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What is the best QuickSilver clone on Windows?

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Just in case anyone does a search on this, this question refers to Blacktree Quicksilver not BroadVision QuickSilver. – Joseph Jan 9 '11 at 6:19
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migrated from stackoverflow.com Aug 11 '09 at 13:56

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closed as not constructive by Gareth, Sathya♦ Sep 30 '11 at 3:53

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13 Answers

up vote 19 down vote

I use launchy

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launchy is win. – jweede Aug 11 '09 at 16:02
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up vote 7 down vote

Scott Hanselman (who is a big fan of app launchers) has a good review of some of the best ones out there. Well worth the time to take a look, the post is a year+ old and some of them have changed s little since, but still would serve as a good place to see some of the better ones out there. He even did a podcast of the subject as well where he reviews the good and bad of the best ones out there.

My preference is launchy. Love it.

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up vote 4 down vote

I use Launchy as well. Executor looks pretty impressive. I tried it for a few days but I'm so used to Launchy's "learn what you mean by the abbreviation" behavior I was kind of offput by Executor's "tell me what shortcuts you want" behavior.

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Executor has just as powerful indexing stuff as Launchy (or at least, it had better, but the performance was so poor it was taken out. Pity, I never noticed an issue :\), don't be afraid to give it a try :) – Phoshi Sep 4 '09 at 22:58
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up vote 4 down vote

Checkout Enso from Humanized.com uses a very similar methodology to Quicksilver, but requires more typing as you have to specify the command first. E.g. to launch notepad, you hold down the caps lock key, type open, release the caps lock key and now type notepad.

This is however, just the tip of the functionality and can do a lot of the things that Quicksilver can. You can also extend it by using the API.

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I like how Enso prevents errors with the "quasimode". In quicksilver if you get something mistyped you have to start all over again. It's a shame Enso development has been discontinued. Now it open source at Launch Pad, but I don't see too much progress. The need of the "open" to launch things is quite frustrating sometimes. The feature I love most of all is the "maximize window" for that's the next thing I do after opening an app and targeting the maximize window is hard. I would love someone came up with a "superuser.com/questions/621/perfect-program-launcher"; – OscarRyz Sep 25 '09 at 17:49
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up vote 2 down vote

Check out this page on AlternativeTo.net:
Quicksilver Alternatives
Personally I use and would highly recommend Launchy (as has been mentioned already), but the link above offers a great selection (10 entries for Windows as of this posting) and descriptions for each. Definitely worth checking out.

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up vote 2 down vote

FARR (aka Find And Run Robot)

alt text alt text

From the official website:

  • Ready to run, right out-of-the-box with no configuration needed.
  • The most customizable application of its kind, for those who love to tweak settings.
  • Caches programs you launch for instantaneous repeat searches and adaptive scoring.
  • Comes with dozens of built-in special alias commands that allow you to perform tons of different web searches and other operations.
  • Create and share (xml) alias packs with your friends or download them from our site to add custom commands and menus.
  • Install (open source) plugins to add advanced functionality.
  • A dozen plugins are available at launch time, including a powerful clipboard monitor and searcher; a live calculator with history tape and persistant variables; a bookmark searcher plugin that supports firefox, internet explorer, and opera; plugins to manage running processes, uninstall programs, change the default printer, control external applications, and more.
  • Low system overhead, fully portable and runnable from a USB thumbdrive, and doesn't mess with your registry.
  • Drag+Drop results from the result view; quick right click to access file system properties or advanced functions.
  • No file indices are used, so results are always up to date with minimal memory use.
  • Choose from dozens of skins and customize the fonts sizes of all graphical elements of the user interface, or turn off skins completely and revert to default Windows user interface. Choose between a compact small-icon mode, or an easy-to-read large icon mode.
  • Full directory browsing function with live search filtering -- manually browse and locate the files you are looking for.
  • Customizable toolbar for common functions and operations (optional; with drag+drop support).
  • Automatic updating for main program and plugins (optional).
  • Customize hotkey triggers to launch and perform specific searches, or copy selected text to the clipboard at launch.
  • Fully documented and actively developed with new features being added regularly based on user requests on our forum.
  • Completely free; signup requested and donation recommended -- your donations fund continued development!
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+1 Good suggestion – gyurisc Mar 24 '10 at 5:40
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up vote 1 down vote

I use both Launchy and Enso. My productivity level has gone up by at lest 50%! I barely use the mouse anymore. Give it a try, you won't regret it. It's kind of like when you discover the impact of Resharper on your code writing productivity.

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up vote 1 down vote

Dash Command is a really strong contender. Here are the pros that I know of:

  1. Fast..
  2. Great command lookup algo
  3. Loads of built-in commands
  4. Is aware of text selections
  5. Supports nice custom url commands

Oh, and a tip that will apply to all of these: if you setup AutoHotKey to capture the caps-lock key and sendkeys() whatever three-key combination your launcher uses, you save a load of "keystrokes" (even finger bends) and you'll never miss caps-lock..

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up vote 1 down vote

Gnome Do is a Quicksilver-like app that was created for the Gnome Desktop under Linux. It was created in C# to run on Mono which, one would think, would make it easy(er) to port to Windows. As such, there is a windows port underway, but it is not complete. You can find instructions on checking out and building your own developer build. I'd keep an eye on this project.

On the other hand, Quicksilver itself recently went open-source, so I wouldn't be surprised if a true Quicksilver port is created at some point in the future.

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Development on Do has been pretty quiet in general, so I expect the Windows port to come along really slowly. – Firefeather Nov 17 '10 at 16:28
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up vote 1 down vote

Not QuickSilver style, but very powerful: EasyShell

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up vote 1 down vote

Google Quick Search Box is only available on OS X in its full form but It would be nice to see it on Windows - the current version on windows has only the fraction of the features.

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+1 for Google Search Box – mgpyone Mar 27 '10 at 10:34
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up vote 0 down vote

Definately Dash Command. I prefer Executor as a launcher, but Dash is really very QSie.

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up vote 0 down vote

collibri worked pretty well back in my winxp days

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