Windows 7: Articles

The Windows 7 Start menu has evolved to give users quick access to often used programs, folders, and files. Jump Lists are particularly useful in opening most frequently accessed Web pages from your default Web browser. But we all manage a lot of data in our lives.

The relatively few options available on the Jump List may not be enough to access your favorite URLs or folders. Enter SlickRun, one of the coolest shortcut utilities I’ve seen in ages. SlickRun looks like it was written for Windows 3.1: it’s a little blue bar that, on Windows 7, sits right above your system tray.

What it lacks in appearance, it makes up for in functionality. Type “g” in this box, and it will automatically auto-complete to the word “google.” Press Enter on the auto-complete entry, and you’ll get a Google search box right from your taskbar.

SlickRun lets you define “MagicWords” that bring up your favorite applications, folders, files, or URLs. Right click the SlickRun box, and select New MagicWord…. In the example below, we alias two different MagicWords – “bank” and “$”, separated by a comma – to navigate to KeyBank in our default browser.

After defining this MagicWord and assigning your bank’s URL as its file or URL value, you can navigate to your online banking system just by typing “$” in the SlickRun bar and pressing Enter.

You’ll find this is faster than navigating to your bank’s URL in your browser’s Jump List! Plus, you can define MagicWords for an unlimited number of URLs; a Web Browser’s Jump List will only display about six links.

SlickRun is wonderful for “deep folder” access. Windows 7 provides easy access to your documents, pictures, and other media through the My folders in the Startup menu. What it doesn’t do is provide easy access to folders buried within these folders.

Let’s say you’re a consultant, and you have a folder for each of your clients in a sub-folder of My Documents, such as Clients\Client1, Clients\Client2, etc. You could navigate to these using the Start menu. Or, you can define MagicWords that bring up each folder quickly and painlessly.

SlickRun loads the Most Recently Used lists of your URLs, files and folders, which makes it a snap to define new MagicWords. The only annoyance you may have with this utility (outside of its “Stone Age Windows” look and feel) is that, by default, it plays a little “ta-da!” sound when you launch a command successfully.

To de-activate this, right click SlickRun, select Setup, click Options, and then click Configure sound. This will bring up the Windows Sound Control Panel. Select Sounds, find the Command success sound for Bayden SlickRun, and set it to (None).