Author Topic: AppRocket: Quicksilver for Windows (Read 38,019 times)

dnm · « **on:** July 15, 2005, 12:33 AM »

Found via Lifehacker <http://www.lifehacker.com/software/productivity/approcket-tutorial-106642.php> (itself found via 43 Folders, which I noticed just popped up here on the forums), AppRocket <http://www.candylabs.com/approcket/> is the closest thing to Quicksilver <http://quicksilver.blacktree.com/> (which is for OS X only) available on Windows.

I've wanted something like this for a while on Windows, especially since I've been using Quicksilver on my Mac for quite a while. ActiveWords was the program that usually got the nod, but when I tried using it, I felt it got in my way too much. With a key macro program like KeyText and a incremental-search app/file/action launched like AppRocket, life is good.

mouser · « **Reply #1 on:** July 15, 2005, 12:38 AM »

i'll just note that Find&Run Robot, made by me and on this site, is a direct competitor to AppRocket

not to knock approcket, just to let you know that you might want to try the freeware Find and Run Robot on this site.

ps. the help file for F&R robot lists AppRocket and a ton of other similar tools.

ps2. we are currently discussing features to add to F&R in the forum dedicated to it, and i am keenly interested in hearing any features of AppRocket that you would like to see in F&R.

dnm · « **Reply #2 on:** July 15, 2005, 12:45 AM »

I tried Find and Run Robot a while back, and one of my issues was the use of the Break key as the key that brings Find and Run Robot to the foreground. If I remember correctly, I looked for a way to configure that and didn't find it. Break was an unnatural and hard key for me to hit on my laptop, and doing so consistently would have been a serious pain; I wanted to map it to Alt+Space, which happens to be AppRocket's default (I only recently started using AppRocket though, so I didn't know that at the time).

I think I had some issues with the search and weighting implementation, but that may simply be because I didn't play with it/use it long enough. I don't remember specifics about what I found weird.

I'll download Find and Run Robot again and give it a try while I use AppRocket and let you know what I think.

mouser · « **Reply #3 on:** July 15, 2005, 12:57 AM »

customized hotkey will be in next version, probably very very soon.

i really hope those of you who currently prefer other similar programs will help me by describing things that you like better in the other programs - it will help me make F&R as good as i can.

F&R forum discussion:
http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?board=12.0

m_s · « **Reply #4 on:** September 30, 2005, 04:01 PM »

Hey, Mouser: I've been thinking of writing a mini-review of AppRocket - interested? At any rate you'd hear what one punter likes about it... To be fair, I would likely run it alongside F&RR for a few days to see which I prefer - which might help you in developing F&RR - again, at least so far as this one punter goes.

mouser · « **Reply #5 on:** September 30, 2005, 04:04 PM »

definitely go for it!
it would be nice to hear where F&R is better and where it is worse.
(maybe it's time i updated the F&R help file to indicate how to do the new things like using paste command and regular expression stuff..)

m_s · « **Reply #6 on:** September 30, 2005, 04:07 PM »

Cool, will give it some thought and get them both up and running

jpfx · « **Reply #7 on:** September 30, 2005, 11:11 PM »

any review of approcket needs to consider the ridiculous amount of memory it consumes and the probability that there is no ongoing development.

zridling · « **Reply #8 on:** October 01, 2005, 03:36 AM »

m_s, write the review! I like AppRocket too, but jp is right, no new versions in a long time. Then came F&R Robot and haven't looked back.

m_s · « **Reply #9 on:** October 01, 2005, 09:24 AM »

The memory usage has been what chased me off AppRocket every other time I've looked at it - and there have been a few, because it is such an atrractive-looking piece of software. I have used ObjectDock for most of the last year, and been fairly happy with it, but I've noticed over the last few months that I have been using the Quick Launch toolbar more and more, so I switched off ObjectDock a few days ago.

So, right now, AppRocket is running at 14,400k, but F&RR is not far behind at 13,512k - ah, but I just opened and then closed the F&RR window, and wahaaay, it's down to 660k!

m_s · « **Reply #10 on:** October 01, 2005, 03:37 PM »

Okay, I love the compactness and tiny footprint of F&RR - that's so much better than AppRocket. But I really, really like the look of AppRocket, and I'm a bit of a sucker for its slidey drawer - eyecandy, I know, but it's very nice.

And although F&RR is an appealing, compact and elegant design, I find that once it's called up, it's intrusive in a way AR manages not to be - maybe that's simply because it takes up more room before I've even started looking for anything.

At the moment at least, I also find AppRocket is a little quicker - at least I think it is. My impression is that F&RR is looking deeper, but that AR is getting to the right place sooner.

Just playing around with them both at the moment. So far, my impressions are superficial but significant - just love that AppRocket design!

mouser · « **Reply #11 on:** October 01, 2005, 07:07 PM »

it's definitely interesting to hear about impressions like this because it gives me ideas (like maybe having option to have F&R window just a tiny thin bar until you start typing.. but then of course you give up one of the useful features which is to have it start showing a list of recently launched apps).

keep in mind one thing about F&R speed -

1) F&R searches the directories you specify (start menu directory in particular) when you start typing, and it keeps a list of the last 50 or 100 files/programs you have launched in the past for superfast finding. so the FIRST time you find and launch a program it has to find it by searching directories, and after that it will find it right away. So basically for files you find more than once F&R should be super super fast, but the first time you search for it it might take a little longer.

2) i think you are, but make sure you are setting F&R tray to start using the "main application (runs faster)" mode; the other tray mode is being made obsolete (its slower to startup but uses less memory - and as features are getting added it's no longer practical to support this mode).

m_s · « **Reply #12 on:** October 01, 2005, 07:27 PM »

I love the idea of F&RR being a small bar to start with (my preference is for a skinnable bar, or one that responds to WindowBlinds themes) and then expanding as more links are found - as AR does. With AR, you can set the size of the drop-down list, either by dragging-and-dropping it, or in preferences.

Then, to your other points:
1) That's interesting - I didn't know that... Thanks.
2) Yes, I am running in 'Use main application' mode.

mouser · « **Reply #13 on:** October 01, 2005, 07:55 PM »

i got my hands dirty with skinning on the last program added to the site (PopUp Wisdom), and so i could probably add OPTIONAL skinning to F&R with very little effort. and starting out as a minimal height bar and expanding is probably pretty easy to do as well..

m_s · « **Reply #14 on:** October 01, 2005, 08:08 PM »

Woowoo! Let me know if you'd like anyone to test it... I agree it should be optional, because I know some people really dislike skinned apps - and I expect the main reason is bloat. But you managed to do it really well in Popup Wisdom.

mouser · « **Reply #15 on:** October 01, 2005, 08:20 PM »

i consider skinning for F&R of the lowest priorities and i won't add it if i can't add it in a way that it has absolutely no impact on speed when disabled, and very minimal impact on exe size (maybe 100k-200k or so).

m_s · « **Reply #16 on:** October 01, 2005, 09:08 PM »

Great - look forward to seeing whatever you come up with. And I quite agree with your prioritisation of skinning: it's nice; we can live without it.

elpresi · « **Reply #17 on:** October 02, 2005, 12:24 AM »

Hi all,
I just discovered this fantastic web site and am going thru the forums.
Anyway I just noticed this topic and wondered why no one has mentionned KbStart:
http://www.kbstart.com/
Not that I have tried AppRocket, but a while back I read that Kbstart does use fewer resources than Approcket.

mouser · « **Reply #18 on:** October 02, 2005, 12:56 AM »

thanks elpresi, i had not heard of KbStart before, i'll add it to the list of related programs in the Find&Run Robot help file.

mouser · « **Reply #19 on:** October 02, 2005, 05:48 AM »

Find&Run Robot 1.07.14 BETA

http://www.donationcoder.com/Beta/FindAndRunRobot.exe

Note you cannot disable skinning in this version yet, so don't install if you hate skins (though you can always reinstall older version over this one if you don't like it). If we decide to keep skinning, you will be able to 1) disable it 2) choose from TONS of skins.

CHANGE LIST
Version 1.07.14 - Oct 02, 2005
· when remove-duplicates option is enabled, shortcuts which differ only in arguments are now treated as non-duplicates.
· added auto-sizing window option (see config panel2 and disable "Blank search shows files from launch history" if you want smallest bar window on launch).
· preliminary test of skinning.

NOTE: to make the autosize work, see picture below for options to set:

pics:

mouser · « **Reply #20 on:** October 02, 2005, 07:54 AM »

I've updated it to v 1.07.15:
http://www.donationcoder.com/Beta/FindAndRunRobot.exe

For 5mb worth of extra skins (about 61 skins):
http://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Mouser/findrun/downloads/Skins.zip
(same skin files used in PopUp Wisdom), unpack into Find&Run Skins directory,

CHANGE LOG:
Version 1.07.15 - Oct 02, 2005
· Full skin selection plus ability to disable skinning
· Setting transparency to 0 now changes window mode to non-transparent (better for capturing screenshots of it)
· Reorganized some preference dialog pages.

m_s · « **Reply #21 on:** October 02, 2005, 09:24 AM »

Mouser, you're amazing! Haven't run it yet - just downloading it now...

elpresi · « **Reply #22 on:** October 02, 2005, 09:35 AM »

Hi Mouser,
I just downloaded and tried F&RRobot, and I love it!
I can´t compare right now, but from what I can recall, it does seem to be faster and lighter on resources than KbStart.
Thanks for a great app.

Noel

m_s · « **Reply #23 on:** October 02, 2005, 09:36 AM »

Okay, have run it now. Let me put this a little differently: Mouser, you are da Man! You are da Daddy! Brilliant... I'm not sure I'll bother with reviewing AppRocket now.

mouser · « **Reply #24 on:** October 02, 2005, 09:37 AM »

you have to so we can find out what other approcket features that F&R needs.