Start++ – A Solid Keystroke Launcher For Vista

Posted by Julio Angel Ortiz in Windows on Jan 29th, 2009 | View Comments

A while back, a colleague wrote about the joys of Launchy, the excellent keystroke / application launcher for Windows. I use Launchy every day at work on my Windows XP notebook. But on my home Vista notebook, I’ve grown attached to another keystroke launchy, by the name of Start++.

Start++, a utility developed by a gentleman who works for Microsoft on their desktop search team, does something deceptively simple: it enhances the Vista’s Start Menu’s vastly improved Run box. With the desktop search integration in Vista (and with Windows Search version 4.0, it is rock solid), the default behavior in Vista is to press the WIN key and start typing. It will dynamically change the Start Menu to list results for programs and files matching your search criteria. Start++ augments this ability, by including shortcuts for web searches, running programs with elevated priveleges, playing music, and more. All of these features and shortcuts are customizable, where you can easily add your own custom commands.

Some tips for making the most out of the WIN key and Start++ combo:

Under Start > Control Panel > Indexing Options, click on the Advanced… button. On the Advanced Options dialog box, click on the File Types tab and select the option Index Properties and File Contents. Then click OK out of the dialog box. The indexing will take longer (depending on how much data you have and the speed of your machine) but your searches will provide better results.
The Start++ icon will run in your System Tray. Right-click on the icon and select Configure. Under the Command Startlets tab, you will see the preconfigured commands for searching via Google, Live, Yahoo, and more. You can add your own commands here, including for other search engines. Here is a good guide for search engine strings.
Under the Search Startlets, you can create shortcuts to customized searches. Microsoft has created a page with useful tips for creating queries.