June 20, 2004

[LifeHack] A command line for Windows

This is the best Windows productivity tool ever. SlickRun gives you a small clock in the corner of the screen that when clicked, or invoked with with the Windows-Q key, becomes a command line. By assigning commands short names you can configure SlickRun to do anything: run programs, fire up your email client, open a web page. I set it to so that MAIL brings up my mail program, EXCEL brings up Excel, TODO brings up my Excel sheet with my todo list in it and ME executes a mailto link with my email address in it. The command line even has completion so you don't have to type all of the command. Right now "Windows-Q,T,Enter" brings up my todo list. How quickly can you fire up yours?

I combine this with my small Wiki so that it will bring up the page that relates to my personal contacts i.e. Windows-Q JOHNTA brings up my personal Wiki page about my friend John.

I was using some other software to do this but it required a yearly subscription which put me off it..that software allowed you to type in the shortcut anywhere you were typing which caused more problems than it solved.

Later... as a result of using SlickRun I have been looking up the command line options for Windows programs to see how I can integrate them.

Posted by stuartcw at June 20, 2004 06:22 PM
Comments

If you want a _really_ cool 'universal command line' - get a thing called Dave's Quick Search Deskbar (www.dqsd.net I think). I cannot use Windows without it anymore :) Truly awesome utility.

Cheers,
Mike

Posted by: Mike at June 21, 2004 11:13 AM

Hi

Which wiki are you using on the desktop ?

Posted by: Ian Lim at June 21, 2004 11:40 PM

how about bash, only catch is you have to dump windows :)

Posted by: anonymous at June 22, 2004 12:58 AM

I can fire my todo list very quickly! Ctrl+Alt+T fires up the list in Outlook Web Access (I've got a Windows shortcut to open it 'T' assigned as the shortcut key)

Posted by: Simon at June 22, 2004 07:44 AM

Re: Which wiki are you using on the desktop ?

I'm now using:

http://www.tinyted.net/eddie/wiki/

Posted by: Stuart Woodward at June 22, 2004 08:14 AM

Re: how about bash, only catch is you have to dump windows :)

Not so. I used bash on Windows everyday with Cygwin. I can bring it up with Windows-Q-C-Enter. I bet you can't bring up bash that quickly!

Posted by: Stuart Woodward at June 22, 2004 08:17 AM