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ASH Will Make All Your Dreams Come True

Aaron #591 Fri, May 27th 2005 32 [ Read: First / Last ]

I have a problem in that my Start menu (yes, I use windows - you got a problem with that toughguy?) is really big. So big that it's impossible to use without heavy swearing. So I wrote this little program called ASH which lets me do things much much faster.

The idea behind ASH is you stick all of your commonly used shortcuts - and even your semi-commonly used ones, into the folder with ASH. Then you hit Win key-Space, and the ASH box comes up. You type in the first few letters of the desired shortcut, hit Enter, and it's running. I went from around 10 seconds to find a shortcut and double click it, to under 1 second. This is version 1, so I make no claims, but if this sounds interesting to you, give it shot and let me know what you think.

Comments: 32

Guest:999 - #1 Fri, May 27th 2005 @ 1:48 PM 171 words

	Aaron - #2 Fri, May 27th 2005 @ 1:52 PM 12 words
	You are an extremely emotionally unstable individual. Welcome to SaneAsylum!

Guest:Guest - #3 Sat, May 28th 2005 @ 10:26 AM 15 words
	It reminds to me to one of the things that quicksilver does on the MacOS.

Guest:Pseudophed - #4 Sat, May 28th 2005 @ 9:12 PM 84 words

If you just make .lnk shortcuts, and put them in c:\windows\system32, you can then access them by hitting WIN+R to whip out the Run... dialog, and then you can just call up the links by name, and you don't even need to type the extension. i have a handful of the useful programs like gaim, kmel, and a few of my favorite games.

good idea, but windows already has this sort of thing built into at least XP.

Aaron - #5 Sat, May 28th 2005 @ 9:32 PM 134 words

I am aware of that, and I was using that exact method for awhile. The problem comes when you want to do other stuff. For instance, I have a batch file called ping.bat, which automatically adds "/t" to the command. I can't have that in system32 because it would conflict with the ping.exe that already exists there.

Plus, that directory has lots of things in it. I wanted a folder that I could manage easily, and not be worried about renaming/deleting whatever's in there because I was the one that created it.

Additinally, hitting winkey space in my opinion is much easier than winkey r.

To each his own though. But I get a hell of a lot of use out of this.

Guest:Pseudophed - #6 Sun, May 29th 2005 @ 1:19 AM 58 words
	Try naming ping.bat something else like png.bat or something? Or you could ust tell Run... to run simply "ping.lnk", couldn't you? Good point with the lots-of-files argument, but if you only add .lnk files then you should be okay anyway, just Sort by Type and only look at .lnk files, right?

	Aaron - #7 Sun, May 29th 2005 @ 7:54 PM 70 words
	Except I'm not just running .lnk files. I have EXEs that I've wrote, AutoIt scripts, Kix scripts, Internet shortcuts, a few documents. It would be impossible to manage if they weren't in one folder. ASH can also be placed wherever you like, and reappear there every time. In the end, ASH does not replace the Run box, it simply works along side it.

Guest:Sico - #8 Mon, May 30th 2005 @ 6:26 AM 47 words
	so why not just add a new environment variable/path, stick your programs in there (or shortcuts). there's no need to put in windows/system32/ then. i've done this for years. as for the ping.bat / ping.exe, just use a different name even.

Aaron - #9 Mon, May 30th 2005 @ 12:49 PM 131 words

I've tried that as well.

The problem is that I use many different computers other than my main one at work. I can start ASH.exe running on any other computer, and it is intelligent enough to know that anything I ask it to run is in the same directory as itself.

It's also nice to look at. It's smaller, it fades and out in nicely, and I can have it appear anywhere I like. It also quits if I change focus to another application.

Again, I started with the Run box, but now that I've reached it's limitations I use ASH. It's like asking someone to use a bicycle after they've already got their driver's license.

Guest:Gamecat - #10 Mon, May 30th 2005 @ 1:24 PM 81 words

Alternatively, you could just download "Daves Quick Searchbar". It lives on the taskbar, win-s gives it focus (or of course you can just click it) then just type in your alias. (You can create aliases within the user config file from the menu). It has auto-complete and historical memory, so very useful. Extendable too, lots of addons available on the site mostly to enable easier searching, but there are a wide variety.

Aaron - #11 Mon, May 30th 2005 @ 4:17 PM 116 words

I've used that as well. It annoyed me though. I'd rather write my own extensions. I have a spellcheck, a search, numerous site-specific searches. I may upload them later, but one could easily replicate their functionality via this method.

ASH breaks everything you type into separate components. The first word is the keyword it searches for, (and you don't have to type the whole word, just enough to distinguish it from the other words.) Every following word is passed as an operator to whatever it finds.

I don't claim that it's superior, but it's perfect for my needs. I just thought I'd share it.

Lexy - #12 Mon, May 30th 2005 @ 5:48 PM 231 words

Aaron, don't listen to these playa-hatas. They be mad illin and whatnot. I've been using this since you posted it, and I hate to admit it, but I'm hooked. I removed all of my cute little icons, and now I can get everywhere I need to be super duper fast.

I haven't tried what these other fellas suggested, but I really don't feel like goofin' around in my Windows folders, or messin' with my "path". I just made shortcuts to all of the websites I go to, and all of the programs I use, and I like it a lot. The Google one is really sexy, but the Lucky one is even sexier.

I hereby state that I will make the sex with any jerkface who can honestly convince me that there is anything bad about this thingy. But you can't, because there isn't. So there, jerkface.

I do have one tiny request though, is there any way to change the color? Like when it changes to red when you make a mistake? Could it start up purple for instance? No biggie, but it would be effin nifty.

p.s. I'm sorry I called you jerkfaces what you are, but you are. You are just mad because you never get to make the sex.

Guest:TheMJ - #13 Wed, Jun 1st 2005 @ 4:54 PM 18 words
	OOO! OOO! could I have the source plz? AutoIt? im.the.mj[at]gmail.com thx!

	Aaron - #14 Wed, Jun 1st 2005 @ 8:39 PM 18 words
	Well, do you promise to send improvements back? I could roll any good improvements into the official version.

Guest:AndrewTheTechie - #15 Thu, Jun 2nd 2005 @ 8:48 AM 30 words
	Very nice Aaron. After downloading this, I have used it quite a bit. Any improvement in my efficiency gives me more time to surf the internet at work. Nice job!

	Aaron - #16 Thu, Jun 2nd 2005 @ 2:54 PM 29 words
	I am glad you like it. Someday I will post the multitude of keywords I'm writing to use with it, which make it so much cooler...

Guest:AndrewTheTechie - #17 Thu, Jun 2nd 2005 @ 5:55 PM 14 words
	That would be awesome. I've already added a bunch of keywords to mine!

Guest:Hep - #18 Fri, Jun 3rd 2005 @ 9:32 AM 68 words
	firefox and konqueror have the keyword function, probably other browsers too (for firefox in a bookmark address put %s in place of the keyword). the only thing that really gets me is the gui. the colour clashes terribly and the fading annoys me a little. there seems to be something wrong with the tray control but i don't use it so it's all cool.

Aaron - #19 Fri, Jun 3rd 2005 @ 10:23 AM 143 words

I was considering a configuration panel that would let you set the color and fading. I will get working on that. Maybe it could even let you opt to spawn a basic, no frills dialog box instead.

I am aware of Firefox's keyword abilities (very cool), and they only advantage ASH has is that you don't have to be in Firefox to start using it - I like how ASH give you a central keyword control location. However, Firefox's keywords are somewhat easier to create. Let me work on that.

As for the tray control, what happens? This software is essentially beta, so there may still be some things to work out. In the mean time, you can launch ASH.exe with a program called Winkey, which is what I used back when I started developing it.

	Aaron - #20 Fri, Jun 3rd 2005 @ 1:58 PM 29 words
	Okay, I have a new version of ASH that I'm working on that will replace %s in .URL files with the search term. It's working pretty well.

Guest:MadMixx - #21 Sun, Jun 5th 2005 @ 10:52 AM 9 words
	this one is quite handy. thx alot!

Guest:Hep - #22 Sun, Jun 5th 2005 @ 12:23 PM 58 words
	the "script paused" option is checked automatically when i open the menu. it unpauses when i select the menu option though. seeing as it only happens if you're going to pause it anyway (*though i don't know why you would) i suppose it could called intuitive.

	Aaron - #23 Mon, Jun 6th 2005 @ 12:09 AM 19 words
	Ah, well, don't do that. You launch ASH by pressing Winkey-Space, while the tray control is running.

	Aaron - #24 Tue, Jun 7th 2005 @ 4:55 PM 35 words
	The new version will be compatible with all web shortcuts dragged and dropped from YubNub, as they are using the same "%s" format that firefox uses.

Guest:LycoLoco - #25 Thu, Jun 9th 2005 @ 9:23 AM 115 words

Very cool, and there's actually another program out there called slickrun that does the same kind of thing. I'm not sure what the footprint for memory on each would be, but it's worth checking out. I rarely use my mouse anymore to start programs, which is the greatest part of it. www.bayden.com if you're interested in the differences. You actually don't need to make the shortcuts for SR, but feel free to check it out! smile

Oh, and very nice job on ASH by the way (didn't want ya to think that I was putting your program down!)

Guest:Canary - #26 Sun, Apr 16th 2006 @ 4:46 PM 130 words

I dunno if this is the best place to post it, but i love this program to death and just recently i started having problems with it. whenever i use it now, i just get this error:

AutoIT Error:
line 0 (file f:\Program Files\Ash\Ash.exe):
RunWait(@ComSpec & ' /c dir "'& $scriptdir & $aw & '*.*" /b > ""& @TempDir &"\awlast.txt"',"", @SW_HIDE)
Error: Unable to execute the external program.
The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process.

sorry for the length, but i'm no programmer and i can't do anything but mourn the loss of what was the single most useful program i run. Any help for it? I've tried cleaning it out and reinstalling it.

	Aaron - #27 Mon, Apr 17th 2006 @ 6:30 AM 73 words
	The problem lies with "awlast.txt". ASH's last few commands that it ran are held in awlast.txt. Open up your task manager (ctrl-alt-del, click task manager), and end the process ASH.exe. Then delete awlast.txt. Then start ASH again. Let me know if that solves it. I will post a new version of ASH here soon, so hopefully this won't affect you for too long.

Aaron - #28 Mon, Apr 17th 2006 @ 10:49 PM 86 words

I noticed that you seem to be running ASH from F: - is that by chance a network drive? If so, and you have it running on a second computer at the same time, the awlast.txt file may have trouble with being opened in both locations.

If it's a USB drive, that should be no problem, but perhaps the USB key is locked in read only mode? Has anything changed on your system recently? Even something that might not be related to ASH?

Canary - #29 Tue, Apr 18th 2006 @ 7:54 PM 145 words

F:/ is my major data storing a program drive, c:/ is just system stuff, and a few programs.I install ASH to F: just because i install everything to F:/.

Now, i hate to say i did this, but i did make a fairly recent change to my system. I infected myself with some spyware etc, and in my haste to remove it i decided it'd be a good idea to delete everything in my temp drive. A lot of stuff has stopped working, or started working differently since then. I've tried to system restore a couple times, but i can't get one working that was before the change.

I'm not sure if they're connected, but i'm now also unable to launch the task manager, so i haven't been able to try your solution!

Aaron - #30 Wed, Apr 19th 2006 @ 6:21 AM 265 words

Whoa, my new theory is that you've got much bigger problems. I have run into a handful of trojans that prevent access to Task Manager so that you won't kill their process.

Do this: go into C:\Windows\system32 and find "taskmgr.exe". Make a copy of it, and name the copy something like "12345.exe". Now see if you can run that copy.

You probably have a process or two that is the trojan, and hopefully you can kill anything that shouldn't be there. The problem is that the trojan probaby renamed itself to something random or official-looking. so it wouldn't be picked up by anti-virus or anti-spyware software. It's a crapshoot to find and kill the right process, and then find and delete the corresponding exe. Try googling the name of every running process, and see if the Internet is familiar with the process or not.

Really in your situation, you might consider backing up all of your critical files to CD or USB, and reformatting the hard drive and reinstalling Windows. This is because you don't know what the spyware/trojan/virus has done to your machine. A friend of mine had something nasty installed that was recording his personal information as he typed it, like social security and credit card numbers to a file on his machine, where one must assume that the file was then sent to badguys somewhere.

Good luck, and let us know what happens - also, welcome to SaneAsylum!

	Aaron - #31 Wed, Apr 19th 2006 @ 6:28 AM 55 words
	Also, the reason I say "You probably have a process or two that is the trojan" is that some of them spawn two or more processes which both do the same thing, and keep each other running. Meaning, if you kill one process, it's brother detects that, and restarts it instantly. Insidious.

	Canary - #32 Mon, Apr 24th 2006 @ 2:04 PM 37 words
	It's taken me a while to get things fixed, since i had to move. I finally got everything cleaned up and ASH is working again. Thanks for your help, and i look forward to ASH v2

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