PROGRAM: gulllauncher
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GullLauncher is a set of programs I wrote for easy program access right at the mouse pointer. Years ago, I used a demo of Maya, the 3D composition program, and I absolutely loved one of the features in the program - if you held down the space bar, a complete set of menus would show up, directly where the mouse pointer was. GullLauncher was written to give similar functionality, but for launching programs and shortcuts globally throughout Windows - click on the middle mouse button*, and a highly-customizable little panel shows up, right where the mouse pointer is, with links to files, URLs, folders, program shortcuts, and (if you want them to), drag-and-droppable program launching. * - Now, if you don't want to use the middle mouse button to launch GullLauncher, you can turn that off... you can also use a keyboard shortcut, like holding CAPS LOCK or SCROLL LOCK down, to launch it... or if you don't want to do either of those, it can be launched from the taskbar!
The GullLauncher package consists of 2 programs - the GullLauncher panel itself, which is a small utility that runs in the background, and a Preferences program that lets you set up the button shortcuts, how to toggle the panel, and how many shortcut icons show per row. |
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>>> DOWNLOAD FILE BELOW <<< - BUT PLEASE READ THIS FIRST...
- My program has been tested to work in bunch of different situations, but it might not work in every single configuration - I'm not responsible for loss of data from the use of GullLauncher (which should not happen, but... I'm putting it out there just in case.) My test system is Windows 7 64-bit. Although the executable is compiled as a 32-bit executable - it should work fine on both 32-bit and 64-bit systems.
- My program is written in AutoIt - AutoIt programs are flagged by many virus scanners as being malicious - there isn't anything malicious in my program or it's code, and it doesn't have any kind of adware, malware, spyware, etc., as part of any of it. The only external piece of code in my program that I did not write is the code that allows moving shortcuts around in the Preferences program.
- My program is written in AutoIt - AutoIt programs are flagged by many virus scanners as being malicious - there isn't anything malicious in my program or it's code, and it doesn't have any kind of adware, malware, spyware, etc., as part of any of it. The only external piece of code in my program that I did not write is the code that allows moving shortcuts around in the Preferences program.
OK, NOW THAT THAT'S OUT OF THE WAY... ON TO DOWNLOADING ~
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File size: 1,473 KB
MD5 Checksum: 742A62A00515E5FB2AA968C7054F90EB | ||
BEFORE YOU START...
Once you've downloaded the GullLauncher ZIP file, extract the folder in the ZIP file to a folder on your hard drive before using them. This is because both the GullLauncher program itself and the Preferences program look for a file called ButtonsList.prefs in the folder the 2 programs are sitting in. Once you've extracted the files, it's time to start setting up shortcuts...
USING THE PREFERENCES PROGRAM
The Preferences Program is the program that you use to do all of the management for GullLauncher. With it, you can add and delete shortcuts to files, folders, URLs, and programs to launch, as well as set up how many buttons you want to show per row, whether or not you want the middle mouse button to toggle the GullLauncher panel or not, and/or if you want to use a keyboard shortcut to toggle the panel, in addition to (or instead) of the middle mouse button.
The Preferences Program interface - click above for a bigger view...
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The Add/Modify Shortcut dialog
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adding a shortcut to the shortcut list (OR MODIFYING AN EXISTING ONE)
To add a shortcut to your GullLauncher shortcuts list, either drag and
drop a file (or multiple files) into the Preferences Window, or click the Add Blank Shortcut button. You will get a dialog box (shown above, to the right here) asking you for 5 things:
- You choose what the name of the shortcut is - when you hover over shortcuts in GullLauncher, it shows the name as a tooltip
- You choose the path/URL that the shortcut links to (if you give a URL, it will open it up in your main browser when you click on the icon)
- A path for a custom icon (optional)
- An ID# for that custom icon (also optional) - some custom icons have multiple icons stored in them, this helps identify a specific icon
- Whether or not you want to allow Drag and Drop file opening for this shortcut - if you enable this, dropping a file on the icon for this shortcut will open it in the program associated with the shortcut - at the moment, this only works for programs (not file transfer)
You can also use an icon picker to choose your custom icon, if you choose to... this will auto-fill the custom icon path and custom icon ID# fields. Once you're done making changes to your current shortcut, click on the Save Shortcut button to save the shortcut to the main shortcut list, or click Cancel if you don't want to add it.
To modify an already existing shortcut, just double-click it - a similar dialog will open, allowing you to change the details of that specific shortcut.
- You choose what the name of the shortcut is - when you hover over shortcuts in GullLauncher, it shows the name as a tooltip
- You choose the path/URL that the shortcut links to (if you give a URL, it will open it up in your main browser when you click on the icon)
- A path for a custom icon (optional)
- An ID# for that custom icon (also optional) - some custom icons have multiple icons stored in them, this helps identify a specific icon
- Whether or not you want to allow Drag and Drop file opening for this shortcut - if you enable this, dropping a file on the icon for this shortcut will open it in the program associated with the shortcut - at the moment, this only works for programs (not file transfer)
You can also use an icon picker to choose your custom icon, if you choose to... this will auto-fill the custom icon path and custom icon ID# fields. Once you're done making changes to your current shortcut, click on the Save Shortcut button to save the shortcut to the main shortcut list, or click Cancel if you don't want to add it.
To modify an already existing shortcut, just double-click it - a similar dialog will open, allowing you to change the details of that specific shortcut.
gulllauncher toggling / ICON DISPLAY options
Located at the top of the GullLauncher Preferences program are the toggling options for the GullLauncher panel - you can choose:
- Whether or not to allow the middle mouse button to toggle the panel
if you have this turned on, clicking the middle mouse button will show/hide the GullLauncher panel. You can turn that on by clicking on the Middle Mouse Button Toggles GullLauncher checkbox
- Whether or not to allow a keyboard shortcut to toggle the panel, and which key you want to hold down to activate it
if you have this turned on, holding down the key you have set (in the example above, CAPS LOCK), will show/hide the GullLauncher panel
- How many icons you want to display per row
if you have a lot of shortcuts, you can choose to display more per row (making the size of the panel stretch out over the screen more) or less (if you'd rather have a more compact panel)
- Whether or not to allow the middle mouse button to toggle the panel
if you have this turned on, clicking the middle mouse button will show/hide the GullLauncher panel. You can turn that on by clicking on the Middle Mouse Button Toggles GullLauncher checkbox
- Whether or not to allow a keyboard shortcut to toggle the panel, and which key you want to hold down to activate it
if you have this turned on, holding down the key you have set (in the example above, CAPS LOCK), will show/hide the GullLauncher panel
- How many icons you want to display per row
if you have a lot of shortcuts, you can choose to display more per row (making the size of the panel stretch out over the screen more) or less (if you'd rather have a more compact panel)
GullLauncher Panel set to show 4 icons per row
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GullLauncher Panel set to show 6 icons per row
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GullLauncher Panel set to show 10 icons per row
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setting the highlight shortcut
Selecting a shortcut in the shortcut list and then clicking on the Set Highlight button will add the phrase "<HL>" to the currently selected shortcut. When you launch the GullLauncher panel, the icon that is set as the highlight icon will hover directly over the mouse pointer, allowing for very quick access to a specific program/link in your shortcut list. If you decide you want to set a new highlight, just select a new shortcut you want to change the highlight to, and click the Set Highlight button - it will remove it from the current highlight you have set and move it to the shortcut you currently have selected. If you don't have a shortcut set as the highlight, the GullLauncher panel will center itself over the mouse pointer when you show it.
SAVING YOUR CHANGES
When you're done setting up all of your preferences, and you have a good list of shortcuts going, you need to save the list in order for it to show up in GullLauncher. To do this, click on the Save button. This will change the current ButtonsList.prefs file to reflect your new changes, and it will back up the original ButtonsList.prefs file to ButtonsList.prefs.bup - this way, you can revert back to the old shortcuts/settings if you need to.
USING THE GULL LAUNCHER PANEL
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Once you have your preferences set up, and your shortcut list saved, it's time to use the GullLauncher panel itself. Open the GullLauncher.exe file, and you'll see the GullLauncher splash screen -
To close the splash screen, wait for a few seconds, and then click anywhere on the screen. The splash screen will disappear, and now GullLauncher is ready to go! |
The GullLauncher splash screen, shown when the program opens
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To launch the GullLauncher panel itself once you run the program, toggle it using your preferred toggling method (that you set up earlier in the preferences program) - either click on the middle mouse button (if you have that set up to toggle it), hold down the keyboard shortcut you set (if you have one set up to toggle it), or click on the GullLauncher taskbar icon (it looks like a gull's head) and choose "Launch GullLauncher Panel" -
The GullLauncher taskbar icon, and it's settings
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The GullLauncher taskbar icon also allows you to adjust your toggling options on the fly, so for example, if you decide later on that you want to change back to allowing middle mouse button toggling, you can enable it easily. If you re-load the GullLauncher settings by clicking on the re-load button (shown below), it will restore the toggling settings to their Prefs program defaults that you originally set up.
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If you launched GullLauncher.exe for the first time before running the preferences program, you'll see an error - this is perfectly normal, it's just showing that you don't have the preferences file set up yet. Once you run the preferences program and save a shortcut list, it makes a ButtonsList.prefs file in the folder you've extracted GullLauncher.exe and the Preferences program into. Refreshing GullLauncher to reflect the changes once you've made the prefs file is easy, just toggle the GullLauncher panel and click on the blue re-load button on the bottom, in the middle, to refresh your changes.
The re-load button, located in the bottom-middle of the GullLauncher panel
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The error that shows up if you haven't set up a list of shortcuts yet
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