Long Nguyen

Some Softwares That Help Me Increase Productivity

These are all for Windows.

Launchy

Launchy is a little software that is almost like Spotlight in Mac OS X. This small program can launch anything in your programs menu without the need of clicking anything. The main advantage of Launchy is that you don’t need to know where your program is located in the start menu, you just need to know its name or part of it. I wrote a post about this some months ago.

StrokeIt

Another small software that increases my productivity is StrokeIt. Mouse gestures in browsers like Firefox, Opera and Flock enhance the user experience. Imagine doing that in the interface of the operating system which any program.

I use it mostly to go back and forth and a folder and in Internet Explorer (when I have to use it). I also use it to close windows and reload them. Now you can say all it takes to do all that is to click on one icon, but that would involve dragin the mouse to the specific icon and click on it. With StrokeIt, you can click and drag while holding anywhere in whichever window you want to perform your action.

Taskbar Shuffle

Taskbar Shuffle doesn’t exactly improve productivity, but it allows to keep windows organized. It’s very useful for people who open a lot of windows at once and some of them become more important than others. This software allows to drag windows in the taskbar to change their order. My habit is to put all windows that I don’t touch such as iTunes to the left and the ones that I use more often like my browser to the right. It allows me to just know where my programs are rather than looking for them all over the taskbar.

WinRoll

WinRoll allows to right-click on the title bar and make the whole window “roll up” there. Sure, I could simply minimize a window I don’t want to see, but I guess that I am just too lazy to drag the mouse precisely on the minimizing icon.