When most people think of using a Mac they think of ease of use and a strong reliance on the mouse. Ironically or paradoxically , the Mac’s, or more specifically OSX strength is the keyboard control which is found in the tool system search tool called Spotlight which is essentially a search engine for your entire system. With the click of a button you can search through all of the images, contacts, emails, files, calendars, and applications on your Mac all at once. Spotlight has enormous power and it can even be used for calculations.

Unfortunately there is no native search tool within XP or Vista that performs as well as Spotlight and after using OSX as my primary OS for the last 18 months the hardest adjustment I have to make when I go back to XP or Vista is lack of this tool. Fortunately, there is an open source equivalent to Spotlight called Launchy that has almost the same power and functionality.

Launchy is a free windows utility designed to help you forget about your start menu, your desktop icons, and your file manager. Launchy indexes and launches your applications, documents, project files, folders, and bookmarks with just a few keystrokes and is one of the first tools I know install on XP or Vista. Like all the tools that we highlight on the easeirway.ca blog. 

Launchy is very easy to download, install and configure. It can be configured to open with any assortment of keystrokes and once it is open you just start typing the name of what you would like to access and Launchy brings up programs, files and even bookmarked websites that match the name. You open the item simply hitting the enter key. It is just that easy.

Launchy website