ten mov.es

Microsoft’s Speed Launch is a basic, but useful, launcher program which allows you to quickly access files, folders, websites etc from a small popup text box. Think Launchy or ActiveWords but with the more novice user in mind. These kinds of tools are especially useful for those people who don’t like leaving the keyboard when they’re working, but like drag and drop over fiddly macros and strings to get things automated.

And it does actually offer some features that even advanced users might find useful: in particular, the ability to be able to search specific websites, search engines or even your webmail straight from the popup toolbar. But it’s not as easy to set up as you might hope, and the explanational video has way too much music and not enough explanation to tide you through.

Here, therefore, is how to add a website relatively easily in ten simple moves:

Install Speed Launch if you haven’t done so already.

Open  a browser and the search engine/website/webmail program you want to search.

Enter a search term. (It doesn’t matter what it is at this point.)

Drag the URL of the results page onto the Speed Launch target icon:

A window like this should appear:

Give the search a name, followed by a period:

Click on the Add button.

Another dialog box will pop up, asking you “what type of information will people supply for use with this function”:

Enter the type of information you’re accessing (in this case news search term):

Then find the text of the search you just made in the lower URL (in this case pakistan), and highlight it:

Click Finish. The dialog box should disappear.

Now time to test your new shortcut.

Hit the Windows key and C (Win + c) to bring up the Speed Launch dialog.

Type in the name of your new search. Speed Launch will auto suggest, and you don’t need the period. A dialog will pop up:

Enter the term and hit Launch:

Tips:

You can’t edit an existing short cut but you can add to it. So, for example, if you wanted to search multiple sites with one search, just follow the same instructions, but when you’re prompted whether you want to merge or replace a shortcut, choose merge.

I’m not sure this is the quickest way of doing this kind of thing, but I certainly think it’s got potential. I like the drop and drag nature of it; it’s great for adding files and folders, as well as websites, on the fly. The interface could definitely be improved, but the authors make clear they’re not experts in their field, and just feel they’ve come up with something useful that others might like. Would more Microsoft software be developed like this.