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Author Topic: Testing FARR alternative "Wox"  (Read 4275 times)

ayryq

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Testing FARR alternative "Wox"
« on: August 23, 2016, 08:33 AM »
I know this has been mentioned before in this forum. I have just switched one of my PCs to Wox (http://www.getwox.com/) instead of FARR and I'm testing to see if it works as a substitute. The reason for this change now is that in a recent beta Wox has got Windows 10 "Modern" apps working, which FARR still lacks.

For those who haven't heard of it... Wox pops up a search bar with (by default) the same hotkey as FARR. It requires the search index service of Everything which powers its search results. This means there's a lot of unnecessary results if Everything has indexed your whole hard drive(s), but in my experience the ones I want (generally shortcuts to programs) are sorted to the top. I have it set to show 10 results, but there's an invisible scroll bar which actually gives you the whole list from Everything.

Also, like FARR, previously-run commands are weighted toward the top. So, for example, the first time I typed "irfan" the first result was irfanview-thumbnails and the second result was irfanview. However, after I ran irfanview the first time, the next time those two results were reversed (the one I wanted was at the top).

Like FARR, hitting enter executes the first result. There's no shortcut for subsequent results (I don't think...) like FARR's numpad hotkeys.

Many plugins (like calculator, websearch) are included, others are at their website. There's no analog to FARR's aliases.

There are themes but they are poor compared to FARR.

Wox both appears and displays results faster than FARR. Presumably the Everything index explains the latter advantage.

The Windows 10 "Modern" app support has just been put in beta and it still is glitchy (for example, Calendar brings up Mail and vice versa). That version is 1.3.271 which I found here.

I'm going to stick with it for a few days and see if anything gets in my way, but as a user of FARR that generally left everything stock, ignoring most of the aliases and functions, and as someone who already had Everything running all the time anyhow, I think Wox might take over.

Thanks
Eric

ayryq

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Re: Testing FARR alternative "Wox"
« Reply #1 on: August 24, 2016, 09:03 AM »
Also I should add that every time I say or type "Wox" I picture some sort of Dr. Seuss character. Probably wearing socks and standing on a box.