SlickRun

[Tinman57]

  I've been using SlickRun for over 6 months now, and I don't know how I ever lived without it.
  SlickRun is a free floating command line utility for Windows. SlickRun gives you almost instant access to any program or website. SlickRun allows you to create command aliases (known as MagicWords), so C:\Program Files\Outlook Express\msimn.exe becomes MAIL.
Enter a web URL into SlickRun and it will launch your browser and navigate to the specified address. Run multiple programs in a few keystrokes, jot a note, look up a definition... SlickRun is the most natural way to interact with your computer. 

  Unlike a hotkey program that has limits, with SlickRun you hit the Windows & Q keys and a floating command line, which is totally configurable, comes up.  Now all you have to do is type in the first letter of the program you want to run (or more letters, depending on how many programs that start out with the same letters) and it automatically fills in the rest of the name for you, hit enter and your program is ran.  You can even configure it to play any sound when a program is ran.  (Mine is configured to say "Program loaded and ready")

  I gave up all the hotkey programs I have ever used for this.  SlickRun will never run out of hotkeys, because there are none, the first to three letters that you type will run the program you want.

  And best of all, it's free, Fast and tiny, only 170Kb.  The Bayden website has several more freebies, but I haven't checked any of them out.

System Requirements
Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista
32 mb memory
2 mb disk space

Find it here:
http://www.bayden.com/SlickRun/

[mouser]

SlickRun is a good program, but while you're checking out SlickRun, make sure you check out our own Find and Run Robot (FARR):



Version 2 of Find and Run Robot has been in *heavy* development over the last 2 months and is bursting at the seems with new features, including plugins (see this thread for info on how to request a download link for version 2).

Note: there are now a ton of programs to do this kind of thing and the FARR help file has links to every single one i know about.

[cnewtonne]

I used slickrun a while ago for more than a year. It certainly is a good app but development is painfully slow if not halted altogether. Not sure if things have changed since then.

[Ruffnekk]

It sounds like SlickRun is exactly like my Fixed Run Dialog application. You might want to give it a try to compare them

[iphigenie]

I think one of the differences between the version of FARR that I have tried and slickrun is that slickrun can open particular web pages or documents, whereas from what I could try FARR just starts programs.

Farr seems to run off a database of "what an executable name could be for" whereas slickrun is for the most part hand-configured. As a result farr works out of the box, whereas slickrun needs configuring. But slickrun allows for its use as a proper command line, to an extent, as well as an app starter tool, which i don't think is the case with farr (i'm sure you'll correct me, its very possible i only used 5% of what farr could do)

It did cause a bit of a slowdown on my computer, but that was not really the software as much as the graphical transparency effects which seem to totally baffle my poor radeon 9800 (the same as the floating windows of bitdefender or taskbar bubbles. All slow my machine and make any game pretty much unplayable while they appear)

[mouser]

FARR is quite adept at opening documents, conducting website searches, working with clipboard, etc., plus a ton more things

(make sure you request an early preview of version 2 by sending me an email or private forum message if you want to preview the new features).

[f0dder]

It did cause a bit of a slowdown on my computer, but that was not really the software as much as the graphical transparency effects which seem to totally baffle my poor radeon 9800 (the same as the floating windows of bitdefender or taskbar bubbles. All slow my machine and make any game pretty much unplayable while they appear)

-iphigenie

A R9800 is a pretty darn capable card, and something like simple transparency shouldn't trouble it at all

[iphigenie]

I agree f0dder, but fact is, it does 

If i have a game in a window - and I usually have them in a window so i can do other things as well, say run sysadmin tasks in ssh or instant messenger etc. and any transparency effect happens - a bubble message from the system tray, say, or a skin effect, or someone sending me an im in skype... the game suddenly jumps to 1fps... Even if i don't have a game in a window, it does cause slowdown. I have had to change what windowsblind skin I use as most of them have transparency now and that made it impossible to play games in a window. I have had no such problem on a notebook with a nvidia card...

I have had other reports saying that this does happen to others and yes, I agree, the card should be able to handle it so clearly it's something in the ATI drivers.

[lanux128]

previously used slickrun but discovering Farr changed all that.. but it's a good program though..

[Nighted]

SlickRun 4.0 is in development, but Eric has been updating the current version lately.

There is now a $D$ macro that is replaced with whatever drive SlickRun is running from. This makes an indispensable portable app even more so. You can type "ww definition" and that word will show up in WordWeb if you have SlickRun configured correctly. I also use it with Locate using ""find".

I'm sure the others are good, but SlickRun does everything I want it to do.

[cnewtonne]

This is how I look at if from an a conceptual level...
There are 2 problems we're faced dealing with programs and files in general...
- finding/launching them in the shortest time/effort possible.
- Organizing them.
FARR is the only one I've seen that handles both with most efficiency. It is not enough for me to launch a program fast as most of these launchers do pretty good. The organization aspect is not any less important and this is why I abandoned TypeAndRun and SlickRun. Often times, I need to know what editors I have and be able to use any on the spot. Another example is to know what search engines I have and use any as the the need dictates right then. This organizational aspect is overlooked by command line tools which is the primary focus of their GUI counterparts via the use of folders and trees. FARR came with the concept of aliases where you can group your files and even sub-search them, pass arguments to them, and launch dynamically at usage time. Up to this date, I have not seen any command line tool that offers this features with such strength.

[jeff2008]

Hi, in about an year a lot of apps appeared doing the same thing.
You can check here a review about quick launch apps.

[tide]

I've been using SR for a very long time! I still use it but I lost confidence in one of its handy features. It has a "JOT" command that lets you type quick notes. I used it to save things like passwords, phone numbers and so on.

One day, as I was typing, I hit some key or keys by mistake (maybe the CTRL key was involved) and, to my astonishment, all of my notes were immediately trashed. I was given no option to confirm that I  wanted to delete them. They were just gone with no backup. The worst part was that it was impossible to recover them.

IMHO, there should be no way for that to happen.

[rjbull]

You can check here a review about quick launch apps.

-jeff2008 (January 19, 2009, 01:15 PM)

A list of just five apps with one screenshot apiece and no comments scarcely qualifies as a review...  Doesn't even mention Colibri, Executor or MCL, to name but three more.

[rjbull]

SR ... has a "JOT" command ... all of my notes were immediately trashed.

-tide (January 20, 2009, 03:05 AM)

You might want to look at Horst Schaeffer's MemPad with "Pages locked by default" in Settings.  You'd probably want to set up an SR alias to run it, and it wouldn't be quite as seamless,  but it should keep your notes more securely.  And make sure you back everything up... 

[tide]

rj,

Thanks for the tip. MemPad looks good - functional, small footprint, customizable. We'll see how it works out.