Just thought I should post this to emphasize how compact the program really is. With my configuration I now have 153 shortcuts at my fingertips, organized by category.



How's that for an uncluttered desktop?

If you wonder about the background it is one of 14 images in a free theme called Autumn in Sweden from Microsoft Store.

I have an update in the pipeline. If anybody has any problems or enhancement requests, now would be a good time to let me know.

Waddayaknow! Last night when I was about to go to sleep I remembered what my idea was. And this time I was ready for it. I had pen and paper on my bedside table. So I jotted down my idea. Grit your teeth, Sandman! 

So this morning I woke up and I looked at my notes. Was that shorthand? It reminded me of a quote from - I think - Foyle's War. "I can write shorthand, but I can't read it." Or maybe those were runes? Well, they almost "runed" my morning. Almost, but they were enough to jog my memory, and I could remember what my idea was.

I thought that it would be neat if one could take a registry key in regedit and drag it into GsyLaunch, so you could open regedit at that key with just a push of a button. Well, obviously such a feature would have a rather limited target audience. Possibly only people who are into software development or IT support. But I'm doing this primarily for my own use, so why not?

So that raised two questions.
1) Can you drag-and-drop from regedit?
2) Can you start regedit with a registry key as a command line argument?
The answer to those questions turned out to be "no" and "no".

Bummer! But maybe, just maybe, there could be a way to create such a regedit button in a slightly more roundabout way than just drag-and-drop. It would be nice, even if nobody else but me would use it. We'll see.  (Okay, it's not that exciting)

Found a couple of minor bugs to fix, so here is GsyLaunch 2.2.0 with the possibility of using regedit with a key name, as previously described.

Even if you don't plan to use the regedit function, you might want to read about it in the help file. The section about how it was accomplished is rather interesting, I think.

Sometimes I think that my brain is my enemy.

OK, let me explain. I get an idea for a new feature in one of my programs. I give it some thought, but I dismiss it because I feel that there is way too much work for very little added value. And that should be the end of that. But ...

The idea nestles somewhere in the wrinkles of my brain. It stays there. It grows. I just can't shake it. Then that little voice inside my head says "It's just too difficult for you, isn't it? You're just not good enough." So now it's a challenge. And I need to do it.

That's just what happened here. The initial idea was that it would be nice to be able to select an icon for a button that was different from the default associated icon. I knew that programs can contain more than one icon, so I wanted to be able to select any icon from a program, a dll or an icon file. I Googled how to extract all icons from a program, and it looked like a headache. And so I nixed the idea and forgot about it. Almost. But not totally.

So I Googled some more and found that a Japanese guy named Tsuda Kageyu had developed a dll for extracting icons. Cool! But that just eliminated one of the hurdles. Still a lot of work on saving/loading the information, new window for selecting icons etc. But by now there is of course no return. I have to do it.

So, who needs it? Well, I like to use it for non-program buttons. If I save shortcuts to different folders, they all get the same folder icon. A more descriptive icon would be helpful. And the same goes for web links. Somewhat useful, but not really worth the effort. But here it is anyway.

In the process I found a couple of nasty bugs that would cause problems if you had some special characters in tab names, or in some of the button properties. So at least fixing that had some real value.

So, bottom line, I have just released version 2.3 of GsyLaunch. Enjoy!

Quoting mediadogg:

Quote:
Looks like to you are getting into Windows App Store territory with that amount of functionality and innovation. Could maybe finance a couple of cold beers?

Nah, I have enough money for my needs. I do this just for fun.
Besides, Windows Store is only for UWP apps, unless I'm mistaken, so that would mean a complete rewrite from WPF.

I'm kind of like Ferdinand the Bull. "He liked to sit just quietly and smell the flowers." I may not sit and smell the flowers, but I am quite happy with things as they are. And a cold beer now and then. 

(This 1938 short is shown as part of a Disney show that has been aired every Christmas Eve since 1971, so everyone in Sweden knows this more or less by heart. Actually the show has been aired since 1960, but Ferdinand was not initially part of it. Some of the contents has changed over the years, but much of it is still the same.)

GsyLaunch 2.5.0
Just a small enhancement and a minor GUI enhancement.


You can now change the description and icon for Special Command buttons, such as Restart.


The "Paste button" context menu item is only enabled if there is actually a copied button that can be pasted.

No biggies. Just trying to make things work in a consistent and logical manner.

Quoting zappman:

Quote:
I just down loaded and installed GsyLaunch 2.5.0
I am using it for shortcuts to games, including Steam Games.
Thanks for the nice program 

Glad you found it useful, zappman.