Launchy 1.0.

PLEASE READ THIS!

When Launchy runs it disappears to the background. You have to press
‘alt+space’ in order to see Launchy. If Launchy is new for you please read the
rest of this short manual.

Welcome
Launchy was first created for my own use, but as my friends and I began to
heavily rely upon it and its lack of cost, I decided to distribute it. It is a work
in progress but don’t let its version number daunt you, it is stable. The official
homepage for Launchy is http://www.launchy.net. If you need help using
Launchy or would like to leave any comments/suggestions please feel free to
post on the forums.

-- Josh Karlin

What is Launchy?
Launchy is the most efficient way to open files, folders, websites, and
programs on your computer. Nobody likes to hunt through the start menu to
find an application, just to find that the application is hidden under some
obscure folder named after a company you have never heard of! Instead,
Launchy is a smart search program which tries to guess which program or file
you are looking for and will launch it when you hit the enter key. It is only
visible when you hit the alt+space key combination; otherwise it hides in the
background. Once you have used it for a few days, it becomes an indispensable
utility for your computer. And it’s free!

How to use Launchy

Launchy installs itself into your Startup folder (it’s buried in your start menu)
and will automatically run every time you log into your computer. Yet, where
is it? Launchy hides in the background until you need it. To bring it to the
foreground type alt+space (hold down the alt key and tap the space bar). At
this point simply begin typing the name of the program you are looking for. Do
not worry about capitalization, punctuation, or even spelling in general.
 Chances are, Launchy knows what you are looking for. Launchy will
show you what it thinks you are looking for in the right hand box, and if it has
found what you want, hit enter to launch that program. If it has not found
what you are looking for stop typing for a second and Launchy will show you a
list of alternative suggestions to choose from. Then hit enter to launch that
program.

If you strike the enter key Launchy will launch the requested program
and then disappear again until you need it next. If you have changed your
mind and do not wish to launch a program, you can hit alt+space to make it
disappear again or you can simply hit the escape key.

If you would like to change the skin, add new directories and file types
for Launchy to scan, or change the hotkey, right click on Launchy anywhere
outside of the text areas.

Adding Directories and Types

If you would like Launchy to index more than the programs in your start menu,
such as folders, mp3s, docs, pdfs, avis, etc.. then this option is for you.

Adding Directories
Right click on Launchy and select directories. Add the directories you would
like Launchy to scan in the box in the left by hitting the “Add” button under it
(1).
Adding Types
You can specify which file types to search for in each directory, such as .mp3 in
your music directory and .jpg in your pictures folder. You can also add file
types that are searched for in all of the directories you have added.

To add a type to a specific directory, write the file type (such as .mp3) in the
box marked (2) in the image and then click the Add button below.

To add a type to all directories, write the file type in the box marked (3) in the
image and then click the Add button below.

The types should be of the form ‘.mp3’ and ‘.exe’ and not ‘*.exe’ or anything
else. If you would like to open folder windows directly from Launchy, check
then add ‘.directory’ to either global or individual directories.

You can rescan your index at any time by right clicking and selecting “Rebuild
Index.”

How to Change the Hotkey

Right click on Launchy anywhere outside of the text areas and choose Hotkey.
From within, choose whichever hotkey suits you. The original is Alt + Space in
case you would like to return to it later.

Skins
It is possible to skin launchy. To create a skin, look in the “Skins” directory
under your installation directory and copy the “Default” skin into a new
directory. Edit the skin.ini file to your liking and replace the images. The ini
files have helpful (though limited) documentation. You can also find new skins
from the main website: http://www.launchy.net/

How to close Launchy

Right click on Launchy anywhere outside of the text areas and select Exit.

Extra Plugin Features

Launchy supports plugins. In “Plugin” directory in your Launchy installation
folder you will find plugins. They are dll files that can be added or removed as
you like. Please close Launchy while adding or removing plugins.

Weby Plugin (weby.dll)

Perform Web Searches: Launchy now supports the following search keywords:
google, msn, yahoo, live, weather, amazon, wikipedia, dictionary, thesaurus,
imdb, netflix, and msdn websearch. Type in any of these keywords, hit tab,
type in your search query, and hit enter!

Add custom web searches: Please see Quicksearches in the Foxy plugin

Launch Webpages: Type in the url such as ‘www.launchy.net’ or

‘http://www.launchy.net’ and hit enter

Foxy Plugin (foxy.dll)

Bookmarks: The Foxy plugin will automatically load your FireFox bookmarks
into the database. Just search for them as you would applications.

Quick searches: Launchy loads Firefox quick searches and will index the
keyword into the database. Use it like you would a web search.

Explory Plugin (explory.dll)

Browse: Type in c: and then hit tab, now type in a couple letters of the next
directory, and hit tab. You can press enter at anytime to launch the currently
selected file or folder. Notice, you must tab after each file/folder.

Browse from shortcut: If you type in “my docu”, hit tab, and then type in “my
musi” and hit tab, Launchy will switch into browsing mode. Any directory or
shortcut to a directory can convert into browsing mode.

Calcy Plugin (calcy.dll)

Calculate: Type in some math.. Launchy will figure out what you want to do.
Warning: This calculator is limited to +,/,-,* and parenthesis.

Advanced Options
USB Stick: If you would like to run Launchy from a USB stick then follow this
procedure:
1. Install Launchy Normally
2. Copy the Launchy directory to your usb stick
3. Run Launchy from the usb stick
4. Select advanced options from the right-click menu
 5. Check the “Portable Mode” box
6. Exit Launchy

Note: Launchy periodically rebuilds the index. If you move from computer to
computer the index might not be reflective of the machine it is currently
residing on. It would be a good idea to right click and “Rebuild Index” when
you plug into a new computer.

Specifying the Number of Suggestions: By default, Launchy suggests 10

alternative files in the dropdown menu after waiting for user input. You can
change the number of suggestions here. To disable the suggestion box
altogether, set this to 0.

Specifying interval between Index Scans: Launchy periodically scans your

computer to update its database. By default, it does so every 20 minutes. You
can change the number of minutes between scans here. Set it to 0 if you only
want to manually rebuild.

Always on Top: If you would like to have Launchy stick permanently on your
desktop, check this option.

Version Information
1.0.0
• Launchy now supports plugins! Check out the “Plugins” folder inside
your Launchy directory, you can add and remove plugins from there
when Launchy is not running. Following are the plugins that come with
Launchy by default, I expect many others to be developed by myself and
the community.
o Explory Plugin: A file explorer for Launchy! Now you can use
launchy to navigate your filesystem. Try typing “c:” then hitting
tab, keep on typing and hitting tab!
o Weby Plugin: Supports launching of url’s and adds quick launches
for “Google” “MSN” “Amazon” and many others, try typing
“google” then hit tab then type in a search query
o Foxy Plugin: With foxy your Firefox bookmarks will be added to
the Launchy index. Even better, your firefox keywords are added
to Launchy and behave like quick launches do for Weby. Not sure
what firefox keywords are? Go here:
http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/smart-keywords.html
(Note some firefox quick searches are currently incompatible and
will not be indexed)
o Calcy Plugin: Never have a calculator handy? With Calcy,
Launchy knows when you’re trying to do math and will display the
result in the suggestions box. For instance, try typing in “(4 + 3) *
 12” and 84 will result in the suggestions box. Support for + - * /
()’s currently exists.
• Now Ctrl+Backspace deletes a word at a time and Alt+Backspace clears
the text
• Too many bug fixes to count or remember, good riddance!

1.0.0 Beta
• Launchy displays the full path and icon to files in the dropdown
suggestions box.
• Filetypes can now be specifically set for each directory to index
• Always on top mode added
• USB Mode added
• Configurable index scan interval
• Configuration files moved to docs and
settings\username\Applications\Launchy\ which is friendlier to users with
limited access accounts.
• Bug Fixes:
o The Launchy startup on auto-login crash should be gone
o No longer presumes icon index is located in C:\
o Hotkey window now initializes with current hotkey
o Configuration files now less likely to be corrupted due to restart
during saving

0.9.6
• Launchy can now index directory names as well as files!
• A utilities folder with useful shortcuts is now included, it adds standard
control panel programs, system shutdown / logoff/ reboot, and special
folders such as My Documents, and My Music.
• Unicode now fully supported. All character sets should work.
• The old style of matching by association is completely removed, it’s now
entirely based upon frequency of use
• Now has a “please donate” dialog that appears only once, sorry but I’ve
got to make a living!
• Bug Fixes:
o Fixed up/down keys causing a dropdown when there are no
matches
o Saves settings to ini directly after changes are made in case of
system crash
o Spaces are now ignored in user input, making it possible to search
for “Johnny_cash.mp3” with “john cash”

0.9.3
 • Once again, Launchy is prettier. The combobox has vanished.
• New skins! Please see the Author.txt file in each skin’s directory to give
credit where credit is due.
• Bug Fixes:
o Sometimes windows shutdown prevented the database from being
saved. Now it saves more frequently just in case.
o Arbitrarily long file extensions are now allowed, so you can filter
on .mpeg for instance and not just .mpg
o A couple of minor graphical glitches have been fixed
• Development Environment:
o The Boost library is no longer needed to compile Launchy, I’ve
copied the necessary Boost header files for smart pointers into
the project.

0.9.2
• Frequency sorting took priority over exact matches, fixed.

0.9.1
• Search results sorted by frequency of use now.
• Configuration files moved to the Users subdirectory of your installation.
This means that your configuration file will start fresh.. sorry! It also
means that Launchy can be run from a memory stick.
• You can now remove the start menu from the directories you scan if you
so desire.
• Bug fixes, hooray!

0.9
• Alpha channel support! Launchy is sexier now.
• New skinning options.
• Lots of skins!
• Minor bug fixes.
• Ability to rescan index on demand.
• This is a feature complete version of Launchy 1.0 From now until then I
will only post bug fixes.

0.81
• New installer, after this release upgrades should be much better.
• Added icon support. Now icons are shown as well as the file name. The
visual cue of the icon makes for faster launching. (It’s also prettier)
• The combobox is now a bit more sane. It won’t steal your focus away
when it drops down.
• Launchy will rescan directories on startup as opposed to waiting a couple
of minutes.
0.8
• Launchy now scans user specified directories and stores the results in
a compressed file to make startup faster.
• You can now change the hotkey that activates Launchy
• You can now create/select skins for Launchy
• Launchy searches *much* faster than before, enabling indexing of
thousands of files

0.7 Launchy has memory! It will associate your input with applications.

0.61 Launchy no longer opens all programs maximized.

0.6 This is the first C++ release. As I became frustrated with C#’s large .NET
framework requirements and users lack of desire to install it, I decided to
switch back to the faster language. This release is functionally and
visually equivalent to the 0.5 C# release. The C# CVS version had some
new features that I will soon add to the C++ branch.

0.5 This was the first public release.