Launch programs, websites, and Windows tasks using mouse gestures with gMote
gMote is a free program that allows you to record mouse gestures and associate them with applications, websites, and Windows tasks. You can then launch those whenever you need them by drawing the specific gesture associated with the program or task you need on-screen.
It seems that there is an increasing number of interesting launchers employing new, quick ways to launch programs aside from clicking on icons or shortcuts. Programs such as Launchy, for instance, as well as keyboard-shortcut programs, and now gMote’s screen gestures. Here are more notes on this program:
How it works: press control and shift simultaneously then draw your gesture with the mouse. A window will popup near the system tray after you perform a gesture that will display the number of the action associated with it or otherwise display a question mark if the gesture is not understood. Note, however, that if you dragged a shortcut and then deleted it, the association is lost.- The gestures: have to be in one continuous motion (i.e. you can’t take the pen off the page, so to speak). The program will alert you if the gesture you drew is too close to another one that you made previously in order to re-do it.
- The user interface: the user interface looks really good and is split into left and right panes; gestures are drawn on the right pane while the left pane lists the different actions. You can drag and drop shortcuts, executables, and bookmarks into the left pane to convert them into actions or you can browse to the applications manually.
- Accuracy: is generally good (i.e. the probability of it’s mistaking one gesture for another does not seem to be a big one). You do, however, need to draw fairly accurately. Its a good idea not to make the symbols close to each other in the first place.
- Performance: gesture recognition can be a bit slow, at times leaving you wondering if the gesture ’took’ or if the program didn’t recognize it. That said you will quickly learn to identify those ’pregnant pauses’ as what they are.
- Installation: nothing to install; just unzip and run. You will have to add to the windows start folder if you want to the program to start with windows (or use a startup manager such as Starter).
- Tutorial: the download includes an interactive tutorial that explains how to use the program (and is very well made).
- Resources used: takes up about 18 megs in memory, which is not a lot given the nature of this program (but is not very little either).
Wish list (or how this program can be even better)
- Volume functions (raise/lower volume, mute/unmute) are not included in the windows tasks list. I found this strange as (at least for myself) these are the ones I would have gone for before all others.
- It would be great it the program associated dragged shortcuts with their targets rather than the shortcuts themselves, such that the deletion of the shortcut does not break the association.
The verdict: an interesting, well designed program that can definitely enliven your computing experience. Its not an all-out replacement for your favorite launcher, but it can come in handy for performing certain tasks (e.g. showing the desktop, locking the PC), or for launching very frequently used programs/websites.
A video of gMote in action:
Version Tested: 1.01
Compatibility: WinAll.
Go to the program page to download the latest version (approx 364K).
Strokeit has been doing this for years.
StrokeIt – Mouse Gestures for Windows
http://www.tcbmi.com/strokeit/
Not as pretty, but rock-hard reliable. Also, is window context based so the same gesture does different things based on the foreground window
Strokeit is certainly clever and apparently extendible as well, but with this I wanted something really simple to setup and use, and hopefully that’s what gMote does well =).
Oh, also I’d point out that you don’t have to add it to the windows startup folder, there’s a popup menu accessible from the task bar tray, and on it is “Always run at startup”.
Thanks Craig for the correction re: startup folder.
@nobody: I forgot about StrokeIt, but just took a quick look; gMote seems more intuitive to set-up and work with at the very least, although StrokeIt seems to have more options.
This definitely has potential. I’ve been using StrokeIt for a few months now and love the versatility. I do like that gMote can actually draw the gestures in a Vista environment that’s running Aero, something StrokeIt can’t. If there were some more gesture options and if I could switch into gesture mode by holding down the right mouse button, I’d probably switch over to this. Great start though. Nice intuitive interface. I hope you can continue developing it.
Cool alternative but I prefer my icons than making funny mouse gestures on my PC.
Looks quite nice and user friendly mouse gesture program. Been using StrokeIt for ages now but competition never hurts.
Will give it a look but doubt I’ll use it till it “grows” a bit more.
Lovely!
Is this the same quick look launcher used on the Gap.com website?
Keep up the good work
Does StrokeIt take less RAM memory? I read from the developer, that this is the case.
Is it possible to deactivate while not in use? Like StrokeIt does?
Thank you.
[...] Fonte: Freeware Genius [...]
Josh, yes you can deactivate it without quitting by using the popup menu or by creating a gesture and assigning “gMote: disable” as its action.
I know the Ctrl Shift thing might not be completely ideal; soon this will be customisable.
[...] Fonte [...]
[...] Fonte [...]
I found a new mouse gesture software. It’s very simple and I use it a lot. Check it out. It’s called LiveEdge at
http://home.swipnet.se/zebware/
It works a little bit different than other mouse gesture softwares but once you get use to it it’s hard to surf with out it.
I have used StrokeIt for years and love it. Leo Leporte first enlightened me long ago. However, I have recently moved to Windows Vista and the Areo them is killing me. So I’m going to give gMote a try. cNet had good things to say, so we’ll see.
Yeah, I love Strokeit too.
But, recently i found new mouse gesture tools for my tablet pc.
Mouse Gesture Softwares For Windows
http://www.mouse-gesture.com/
work fine with Vista. i like them. So cool!!!
[...] I will review “High Sign”, an excellent freeware mouse gesture program. While Samer has previously reviewed gMote, another mouse gesture program, I planned on reviewing StrokeIt which has been around for a long [...]
[...] I will review “High Sign”, an excellent freeware mouse gesture program. While Samer has previously reviewed gMote, another mouse gesture program, I planned on reviewing StrokeIt which has been around for a long [...]