Find And Run Robot (FARR) is a program and command launcher that uses an adaptive "live search" function to rapidly find programs and documents on your computer as you type. It is a fantastic piece of freeware that you can not afford to miss.

FARR also lets you quickly run web searches, send email, manipulate files, control on-screen windows, and much more. Build and share custom commands or install plugins to add tons of new features, like live search features for your clipboard history and your internet bookmarks; a popup a calculator with history tape and persistant variables; and many more..

You can bring up FARR text input window via a hot key like Alt+Space and as you start typing, it lists the installed programs that match the string. To launch the desired program, simply navigate to it using your arrow keys and hit enter or double click on it or type the number infront of it.

Below are 10 practical uses of FARR that will increase your productivity:

1. Launch any shortcut on the desktop or installed application simply by typing out its name. FARR shows and filters results as you type. So for launching Firefox, you may need to type only ‘f i’. When you see it in the list, hit the corresponding number. Note that FARR doesn’t by default launch via the number. You have to press Alt+number. You can however change the setting so pressing the number launches the desired item. FARR scores over Launchy in this aspect since it doesn’t need 10 minutes or so to index a newly installed application.

   

2. Search internet faster.

   The power of FARR comes in the form of user definable aliases.

   • Set up an alias so you can bring up FARR, type g keyword, press return and you’ll be taken to Google Search results page for your keyword in your default browser.

     

   • Go to the first result (I am feeling lucky) of Google search results fast. Type ! keyword and hit enter.

     

   • Set up an alias for Google Image search. gi keyword

     

   • Set up an alias for Google Suggest. gs keyword

     

   • Set up an alias for YouTube video search. yt keyword

     

   • Search in Wikipedia by typing wp keyword.

     

   • Search for meanings of words from an array of several dictionary and thesaurus sites by define keyword.

     

3. Go to any URL fast. Bring up FARR irrespective of whether your browser is open/active application or not, type in the site name like neowin.net and hit return to go there. No need to even append ‘www.’

   





4. You must be familiar w/ keywords in Firefox. You can set similar abbreviations in FARR. Ex.: Type gn, press the space bar and hit enter to go to Google Notebook.

   

5. Paste date and time fast in any (active) text taking program. Type dt (don’t put a space after) or paste in FARR and hit enter. Sample output: 05/12/2008, 4:39:38 PM

   

6. Set timers quickly. To set up an alarm that alerts you after 5 min, type tm in 5 0 "this is the text I want to be reminded about". After 5 min, an alert pop-up comes up plus optionally, the text will be read out aloud by your chosen male/female voice. Want to be reminded on 13th of May 2008 at 4.30 PM? Just type tm on 13/5/2008 4 30 "Blog about FARR". Want to be reminded today at 6PM for supper? Type tm at 6pm supper.

   

7. Shutdown, LogOff, Standby and more by typing cmd and pressing a number.

   

8. Set an alias to show your latest del.icio.us posts. Simply type dp followed by a space. Then you can go to any post from the results list.

   

9. Search your browser (IE, Firefox, Opera) bookmarks by typing ff keyword (since Firefox is my primary browser, I’ve set ‘ff’ as the trigger text. It can be set to any other like ‘bb’, standing for browser bookmarks)

   

10. Get the value of numerical expressions as you type by fc expression.

    

To set all the above:

1. If you have not already, download and install FARR by going here.
2. Download and extract the content of this zip file to C:\Program Files\FindAndRunRobot\Plugins\. Alternately, you can download only those plugins that you want by visiting this page.
3. Bring up FARR, click the Options icon, go to Aliases tab, select myaliases.alias from the dropdown, right click in the empty space, create a new entry and select ‘Import: Paste Preformatted Alias Groups..’

   
   and paste the following:

   1000>>>Google Notebook>->Google Notebook | http://www.google.com/notebook/>+>^gn(.+)$
   1000>>>Paste Date and Time>->paste date and time | paste %date%, %time% /ICON=icons\farr\core-misc_paste.ico>+>^dt(.*)$
   1000>>>Goes to any web site w/o appending www>->Surf to $$1 | http://$$1 /ICON=icons\farr\core-internet_www.ico>+>^(\S*\.(net|com|org|info|co.in))$
   1000>>>Google Search>->Google - $$1 | http://www.google.com/search?q=$$1 /ICON=icons\google.ico>+>^g\s(.+)$
   1000>>>Feeling Lucky>->Google - $$1 | http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=$$1&btnI=I%27m+Feeling+Lucky /ICON=icons\google.ico>+>^!(.*)
   1000>>>Google Image Search>->Google - $$1 | http://images.google.com/images?q=$$1 /ICON=icons\google.ico>+>^gi\s(.+)$
   1000>>>YouTube Search>->YouTube Search - $$1 | http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=search_videos&search_sort=relevance&search_query=$$1&search=Search /ICON=icons\youtube.ico>+>^yt (.*)
   1000>>>Wikipedia Search>->Wikipedia search $$1 | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search?search=$$1 /ICON=icons\wikipedia.ico>+>^wp (.*)
   

4. Press OK, close the window and restart FARR.

So there you go. This is just scratching the surface of what can be done with FARR. If you know Regex, there’s lot more you can achieve with this powerful tool. Give it a try. I am sure you will find it indispensable for your day to day computing/surfing tasks. Our previous coverage of FARR is here.