Launchy

I installed Launchy about a week ago, and it has been working like a charm.

This great little piece of software brings the functionality to your Windows desktop that users of Quicksilver have been enjoying on their Macs for quite a while. In all simplicity, it enables you to operate your computer much more efficiently by popping up a command box upon pressing a chosen keystroke (I prefer Win+Space).

Launchy’s built-in functionality includes launching applications by typing in a part of their name (and it also learns: after a few runs, I can start Firefox with just Win+Space, F, Enter), and opening folders and web pages. It also includes a basic calculator, and the ability to create custom commands.

As an example of custom commands, I have created a command called shutdown that just launches the command “shutdown -s -f -t 0” to quickly shut down the computer.

As a slight downside, as the application has recently reached its 2.0 version, most of its extensions (integrated Windows desktop search, window changing by typing their names, etc.) are not yet compatible with the newest version. However, I hope that most extensions will be available soon as well.

Disabling the desktop cleanup wizard

One of the very annoying “features” of Windows XP is the desktop cleanup wizard, incessantly popping up its balloons telling that you have unused icons on your desktop.

Luckily, this can be switched off, unlike many other balloon popups such as the USB 2.0 balloon. The way to switch the wizard off is also quite simple (though it is a bit difficult to remember where the setting is), unlike the way to turn off the extremely irritating demand of rebooting after a Windows update. (I once found an article describing the process, but its methods did not work. I’ll probably write a follow-up if I can find a working way to stop the nagging.)

To switch the desktop cleanup wizard off:

1. Go to Desktop Properties (e.g. from the context menu)
2. Go to the Desktop tab.
3. Click Customize Desktop.
4. Uncheck Run Desktop Cleanup Wizard every 60 days.