Do you like keyboard shortcuts? Did you take Bill Gates’s “information at your fingertips” mantra literally? This entry is for you!
Triggering Windows File Searches from Anywhere
Here’s a quick animated gif showing how I use Launchy to send scoped searches to Everything, leading to opening folders in Directory Opus or files in their associated app.
To do this I have created a Runner command in Launchy:
name: f
Program: C:/Program Files/Everything/Everything.exe
Arguments: -s "$$" -filter $$ -sort-ascending
Notice the two sets of $$ which stands for user input.
- To search for a folder: Alt+Space, f, Tab, {folder name}, Tab, folder
- To search for a video: Alt+Space, f, Tab, {video name}, Tab, video
- You get the gist, after the second tab you can also input e for everything, compressed, document, executable, picture, as per Everything’s filters
The first parameter stands for your search query and can accommodate Everything’s search modifiers, so you can do things such as:
- Alt+Space, f, Tab, ww:Docker, Tab, folder | All folders with the whole word “Docker” in their name
- Alt+Space, f, Tab, wfn:config.*, Tab, e | All files named exactly “config” but with any extension
- Alt+Space, f, Tab, j: aphex, Tab, e | All audio files on drive J: with “Aphex” in their name
- Alt+Space, f, Tab, child:marvel, Tab, folder | All folders that contain a child with a file/folder whose name contains “marvel”
- Alt+Space, f, Tab, j: child:marvel, Tab, folder | All folders on drive J: that contain a child with a file/folder whose name contains “marvel”
- Alt+Space, f, Tab, j: j: ww:u2 !zoo, Tab, audio| All audio files on drive J: whose name contain the whole word “u2” but not “zoo”
Again, you get the idea, knock yourself out with Everything’s search syntax.
Results are sorted on the column path by default with the -sort Path argument. Color highlighting is done thanks to this, which can be customized in the app from Tools > Options > Fonts and Colors.
To control how Dopus is launched from Everything, see this thread:
$exec("C:\Program Files\Directory Opus\dopusrt.exe" /cmd Go NEWTAB=tofront PATH "%1")
Other similar applications
This is just one application using the ability to feed several arguments from Launchy. If the URL of a web search engine you like can take more than argument, you can do something like this in Weby:
http://www.allmusic.com/search/%1/%2
Then:
- Alt+Space, a, Tab, albums, Tab, lush life
- Alt+Space, a, Tab, artists, Tab, joe henderson
Runner can actually be used with URLs, and while Amazon links inexplicably fail from Weby, the following works as the input for Program in Runner:
https://www.amazon.com/s/?url=search-alias%3D$$&field-keywords=$$
Then:
- Alt+Space, ama, Tab, books, Tab, mariadb
- Alt+Space, ama, Tab, digital-music, Tab, lush life
Exchange rate chart from one currency to the other, with Runner:
http://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=$$&to=$$&view=1Y
Time zones in various countries, with Weby (adapt to make it more flexible depending on your own needs):
https://time.is/compare/0700_in_Santiago/Singapore/Melbourne/San_Diego/Austin/New_York/Paris
Bonus: Launchy + Cmder
To pass along command line parameters from Launchy to Cmder / Conemu, you can use a cli.bat (or name of your choosing) batch file like explained here:
@echo off
set CMDER_ROOT=%~dp0
start %CMDER_ROOT%\vendor\conemu-maximus5\ConEmu.exe /icon "%CMDER_ROOT%\cmder.exe" /single /title Cmder /loadcfgfile "%CMDER_ROOT%\config\ConEmu.xml" /cmd cmd /k "%CMDER_ROOT%\vendor\init.bat cd %CD% && %~1" -cur_console:P:"PowerShell":t:"MyCmd":d:C:\"
Customize the P:, t:, and d: command line switches to choose a palette, tab name, and path of your liking.
Then in Launchy, cli > ipconfig /all (or whatever Windows command or batch).
Close Cmder, launch it again with a different instruction, arrow key up: yep, you have persistent history across sessions.
You can even use this to launch a CLI that launches a desktop app, for instance to trigger the Livestreamer + MPCE-BE + Youtube combo I describe here. Remember that Launchy has a command history. (It would be awesome if it had i-search support like Bash for that Ctrl+R goodness, but sadly it doesn’t so you have to navigate manually through all history entries with the arrow keys. At least there’s history persistence across Launchy sessions).