AutoHotkey Community

I think I've tried about a dozen and my best 3 are in this order
FARR(find and Run Robot)
Keybreeze
SlickRun

I like FARR as it has quite a few plugins and also uses little memory (the least of all I tried)
I like keybreeze as it is second in memory usage and has a few cool features, I like the sticky notes/note timer features and the set text imput as well as macro recording built in.
I tried launchy but found it very limited, yet it is so popular!

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"Choose your parents wisely"

PopSel, small and easy.
Sometimes Qsel and keep a category open.

I think MemPad and minipad2 are also capable of starting programs but did not try it yet, programmers and having time...

Helloworld:

I have tried several different keyboard launchers (certainly not all of them) and have settled on Keybreeze. The reason is that I also extensively use Autohotkey and Everything in conjunction with it. While FARR is certainly a great accomplishment, for me nothing can improve on Keybreeze which I use extensively with AHK and Everything. To explain:

1. You can launch any program (or AHK script) using simple aliases in Keybreeze. I really like the fact that I use my own 'hacked' aliases so that my most used programs always are ‘first’ on the list (so most of the time I don’t even have to look at the list).
2. The elegant weighing in FARR, to me, is far less useful then it appears. The reason is that the vast majority of times I use a key launcher I already know what I want to launch (check how many times you don’t already know what you want to launch!). So constant shifting of items in a list takes extra mental effort. For example, if I want to launch Everything, I just use a Keybreeze alias such as ‘ev erything’ (note the space) so it pops up first every time. In Keybreeze I would simply hit ‘Ctrl+;’ (I did add a Ctrl to the Keybreeze hotkey) to invoke Keybreeze and then enter ‘ev{Enter}’ to launch Everything (this is really instantaneous). For anything fancy, I just use a simple Autohotkey script as a ‘buffer’ program and pass any needed parameters from Keybreeze (however, if you pass params to an AHK script it needs to be compiled otherwise Keybreeze will not pass them).
3. As for pluggins, most ahk scripts (or any commandline programs) become immediate ‘pluggins’ to Keybreeze, which accepts parameters added to any command.
4. You can also enter folders or web address as items to use.
5. Keybreeze allows shortcut ‘function’ letters that can easily be used for web searches.
6. Keybreeze does do a one time scan of your program files (or other directories), but I never use it since I want to know what goes into its search universe. For anything else (including to find obscure rarely used programs), I just have a hotkey to invoke ‘Everything’ and use that (e.g., entering ‘c:\ \prog fil (the programs partial name) .exe’ into Everything will do the trick to find any program you want. You can even write a quick autohotkey script to do this but I don’t bother). What could be easier?
7. The reality is that many options can be time wasters if you let them be so. The tools: Keybreeze, Everything, and AHK are all you will ever need to do anything you will ever want to do, and as quickly and efficiently as possible.

I am very aware others can have the same functionality using other combinations of tools, including FARR. I am very happy with the above three tools and see no way to improve on them. So the choice is yours. Try different combinations and see what sticks

Thanks for the reply. As my post said - at the moment I am rating FARR and keybreeze the best. I cant remember how many I tried but all the top ones, Like Launchy, Collibri, Executor etc.
I like tht Farr uses the least memory. I am just testing Keybreeze now and really like the sticky notes built in. I tried the portble version and found tht sometimes the initiating key (;) would stop working so I switched to the fully installed version but this has happend once so far. I have had no trouble with the FARR portable.
I can easily call ahk files with FARR and there is an everything plugin which works well with everything.
If I have an item that alwys shows up in the results that I dont like I just set it in Options/pattern scoring to a minus score eg.
*office* -300
that way all office programs would come way down the list(off the screen)
WEll as I say I am still testing them both, I do like products that are well supported though and hve a thriving forum. FARR seems to have a much more vibrant community and different people comming out with new plugins.
It also seems to be under quick development, Keybreeze seems to have stopped?
hmm, after further use I dont like the way Keybreez'es memory usage goes up to 11mb running in the background, FARR always stays below 2mb.
since they spend most of the time running in the background waiting to be called upon this is important. Guess I will stick with FARR and do without the sticky note option.

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"Choose your parents wisely"

I use an HTA with 83 clearly labeled, clickable buttons (and room for lots more).

Styled with CSS -- window and button background is black, button text is green (#66FF00). Easy on the eyes and one click -- it just doesn't get any faster.

could you post the code? I'm lazy so I could just change yours!!

Well, why, Launchy? I use the skin below.

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~sumon • Appifyer• AHK Nova halted • Recommended: AHK_L (Why?)

@Nor 'easter
I am just trying the built in ahk menu coding this is a screen shot of it so far
http://img713.imageshack.us/img713/888/img0001lbg.jpg

@Sumon of the ones I tried Launchy was my least favourite and what a resource hog!
my 3 favs at the moment are
FARR
Executor
Keybreeze

screen shot of Executor - you can have a minimal gui like launchyif you like
http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/1186/img0009gn.jpg

- Did you try 320mph (open) / nDroid (closed source)? (AutoHotkey script)
- Minimalistic: Jump http://www.autohotkey.com/forum/topic70328.html

YEP, by the way Ndroid site is down so you cant get it any more

Would you change the Mona Lisa or the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel???

edit: 84 clearly labeled, clickable buttons (and counting)

I believe you can still download at several software sites such as download.com.

+1 for jump. I use it alot and modified it to use ny own font and everything else to custom preference. It's really quite simple to modify also.

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Disclaimer: I'm not an expert by any means; I just try to help out where I can.

Someone should write a script to convert slickrun cfgs (which are in ini format) to jump so people can make the switch from slickrun to ahk with all the advantages
(Don't know what format Type and Run uses, but it is similar to slickrun http://www.totalcmd.net/plugring/TypeAndRun.html, docs are sparse and mostly in Russian if I recall correctly)

I'm assuming this is purely ego, but in my experience, the best launchy program, or at least the one I like the most, is the one I made. E-Shortcuts

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www.AutoHotkey.net/~Eedis
I love my wife and daughter so much.