Find&Run Robot is one of the most essential Windows productivity tools you can get. Anyone who uses a computer has to launch programs several times a day, but most of them have never thought about how unproductive the default way of doing this really is. Using the Start Menu and desktop shortcuts are fine, but if you really want to be efficient about it, you need to get Find&Run Robot (FARR).
Find&Run Robot is what’s called a “launcher” application. It is basically a window that pops up and you can start typing the name of the program you want to run and it will appear in the window. The programs appear in the list as-you-type, meaning, as each letter is entered, the list adjusts accordingly. This is very cool. In fact, this is a particular feature that I am obsessed with:
Click here to read my article about search-as-you-type features in various programs.
There isn’t much else for me to say about this program. Use it to launch your programs. It’s very simple:
You press a hotkey, the window pops up, you start typing the name of the program, when you see it, you choose it and off you go. See the main window below (shown in two different setups with big icons or small icons):
Now, behind the scenes, there are a ton of options to fiddle with, but most people don’t have to. It works great right out of the box. Believe me, though, the options are there. Just look at a screenshot of the options screen:
At this point I can’t live without FARR. The program has allowed me to get rid of all shortcuts on my desktop. Between this and Launchbar Commander (by the same author), I barely touch the Start Menu anymore. (Between you and me, I think the author has an unhealthy obsession with robots and commanders, and oddly descriptive program titles. But we’ll let that go as long as the superb quality of the programs continues.)
FARR is extensible with plugins, just like Firefox. There are a lot of people who have made just about any function imaginable using the FARR engine. By typing certain command codes, you can use FARR to do other tasks besides just launching apps. While I appreciate all the effort people have put into the program, I think some of the addons are pretty weird and funny. For the non-computer geeks, you have to understand that there is a geek subculture out there that is obsessed with using their keyboard to do absolutely everything on their computer. So that’s the draw of using FARR to do other things. I can understand it from an ultimate efficiency standpoint, but I actually love using my mouse. Anyway, here are a few of the more, shall we say, “interesting” plugins:
- Take screenshots of your computer
- Turn FARR into a calculator
- As an English-Vietnamese translater (yes, it’s very specific)
- To display the time and date
- To track your mail packages through FedEx, UPS, etc.
- Check google dollar exchange rates
You can find all of these borderline insane plugins on the official plugins page. You gotta love the keyboard maniacs!
As you can see, FARR is highly customizable. It was made for powerusers by a poweruser who, fortunately, is also extremely sensitive to the needs of normal users.
Note:
Those of you who have Windows Vista know that Microsoft has built in a similar find-as-you-type feature into the revamped Start Menu. I still recommend using FARR because, well, it’s just better in a lot of ways. FARR can be configured to display results exactly according to your preferences, and overall, it works better. Also, there are dozens of other similar applications out there (both freeware and shareware) but none of them work as well as FARR. So even if you are currently using one of these programs, I highly recommend you test drive FARR and see if it makes your life any easier.
Hey Aram…I’m pingin’ ya back here on the interwebby. You on the Facebook thingy?
I am listed as Musashi Lethridge, but still Moose to everybody…