“Suggestion” navigation of the file system

Question

When I want to access superuser.com I open up Google Chrome, type Alt+D to activate the address bar and type su. Now Chrome suggest the address "superuser.com" and I just need to hit Enter.

However, when I want to open a file stored locally on my Windows 7 machine (say, C:\music\interestingRecords.txt), the process is a lot more complicated. Is there a way to navigate the file system with the same ease as the above workflow?

Answer 1

You might want to check out Launchy. I haven't used it in a while but I'm pretty sure you actually use ALT+D (or something like that) to pull it up. Then you just start typing and it guesses what you want. When it gets it right you press enter and voila!

Answer 2

The Windows 7 Start menu does pretty good on its own. Hit the Windows-logo key (or click the Start button), then start typing the file name. As you type, matching file names are displayed, as well as those with matching content. Windows sometimes shows a highlighted guess - press enter to launch the highlighted file. Or click on any other match at any time.

Answer 3

Another way is to use FireFox. You can navigate your drives with it. Type "C:" in the address bar and hit enter. You'll see what I mean. Make it a habit to use FF to navigate, and bookmark heavily using tags only (don't organize by setting up a folder-hierarchy; that would defeat the purpose). You only have to find everything and bookmark it once. From then on you can do what you describe above. Don't know if Chrome will do it, but I use FF to do it at work. Local drives, network folders, NAS, etc... I highly recommend it.