Executor is my new favorite launcher replacing the old love, FARR. It is extremely fast, intuitive and easy to use. I have been using it for the last two days to launch files, folders, web pages and to browse folders. Thanks to a comment at Lifehacker blog post, below are the steps to send a tweet from within Executor input box. Note that there will be no indication of number of characters left out of 140 and no URL shortening.

1. Download NirCmd from here. Place nircmd.exe in any location of your choice. In my case, C:\Documents and Settings\I034708\My Documents\My Dropbox\nircmd.exe
2. Download Curl from here. Place curl.exe in the same folder where you kept nircmd.exe.
3. Add a new keyword in Executor. Put the path of nircmd.exe in the Command field. Set Parameter as

   exec hide curl --basic --user TwitterUN:TwitterPW --data status="$P$" http://twitter.com/statuses/update.xml
   

   where TwitterUN and TwitterPW are your Twitter username and password.

   If you are behind a corporate proxy, modify the Parameter to add a proxy switch like so:

   exec hide curl --basic --proxy <ProxyName>:<ProxyPort> --user TwitterUN:TwitterPW --data status="$P$" http://twitter.com/statuses/update.xml
   

   

That’s it. Now you can start updating your Twitter by bringing up Executor and typing your message after the keyword.

Here’s the link to corresponding forum thread.

If you use Tab Mix Plus add-on for Firefox and enabled the option to allow scrolling to select tabs, you’ll love this similar Alt-Tab replacement using AutoHotKey script.

Let’s say you have 5 windows showing up in your taskbar and the second one is currently active, place your mouse pointer anywhere on the taskbar and scroll up and down to switch to next (third) and previous (first) windows respectively while this script is running. While scrolling down as you reach the last window, the very first window in the taskbar comes to front as expected. Similarly when the first window is activated while scrolling up, you jump to very last window when you continue.

The following screencast (800×600, 15 sec, 600 KB) demonstrates this (opens in a new tab/window):

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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.’

   

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KeyConfig is a handy Firefox add-on that power users will just love. One of the features I liked in Opera is the integrated keyboard shortcuts (a lot of them) that are packaged by default. The first thing I do after a fresh Opera install is to configure the following keyboard shortcuts:

• z - Go Back
• x - Go Forward
• a - Go to previous tab
• s - Go to next tab
• c - Close tab

Below is a step-by-step tutorial on how we can set the above quickkeys in Firefox:

1. Install KeyConfig Firefox add-on from here. At this time, it is in experimental section. So you will need to create a free account at Firefox add-ons site to download.
2. Install functions for keyconfig from here
3. Restart Firefox. Note that there are no options for this add-on
4. Go to Tools -> Keyconfig (or press Ctrl+Shift+F12)
5. Click on ‘Add a new key’

   

6. Type in ‘Go Back’ for the name and BrowserBack(); in the text field. Press OK.

   

7. Now select the new entry you just created, click inside the text box below, type in your hotkey, ‘z’ in this case and hit Apply.

   
   So you should have the entry like so:

   

8. Clicking on any other pre-existing entry in the list will show up ‘Add a new key’ button. Now create other keyboard shortcuts similarly. Below are the codes you need:

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There are software programs like Launchy using which you can launch applications by typing the first few letters of the program name and hitting the return key. Once you start using these, you’ll realize that we can save the space that start menu takes up. So we started looking for a small program that will hide the start menu button yet makes menu itself available upon pressing the windows key. A free program called Start Killer by Tordex does the job.

Here’s how we hide the start menu and yet easily launch any desired program:

1. Set up FARR
2. Run Start Killer

Find And Run Robot

Find And Run Robot or FARR in its short form is a free program by DonationCoder that will display a small floating text box in which you type the name of the program you want to launch and press a number on your keyboard or use your arrow keys to move up/down and press the return key. We find it better compared to other similar solutions like Launchy because:

• We can press a number from the results list to launch a program
• It makes available a newly installed program much faster
• It has more advanced features

To get started with FARR,

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