One of the things I love about wiping a system and reloading software is finding new things or rediscovering old ones. I have a tendancy to find a program, dismiss it, and then only really find the value of it much later. This post is about two such programs: Launchy and Freemind.
Launchy is an index program. You give it a couple of directories to watch, and maybe some filetypes, and you can quickly search for those files. For instance, I hit alt+space (its default hotkey, but you can set anything you want) and a little search box pops up. Then I just start typing, and it will present a list of programs/files meeting the search requirements. It also supports plugins. With the ones included it can serve as a replacement for the 'Run' command (imagine that) but capable of running custom commands, a four function calculator, a url launcher, and a sort of rough file manager (tab-completion cli, sorta).
Before Vista, I hated index programs. And to be honest, I am still on the fence about them, but growing more towards liking them. During my short usage of Vista I made an attempt to get to know the various features, and its searchbar in the Start menu ended up being one of the few things I liked. Currently, I have Launchy set to watch my Start menu and various file types (.odf, .doc, .mm, etc) in the "My Documents" area with pleasing results.
The second program, FreeMind, is very different, and I am still tyring to justify its value to me. It is a thought organizer, or a flowchart for your brainstorms. You start with a central idea and branch out from there. I am planning on using it for two projects I am working on: a DnD campaign world idea I have been dreaming up for a while now, and a story idea that has been popping up recently. Not only do I like the branching system, but I like the fact that it is totally keyboard accesible. Sure, I can use a mouse, but most of the important functions do not require one.
So give them a try if they sound interesting to you and let me know what you think. I am going to go do some writing.
