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Wox is a launcher for Windows, an alternative to Alfred and Launchy. You can launch everything with just a few keystrokes!

https://github.com/Wox-launcher/Wox



Dl @ https://github.com/Wox-launcher/Wox/releases

Requires .net 3.5 to run

Tested: Portable

Settings: Application folder

ghacks review is at http://www.ghacks.net/2016/03/15/wox-windows-launcher/

Would be a great modern launcher if it wasn't so bloated. The bundled Python takes up 20Mb disk space, while the default Plugins take up another 30Mb. The Wox process chews off of more memory than running fully-configured Listary, FARR, AHK and QAP combined. Adding the Everything process to that tally increases the margin substantially. And this is without indexing anything yet; just running it. Plus, it doesn't close the Everything process when exiting the program, which is slightly annoying.

So basically the only pros are the eye-candy, list of plugins and its active development. As far as performance goes, there are other programs which provide exponentially more functionality at an exponentially lower memory and disk usage toll.

I tried it and quickly deleted it. I agree with shnbwmn's assessment.

Good lord that's a sharp program demonstration. How in the heck did they make that?

File Data

• 
  Filename: Wox-v1.2.0-beta.2.zip
  Size: 20.7 megs
  MD5: 2D145AC64BF67742EE9115235587BE3A
  SHA1: 62A908583AA17DA8CF0741ECC2CA021747B9E9C6
  SHA256: 313004868749CB7F6297C193E462B1B8A8533988C77D700440AE6D1D74A6922D
  VirusTotal Rating: 0/55
  VirusTotal URL: https://www.virustotal.com/file/3130048 ... /analysis/
  

Update on this:

webfork wrote:Good lord that's a sharp program demonstration. How in the heck did they make that?

The author explains how he made it here: https://github.com/Wox-launcher/Wox/issues/533 ... I'm doubly impressed that it was done entirely with open source (GPL) tools:

1. use carnac to visualize keystroke
2. use sharex to record gif and upload it

You can also try this combined solution -- KeyCastOW

----

[Moderator note: posts about Carnac were given their own thread. KeyCastOW has still not been tested.]

@I am Baas
Wox version 1.2.900 is not portable- it writes to C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\Wox and the Wox folder contains 4 sub-folders (Cache, Logs, Plugins, Settings). I had a look at Settings.json but I didn't find a way how to make Wox portable.

I didn't find a way to disable a plug-in either- when I check the "Disable" box it is not remembered. For me the best plug-in is Web Searches.

In short- I will remove Wox- not portable, not very customizable (the search/launch bar is huge and it seems its size cannot be changed), bulky and heavy.

@smaragdus

Thanks.

The version of Wox that I tested; v1.2.0-beta.2, is portable.

You are correct about the latest Wox release; all data is saved in %APPDATA% folder (April 27, 2016) and it now requires .NET Framework 4.5.2 to run (April 19, 2016).

@mod
Please move to freeware that are not portable sub-forum. Cheers.

By the way hasn't anyone noticed that Windows 10 desktop looks like a prison cell window? This is smart since the user is no longer a user but a prisoner and M$ is the only light that is permitted to penetrates the darkness of the cell.

I broke out of that prison, smaragdus. But guess what I found out there! The same old post-nuclear world of mine ...

Flow Launcher looks very simular to wox, made in dotnet I believe, claims to be portable (has setting "store data in app folder") - has plugins (incl one that works with Everything)

Website https://www.flowlauncher.com/
Code https://github.com/Flow-Launcher/Flow.Launcher

Pretty heavy download at 186mb but for those who like this sort of thing perhaps of interest and investigate

Screenshot

DELETED

Well, most such programs can do a bit more than simply start programs, from direct calculations, starting a search, (start to) composing an email, find files etc so it saves a step (start browser, then do search etc).
From feedback on lintalist I learned some people use lintalist as a sort of launcher too.
So basically they can "do or start it all" with one program which is I suspect is the attraction of "launchers" in general.