Productivity Tools on PC (2)
08 Aug 2013 Category: ProductivityEight frequently-used tools were listed in preview post. Some of them are so handy that you could use them directly without any customization. I will introduce first two tools in this single post.
Everyting
Everything is the most convenient search tool on PC. I configured the following two points according to my own habits and started using it. Honestly, you don’t need to follow but just try it. I bet you’re gonna love it!
Hot Key Setting
I’d like to use Alt + F1 to call out Everything from system tray. So I change these two values in Tools --> Options --> General:
- New window Hotkey Modifier:
Alt - New window Hotkey Modifier:
VK_F1
What? You need hot key to minimize it back to system tray? I bet you could try Alt + F4 :-P
Hide Empty
As a fake minimalist, I’d like empty appearance when there is nothing in search bar, rather than bunch of non-sense files showing up. I just need to pick Hide results when the search is empty in Tools --> Options --> View.
Launchy
Launchy, a quick launcher, is another small tool which will improve your quality of experience on PC. I can get rid of the quick launch bar and all nasty shortcuts on my destop.
Actually Launchy could be replaced by Everything to some extent. But I still keep both of them. Why not let them do their own jobs?
The first thing when I use Launchy is changing default skin to Spotlight Wide :-)
Scan Catalog
Firstly you need to rescan your program files folders, especially if you are more interested in portable programs. Since the default catalog only contains start menu directory and Program Files directory.
Go to Options --> Catalog, add certain directories. Don’t forget to add file type, e.g. .exe or .lnk, as well as option for sub-directories. Then click Rescan Catalog.
Plugins
As you may know, Launchy is able to calculate, search web etc, which I don’t use frequently.
But one plugin I use almost every day is Runner. Because portable DokuWiki (DokuWikiStick), one of my indispensible tools I’d like to introduce later, needs to run mini Apache engine locally (Please note, this is the first time two tools connect. There will be more in later posts.). I have to click mapache.exe whenever PC rebooting to start Apache.
So I just go to Options --> Plugins and add those executable files into Runner as the following screenshot. You could run other similar programs as well.
