom file system. I use explorer on both of my OS's. I find launcher programs boring. And stupid.

Custom file system? Like... SeismoNTFS or ext2saur?

Originally Posted by Identity X

Custom file system? Like... SeismoNTFS or ext2saur?

Um. No. lol

I use the windowz button and type what I want, same one button and type method you use - I am on Vista see

Anyway, my programz I cannot live without:

• Photoshop
• Dreamweaver
• Flash
• word, excel, access, visio
• captivate
• Firefox :p

Originally Posted by Merlock

I think it's faster to click Start and do a few smooth mouse movements than type something out simply because it takes your hands away from the mouse to the keyboard and then back again, so typing speed doesn't even matter much.

I find the exact opposite most productive. I keep my hands on the keyboard whenever possible, which includes for launching desktop applications. Grod mentioned Quicksilver, which I use all the time. Launchy sounds like the Windows equivalent (but without the extra features of QS).

Originally Posted by Identity X

Might not be an app, but it has the power of one: YubNub! It's the quickest way to navigate the Web, having never needed to go to any home page ever again and simple typing in "yt hello" to search YouTube or "ih omfg warez" for IsoHunt. Commands exist or most sites. You can even add you own (increasing sophisticated) commands.

I have it set to the default search engine in Opera, which among other things allows me to type queries directly into the address bar. Woo! (As a side-note, searches can be created in Opera by right-clicking on any field and choosing "Create Search...")

I also depend upon this functionality. Firefox and Camino have it builtin (they call it keyword searching). I myself use a plugin for Safari 3 called Sogudi (Safari Sogudi --- "So far so good" ), which makes my life a whole lot easier.

Originally Posted by Replicon

There's all kinds of stuff I like to use, but really, given a good scripting language and a bunch of command line tools... you can make your own "awesome indispensible little toys"

Truer words have never been spoken (outside my immediate vicinity )