Launchy is a neat idea. At least in theory. It’s a Windows utility that allows you to launch applications just by typing their name into a little box in the middle of your screen.

At it’s most basic, Launchy scans your program files folders and indexes the names of the applications installed there. A quick press of ALT+Space activates a search box on your screen - start typing the name of the program (say, FireFox) and Launchy will present you with the most likely program. It’s sort of like predictive text for programs!

The thing is, Windows already has built in support for this type of activation. Alright, it’s not sexy (what MS implementation is?), but it works almost as well.

If you know the name of the executable you’re looking for, you can launch most any program straight from the Run command. To activate the Run command, press WinKey+R (where WinKey is the key with the Windows icon).

Let’s say you want to run Microsoft Word - type winword and hit return. Internet Explorer? Type iexplore and hit return. FireFox? Dreamweaver? Flash? Just type in the name of the executable and away you go.

Try it again for utilities like calc, notepad, etc. It works. I’ve been using it for years.

There’s nothing wrong with Launchy. In fact, kudos to the developer, Josh Karlin, for taking this built-in functionality and making it eminently more usable. Not everyone knows or cares what the underlying executable is called, so the ability to launch a program by typing a fragment of the name is definietly useful. In fact, it’s the sort of usability feature that Windows desperately lacks - wake up Redmond!

Finally, a feature request for Launchy - phased program startup. There are a series of programs that I launch each time I start Windows. I don’t want to overwhelm system resources by placing them in my startup folder.

If Launchy starts from the startup folder, wouldn’t it be useful to define a list of programs to start automatically, offset by 30-60 seconds each? That way, each program would have an opportunity to load in sequence, rather than all starting (and consuming) system resources at once.

Summary: Not a bad product, but in my opinion a bit of a one-trick pony. With a bit of thought into value-add features, Launchy could become a useful replacement for the Windows Start Menu.

Listible is a great resource for finding useful information. In true Web 2.0 tradition, it harnesses the wisdom of many to build definitive lists. If you’re a frequent visitor to the site, you might agree that the method is pretty hit and miss!

Anyway, Listible’s Open Source Applications For Windows list has become quite popular recently and I’ve dug in and tested a few of the programs.

It goes without saying that FireFox is my primary browser, and you’ll be aware of applications like Audacity, OpenOffice.org, and The GIMP (although not many people know there’s a Windows port of GIMP)

Aside from the better known apps, there are a few little gems that I haven’t heard about before.

7-Zip, for instance is a free zip utility that can handle a range of archive formats, meaning that you don’t need to have a copy of WinZip or WinRAR to open tar.gz files in Windows (something that I needed during my installation of Drupal)

The list has tons of other free resources for Windows, that might replace more expensive alternatives. This is certainly true of OpenOffice which would save you over £350.00 on the cost of Microsoft Office. Plus OpenOffice.org has PDF export capabilities which MS Office just doesn’t.

I’m sure there are a million DOC-2-PDF converters available today. I downloaded PrimoPDF a while back to convert some Word documents to PDF for a client’s website. I didn’t have (or need) a full version of Adobe Acrobat, and wasn’t prepared to pay a £250.00 premium just to convert a couple of Word documents.

So, anyway, I downloaded Primo. Basically, the PrimoPDF installs a new printer in Windows. You print your documents through that and it converts them to a PDF file on your computer. Just like that.

The installation is a doddle. No need to go into that. Run the installer click next a few times and you’re done. Instead, I’m going to look at creating a new PDF file using PrimoPDF.

Converting A Word Doc To PDF

1. Open the document in Word (this actually applies to virtually any program).
2. Select File, Print. Select the PrimoPDF driver from the list of printers and click OK.

   

3. The PrimoPDF options window will appear after the job has been spooled. You can use the Document Properties button to embed Author, Title and Subject information into the file, and you can specify Security options like requiring passwords to open the file and denying readers the ability to copy text or print the file.

   

4. Also in the options screen, you can specify where you want the PDF to be saved to and you can optimize your PDF for screen, print, e-book or prepress.

   

5. Set your options as required and click OK. Your file will be created in the location you specified and by default should open up in Acrobat Reader.

The great thing about this is that you can print anything to PDF - even web pages. I tested it with this site, and got a perfectly servicable PDF. Be aware though that unless there is a specific print stylesheet for the webpage, the styles are likely to be stripped out of the document. Nothing wrong with that as long as it’s readable.