I’m an Apple guy. I love my iPhone. More than that I love my iPad. Even more than that I love my MacBook. I have gotten so accustomed to the little nuances and bells/whistles that makes using a Mac so simple. One of my loudest of whistles is Quicksilver. This brilliant, two-fingered application (and more) launcher has left me spoiled from ever wanting to folder grind just to start a program.
Unfortunately, I am one of the many MacHeads that is required to use a Windows PC at the office. A Windows PC for which a version of Quicksilver does not exist. I was forced to stumble through the start menu in a black and white style of frustration as seen only in infomercials. This may seem a little dramatic but I work in the IT department for a fairly large company and time is usually a factor when problem solving. Time that is wasted navigating a cluttered All Programs list.
Then I found Launchy. I found this little slice of open source heaven after an overly frustrating moment at work. I haven’t seen my programs list since. Using Launchy is easy. Assign an easily rememberable keystroke (I prefer the Alt – Space default) and when pressed a simple command line-like window pops up in the middle of your screen. Your program is launched as soon as you can smash its name on your keyboard. To make sure you are opening the right program, Launchy gives you an icon preview of the application it thinks you are trying to open. Not the right application? Hit the down arrow key to see related searches. Very Quicksilverish.
All this Mac pizzazz in a Windows environment does require a little bit of setup. Open Launchy and hit the (Mac inspired) gear in the top right of the window to enter the setup screen. There you can configure Launchy to search any number of folders for programs or even limit it to only specific programs you want. There are also plugins to use which you can assign keyword to different actions. There is also a bank of fancy skins to change the appearance.
Even if you are not a Mac, Launchy is still a great resource for any profession that requires quick access to programs. If you have any other PC to Mac assimilating tips feel free to leave a comment.
By Christian MacLean
ElectricSproket 
I am shocked you can use mac apps on a pc foundation. I am wondering if you can do this with any pc operating system? I would be curious to know, because there are some mac apps i think are really cool.
Thanks for your comment. Like you we are surprised as well about this cross platform app. We learn of new things all the time here and are glad to bring them to our readers. As for Launchy the available platforms are Windows Mac and Linux. We hope to find more gems like this to post here at ElectricSproket.
Hola, muy bueno el contenido del post guay
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Nice find! I just installed Windows 8 CP on a Boot Camp partition the other day, and this is exactly what I’ve been looking for.
Good job on the new theme, too – it looks great!
Reblogged this on OMG OS X! and commented:
Great Windows alternative to Spotlight!
Wow that was unusual. I just wrote an really long comment but after I clicked submit my comment didn’t appear. Grrrr… well I’m not writing all that over again. Anyways, just wanted to say fantastic blog!
Incredible! This blog looks just like my old one! It’s on a completely different topic but it has pretty much the same layout and design. Outstanding choice of colors!