Start++ 0.3 released!
Hot on the heels of yesterday’s release, there’s already a new beta build for you to play with!
What’s new?
- Command arguments can now be specified seperately
- Aliases can now be exported as “Startlets”
- Share your favorite “Startlets” with other users!
- Bug fixes
Current users can safely upgrade without losing their current setups.
Update: Fixed two small installer bugs. New version is 0.3.2.
17 Comments
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Hi Brandon,
Wow all these releases… you was up late finishing this one off! Just to let you know on first attempt to install on x64, I got a this program has stopped responding running the msi. Directly launched in place rather than saved to disk first.
Love the idea of starlets btw.
Cheers
Janson
This is the detail from the msi event in the App. Event log Source MSI Installer Event ID 11722
Log Name: Application
Source: MsiInstaller
Date: 24/02/2007 10:10:53
Event ID: 11722
Task Category: None
Level: Error
Keywords: Classic
User: Janson-VI\JansonR
Computer: Janson-VI
Description:
Product: Start++ — Error 1722. There is a problem with this Windows Installer package. A program run as part of the setup did not finish as expected. Contact your support personnel or package vendor. Action _EBD45CB3_8805_4DAE_80F7_5412FEB2E0C4, location: C:\Program Files (x86)\Brandon Paddock\Start++\Start++.exe, command: /firstrun
Thanks Janson,
I updated the installer with a fix for that problem =)
Do you think there is a nice way to make Start++ connect to the search field in every explorer window?
This way, when I am browsing the computer folders, at any time even without going to the start menu – I could run any startlet. Maybe we just need to type “s: g searchTerms” so we would not search the computer for the “g searchTerms” but rather little s: would tell it to run the Start++?
Just a thought …
P.
http://www.VistaJuice.com
Or to add a taskbar-toolbar that had Start\Search and Start++ abilities, (so that you can have access to it from the desktop all the time?) Similar to “Windows Desktop Searches” Toolbar? (If this functionality already exists, when I just don’t know where it is??)
Ivan,
Just curious – but what advantage would that provide? Either way, it’s one-click then you start typing. And the Start Menu should always be visible. Plus you can’t beat the hotkey for the Start Menu!
Mainly for a consistent place to search between all Windows machines, (XP, Server, MCE, etc… and Vista) plus clicking and then typing is more cumbersome (not by a lot of anything 😛 ), usually I just do a Ctrl-Esc and start typing to get to the search bar…. what hotkey do you mean, do you mean?
I really ‘hope’ someone adds a toolbar but if not, oh well 🙁
I was referring to the fact that you only need to press the Windows key and then start typing. I’m just not sure what’s gained by having a seperate toolbar other than wasting space on the taskbar (unless it does something the Start Menu itself cannot do). On XP / 2003 machines, the WDS Deskbar has a lot of the same functionality.
Brandon said: “…WDS Deskbar has a lot of the same functionality…”
That is kinda what I meant above. At home I have a bunch of XPs, a 2003, and an MCE-2K5 and they all have the WDS toolbar, so there is a certain familiarity with using it for all searches, but in Vista you don’t have that as an option, so have to goto start first…. just seems a little dis-jointed. With things like tabbed browsers, toolbar grouping, there is usually lots of space on the bar, (I have a double-decker bar anyways)… but anyways its not a big deal… just would prefer one, is there anyway to make one?
Brandon – it’s great to have some of the WDS shortcut functionality back in Vista. WDS was a real killer app for me before starting up in the Vista beta and losing it. The best use I got out of it was with indexing the media files on my server – I could hit my Ctrl-Alt-M and type in “Heart of” and almost instantly – I have a few different versions of the Neil Young song ready to click and play. I got a lot of people on WDS with that.
I just started working with Windows Home Server this past week and with WDS installed on there indexing the content – I realized that Vista will use that index and the results come back just as fast as with XP WDS. So my question is – can I easily do a network search through the Vista Start Menu?
I dream of the day when once again, I can get my music search results returned with a few keystrokes.
And great job with Start++, I have used shortcuts like this in IE for years and had them setup in WDS, now to have them back in Vista is awesome!
Hi Brandon thanks for sorting that out. Now works a champ.
Regarding the spearate tool bar issue being discussed, one problem I have with the start search area is the lack of history, particulary as this was present in the deskbar. Other than being on the taskbar, another way to go would be to have this as a sidebar gadget, therefore always available.
Hi Brandon…Great job you did with Start++…I’m having some problems with the dictionary look-up :
http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/8727/desktopqp0.jpg
I tried to copy the example syntax for http://www.Answer.com but when I start searching it does nothing but open Start++.
Another problem : how can I write the syntax for such online dictionary as http://dcs.lacviet.com.vn/WebMtd/webmtd.aspx
as it doesn’t show the search string as others…
Hope you get what I mean…Please excuse my English…^_^
Hi Tran –
One problem you might be hitting is that the shortcuts are case-sensitive. So if you’re typing “A†instead of “a†for your Answer.com shortcut, it won’t work. What you type in the start menu has to match what’s in the config UI. I’ll have that fixed in the next update. Let me know if you still have problems with that one.
As for the other, if the parameters aren’t in the URL, you won’t be able to replace them. At least not in the current version.
Do you happen to know of anyway that I can use these with a Control Panel item. I want to tie the Programs and Features to the word “remove” but I can’t seem to find how I can link to Control Panel items. In previous versions of Windows Control Panel items had a filetype of *.cpl but it looks like Vista ditched that formatting.
If you happen to know how this might work I would be very happy to know. 🙂
Hey!
Thanks for the [accessory!] It goes along nicely with my somewhat expiring version of Ultimate. (I just haven’t had the time to get my educational serial from school.)
Again, thanks! I love the music /m3u feature… It rocks.
Hi,
Fantastic search tool and really really fast, absolutely love it.
One problem, I can’t get the media seraches etc. to work when I type play whatever, media player opens and gives an error message saying that it can’t open that type of file. I think the problem is that I have a space in my username as it seems to be looking for a file in c:\users\ken instead of c:\users\ken mccarthy.
cheers
Ken