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Multi-Launcher == A different kind of program/document/web launcher

Posted: 21 Feb 2017, 21:19
by mtodd
Hello all,

I got an idea from a coworker who is always complaining that we have too many files in too many locations to keep track of. I thought what if a program can track 1) Which applications are used, 2) What documents are being worked on, 3) Where I've been in folders and 4) When (I know, doesn't quite match) I've been browsing around. I am calling it Multi-Launcher as that is its primary purpose.

It currently tracks all of these items in four list views that are sorted with the newest activity on top. It is also a mega launcher because all items are double-clickable. It will either launch it or put it on top if a matching window is found. For web pages, the program will crawl through open tabs in all running browsers looking for a match. If no match is found then a new Tab is opened and the URL is pasted into it.

There are two layouts, one with four horizontal Tabs and one with 4 stacked list views. See them below.

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The program gathers information as you work. Tabs or Text headers change color depending on what you are actively doing. If in a browser then URL will highlight. It you are looking through folders then Folders will highlight. Supported browsers are Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Opera and Maxthon.

You can do an incremental Search by typing in the search box. This is where the real power of the program becomes apparent. All of our browsers save history and many applications do also, but, you now have the most recently used programs, documents, folders and URLs at your fingertips. And when you forget a filename or web page, just enter part of its name and you will find it.

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Open Documents are tracked separately and that Tab will highlight as long as an Office type document is open. [Caveat - not all applications expose open documents. For example, Notepad doesn't give out that information. You can get the document title but not its path from the Window Title. To get the full path, the freeware app OpenedFilesView is used in the background to gather open files info. In the program menu that may be turned off and the interval can be set to 3, 5 and 10 seconds. In practice, it doesn't seem to take but 1-2 seconds for it to generate a text file of Open Files. (See http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/opened_files_view.html)

You may right-click one or more items to delete them or filter them. The filter is especially useful for URLs as many web pages do redirects with intermediate page titles. Filters are added into the Multi-Launcher.INI file currently. A window for editing Filters will be added soon. Still testing the scenario. The right-click menu is below. Single clicking on the tray icon does show or hide of the window.

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My Blog page on this application is found here. http://s355751075.onlinehome.us/wh4-a-d ... -launcher/

I am hoping to get feedback from members here. I know I will use this application regularly but it may not be everyone's cup of tea.

What do you think?

Re: WH4 - A different kind of program/document/web launcher

Posted: 21 Feb 2017, 21:21
by guest3456
very interesting

Re: Multi-Launcher == A different kind of program/document/web launcher

Posted: 04 Mar 2017, 16:28
by burque505
mtodd, thank you for your program.
It seems like it may be very useful when I have a lot of Word documents open to switch back and forth.

Re: Multi-Launcher == A different kind of program/document/web launcher

Posted: 05 Mar 2017, 05:38
by ozzii
Where to find the source code?