AltRun is an open-source, lightweight launcher that launches applications, documents, and folders with just several keystrokes. This software also provides the flexibility to perform a wide range of tasks; examples of these include, but are not limited to, quickly running web searches, controlling on-screen windows, sending e-mails, and shutting down, restarting, suspending or hibernating the computer.
AltRun is somewhat different from other popular launchers, for example, Launchy and FARR. AltRun does not search for applications or documents in specific folders, but in a list of user-defined shortcuts. In this way, AltRun presents the results quickly with minimum memory use. AltRun has some helpful built-in shortcuts and you can add yours to the list in various ways. For example, you can drag and drop the application or document onto the built-in shortcut manager or use the “Send to” menu to create your own shortcuts.
[Editor’s note: this review was guest written by reader Terry Chen].
AltRun is invoked/dismissed by a hotkey (Alt + R or Pause by default). Before you type anything, you can launch the default 10 shortcuts using the 0~9 number keys. If the item you seek is not among these 10 shortcuts, just start typing the first letters of the shortcuts and the results appear instantly. Hit enter or space to launch the top result.
Shortucts in AltRun are not limited to applications, folders and documents, but can perform many other jobs. For example, you can create a shortcut called “gmailto” with the command line (https://mail.google.com/mail/?fs=1&view=cm&shva=1&to=%p),where %p represents the parameter and will be replaced by what you type in a text box that will appear after you launch the shortcut. Now, you can simply invoke AltRun and type “gmailto” and hit enter, then type the e-mail address to which you want to send an e-mail and hit enter again. Now you can start writing an e-mail in Gmail to the address you have typed.
Here are some Pros and a Wish list.
Pros:
- Easy to use: you can create shortcuts in various ways and then just type to launch them.
AltRun entry in Windows explorer Send to menu: can be enabled in the settings. Allows you to right click on any file, folder, or shortcut and add it to AltRun via the send to menu (see image to the right). Will also reconcile shortcuts, so that the app runs even if the shortcut is removed or moved.- Lightweight: just about 300 kilobytes in memory.
- Highly customizable: you can customize how AltRun looks and works.
- Portable software: just unzip and run.
Wish list:
- Creating shortcuts in batch: when you have tons of installed applications and lots of files to work with, the process of creating shortcuts is really tedious and boring. I hope AltRun can scan a folder and create shortcuts in batch just in the way Launchy indexes a folder.
- Better shortcut manager: which can manage the shortcuts by categories would nice.
- Fix some visual glitches on Windows 7: where the bottom of the launcher appears truncated.
The verdict: Overall, this program is good. It is extremely lightweight and does more than what I expected a simple launcher like this can do. Creating shortcuts may be a little time-consuming, but it will be fine if you don’t have a lot of applications to run. But with a great number of applications and documents on my computer, I would stick with FARR. I really wish AltRun could create shortcuts in batch.
Version Tested: 1.46
Compatibility: Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7
Go to the progra home page to download the latest version (approx 760K).
Nice utility. I liked it.
Hi Samer,
Thank you very much for polishing my post. That will help me write a better post next time!:-)
The shortcut mentioned in the post can be replaced by a better one. We can create a new shortcut with the command line (https://mail.google.com/mail/?fs=1&view=cm&shva=1&su=%p), where “to” is replaced by “su”. So what we type will be the subject of the E-mail. I guess this is more convenient.
This URL can be used in other popular launchers, too! I will take Launchy for example. Weby is a plugin that accept URLs. We can use the URL https://mail.google.com/mail/?fs=1&view=cm&shva=1&to=%1 and give it the name ‘mail’. Then invoke Launchy and type mail [tab] the subject and hit enter. Now you can begin writing your e-mails in GMail!
One of the built-in shortcuts is Baidu Search. It’s a popular search engine in China; actually, it’s even more popular than Google in China. But Baidu is not suitable for searching for something in English. So I deleted that shortcut the first time I saw it. Maybe Bing is a better choice!
I have a piece of good news that creating shortcuts in batch will be one of the features of the next version and the developer is now testing the new version. I’m really looking forward to this feature.
I still prefer Magic Formation.
Dear Samer:
Caution! I’ve scanned the winctle.exe with a-square and it reported the file is MALWARE! What’s more, I sent the file to them for further analysis and I got a prompt confirmation saying the file is indeed malware…
Regards.
Hi MCHAL:
I am using Avira Antivir and it doesn’t report anything. I uploaded the file to Virus Total and the result is here: http://www.virustotal.com/file-scan/report.html?id=6efa1d8fd42c9b7a7f187e7dd556977244ae95a0b44e0707d408166108d71a11-1287672792#. Emsisoft, Ikarus and Comodo have reported that it is a malware. But I believe that it is a false positive. I will send this file to Avira or other companies and contact the developer about this.
Actually? WinCtl.exe is the program that enables AltRun to control on-screen windows and is not the necessary part of the launcher itself. I have sent this file to Avira, Symantec, Kaspersky and Nod 32. Now I am waiting for their reply.
Programs like this often show as false positives as they have to use some form of keyboard hook or capture to be able to recognize the keystrokes to do your “launching”.
AutoHotKey for example, I know had to submit itself to most of the AV companies to have their program whitelisted for the very same reason. They have to do this continuously and sometimes even just on a AV database update/
Wincntl.exe is one of the major components of the now defunct “WinControl” – an automation tool. My guess is that the author of AltRun used that program as a base. As WinControl is no longer, no one is around to submit their program to the AV companies.
Wincntl.exe unfortunately is also a name used by several common virus/trojans.
Because the base program company is defunct, the code will never be given a clean status, and this tool will almost always trigger the “virus alert” on many of the security packages. With this in mind, I keep always going back to one of my general rules – if you don’t trust the author – don’t use the software; even if the files don’t currently show they are infected. We all will have different philosophies on this.
Thanks for the heads up that this software is out there!
Hi Rick,
Thanks very much for your reply! I completely agreed with you.
The author, ET Worker, as well as me, are the readers of a Chinese site similar to Freeware Genius. I have known him for a long time and trust that he will not create a virus or malware. Therefore, I just scanned the files with Avira Antivir which is the only AV on my computer before I tested the newest version and wrote this post. AltRun is also an open-source software. Although I don’t understand the source code but I usually trust open-source softwares.
To tell the truth, I was really surprised to know that Emsisoft had confirmed WinCtl.exe to be a malware. Although I trust AltRun, I want to show that it is safe. I will post the reply from the antivirus company.
Avira has confirmed that WinCtl.exe is clean. Here is the page: http://analysis.avira.com/samples/details.php?uniqueid=symj5GzZ5L7Kpx3kVE4Hg0UE7gq9W5q1&incidentid=620082.
I’ve used Keybreeze as my launcher for – I can’t remember how long – years, anyway. It never understood why it never became wildly popular (after all, I love it and it does just about everything you can imagine a launcher doing and more) except that it never got much attention from bloggers. The developer gave up on it and it can be found only on SourceForge now. AltRun looks to work the same way. I prefer defining which folders, files, websites, etc., to open with shortcut keys of my own design.
My main computer runs XP and will continue to do so until my XP CD and copies bite the dust, but my laptop came with Win7. Keybreeze doesn’t work on the laptop so I downloaded Launchy. Launchy is OK, but definitely not Keybreeze. Next time I dig out the laptop, I’ll download AltRun and try it. Thanks for the article.
C’mon, it’s a false positive .