DMT Launcher

Launch your favourite applications with a few key strokes and position them at pre-configured positions on any of your monitors.

Launcher works by allowing you to associate a 'magic word' with each application you want to be easily able to start. You can also specify up to 4 different starting locations for the main window associated with the application.

When you want to launch a particular application, you first press the Launcher hotkey and then start typing in the 'magic word' for that application. Launcher will try and guess the 'magic word' you are typing so you won't normally have to type it all in. When the correct 'magic word' is displayed, you can press <Return>, <F1>, <F2>, <F3> or <F4> to open it up at a pre-configured location on one of your monitors.

Launcher can also be used to open folders in Windows Explorer, websites in your browser and can run any of the operations provided by the modules within DMT.

'Magic Word' Entry

Magic word entry

If you press the Launcher hotkey, then the 'Magic Word' entry form is displayed.

Initially this displays icons for the 8 'magic words' that you have used the most, although this is configurable. As you start typing your 'magic word', only the icons for the 'magic words' that start with the same letters that you have typed are displayed. Also the edit box highlights the rest of the word that it thinks you are typing. You can either continue typing until it displays the 'magic word' you want or you can use the up and down arrow keys to cycle through the alternatives or you can click on the corresponding icon with the mouse.

When ready, just press <Return>, <F1>, <F2>, <F3> or <F4> to open the application at the desired location.

'Magic Words' options

Magic Words options

This shows the 'magic words' that are currently defined and allows you to manage them.

Add/Edit Magic Word

To edit an existing 'magic word', you can double click on the 'magic word' in the Magic Words options, or use the 'Edit' button.

To add a new 'magic word', you can:

  • Use the context menu of the icon in the notification area.
  • Use the 'Add' button in the 'Magic Words' options.
  • Press the hotkey for adding the current application.

Add/Edit Magic Word

For most applications, the only two fields that need to be filled in are 'Magic word' and 'Filename'.

'Magic words' are not case sensitive and may contain spaces and other punctuation characters.

'Filename' can be one of the following:

  • Path including extension to the executable to be run.
  • Path including extension to a document you want opened.
  • Path to a directory, which will get opened in Windows Explorer.
  • A URL to be opened by your default browser.
  • A DMT command - use the "Internal Command" button for this.

The essential details of this form will be automatically filled out for you if you use any of the following methods:

  • Use the 'Add new Magic Word' hotkey when the application you want to add is the active application.
  • Drag the top crosshair over the window belonging to the application you want to add.
  • Drag the application/document from Windows Explorer onto the Add Magic Word form.

The bottom crosshair on the form can be used to select the position and size for any of the 4 locations by dragging the crosshair over a window that is at the desired position. Remember to check the 'Position window on startup' if you want the location to be used.

When entering the magic word in the entry form, if you press <Return> or <F1>, then the application will be started up at position 1, if specified. Similarly <F2>,<F3> and <F4> will open up at Start Position 2/3/4.

'HotKeys' options

HotKeys options

Activate Magic Word input

This allows you to define the hotkey to being up the 'magic word' entry form.

Add Magic Word for current application

This defines a hotkey which will allow you to add a 'magic word' for the current application.

'General' options

Keys tab

Use most recently used in auto completion (instead of most used)

Determines how the auto completion works in the 'magic word' entry form.

Load Magic Words on startup

Normally your magic words are not loaded until they are first needed. Selecting this means the magic words will be loaded when DMT first starts up. This may make starting up a bit slower, but the first time you try to enter a magic word, it should be a bit more responsive.

Maximum number of icons to display

This is the number of icons to display in the magic word entry form.

Display Icons in

Allows you to change the way icons are displayed in the magic word entry form.

Timeout for application window to appear

Changes how long to wait until the application window appears. See How the positioning works for further details.

'Import / Export' options

Keys tab

These buttons allow you to save/load the 'magic words' to/from a file.

Starting up multiple applications at the same time

It is possible to have multiple applications with the same 'magic word' so that when that 'magic word' is entered they are all started up at the same time. Also the same application can be added multiple times with different 'magic words'.

Internal Commands

When first run, Launcher will generate magic words for all of the internal commands available within DMT. For example the magic word "NextScreen" will be added to move the active window to the next screen.

How the positioning works (and why it sometimes doesn't)

When you launch an application via its 'magic word', Launcher will start waiting for the applications window to open. If an application first launches a splash screen or perhaps some other dialog box first, then it is important that Launcher can detect the correct window as being the main window. To do this you can specify the Window class and/or a regular expression to match against the window's caption. There is a configurable timeout (60 seconds by default) after which Launcher will give up looking for the window. In most cases specifying the windows class is the best route, except for applications that use the same window class for the splash screen and the main window, or those that generate a different class name every time they run. A bit of experimentation should reveal the best terms to use.

Some applications go out of their way to take full control of their startup position, so Launcher will not be able to position all applications. Most browsers fall into this category.

Also applications which use their own launcher to run another application will not work unless you can find the command line used to run the launched application.