Using the keyboard is much faster than using the mouse. It’s something that’s been proved again and again. You don’t need a fancy study to do it. Just open word hit CTRL+B and start typing some bold text, then CTRL+B to turn it off. Now try doing that again by clicking on the Bold button in the toolbar, typing, and then clicking again to turn it off. Since your fingers are already on the keyboard most times it’s easier to use it. Switching to the mouse means moving your hand and then finding where the mouse is positioned and then finally moving it to the location you need.
Graphical User Interfaces (Like Windows for example) provide nice ways of managing your open programs, but when it comes to opening them, a keyboard shortcut is much faster than hunting through menu’s or even double-clicking an icon on your desktop. Enter Launchy, a quick and easy way to launch pretty much anything right through a shortcut.
Launchy is a lightweight application that indexes your files, folders and applications and then provides you the ability to open any of these with a quick keyboard shortcut. ALT+Space by default, Launchy opens a little window that allows you to enter the name of the application you are looking for and then quickly launch it by hitting enter. You don’t even need to enter the entire name of what you are looking for, just the first few letters is normally enough for Launchy to figure out what you mean.
Launchy also offers predictions based on what you normally launch. If you type FIR and launch Firefox, after a little while, typing FI will show you the Firefox icon, since Launchy knows you most likely want to launch that. It even provides a host of plugins for searching through search engines and numerous other things. It even offers skin support so that you can change the way Launchy looks to suit your desktop. If you’re looking for a way to quickly launch applications and not have to fiddle around with your mouse, Launchy is it!
