Enso
I love using the keyboard to get around my computer. I live and die with the Windows-X shortcuts, still remember the old cut and paste commands (Shift/Ctrl-Insert) and can generally get anywhere in Windows without taking my hands off the keyboard. To me, all good software has a useful set of keyboard shortcuts (Visual Studio 2005 excels in this area for example).
Windows-R is great for getting to the run dialog, but its functionality is limited. Enter Enso Launcher� (site may or may not be available because of high traffic). Here’s how it works. Hold caps lock, enter command. That’s it. The commands are straightforward, work from anywhere in Windows� and there are plans for supporting custom commands. You can calculate numbers on the fly, change text case, launch programs, close programs, etc. The design and implemention is nearly flawless.
There are a few downsides that I found in my quick test this morning (I tried sending these in to Humanized, but their site was having some difficulties). First, no custom commands yet. The video on their web site says its in the works however. Second, you can’t customize existing commands. Entering ‘google search term‘ to search is too long for me. I’d like to be able to just do ‘g search term‘. Third, there needs to be a quick way to launch URLs. I suggested just launching any valid URL entered. And lastly, I would personally prefer that to start a command you just hit caps lock and didn’t have to hold it down. Holding caps limits what I can type quickly. RAM usage is a little high too (hovering around 35MB).
Humanized is definitely on the right track with Enso Launcher. They have a related product called Enso Words for universal spell checking and lookups. They also have plans for other future products. I’d definitely keep an eye on Humanized.
UPDATE: Andrew over at Humanized got back to me in regards to a few of the issues I had. They address the “sticky caps” issue on their web site. I’m still not sold though. Too much finger gymnastics. He also suggested using the tab key for autocomplete, but again, try hitting tab while holding caps and typing a command quickly. For custom commands, check out the ‘learn as open” command for launching any folder, document or program.