Dash – Quicksilver for Windows
Yes, this is The Apple Blog. However, as many of our readers cross over [to the dark side] for work, or maybe aspire to be mac owners one day, i think it’s useful to point out Dash for Windows. So who cares? Any Quicksilver users out there should care, at least if they’re frequently stuck in the world of Windows.
Dash is the latest attempt for the Microsoft platform to emulate the power, flexibility, and usefuleness of Blacktree’s Quicksilver. There have been several popping up in the past year, with just as many disappointments (in this Quicksilver-addict’s opinion). But on the surface, Dash seems to be a great step in the right direction. It’s clean, and looks mighty fine, and the functionality is even fairly fluid – at least moreso than it’s Windows-based competition.
Worth a try if you spend more than a little time on Windows…Course it’ll cost you $20 to register under the special pre-release pricing – $50 normally. (Quicksilver by the way, is free.)
Jono on July 19th, 2007 at 7:32 am
Yea, I have to cross over to the dark side now & then (for work purposes you understand :)
I’ve used Launchy in the past which is nice, but it only launches apps. Dash could help heal the pain of using Windows but I wouldn’t pay $50 for it.
Tried it on Vista & got lots of error messages & crashes. Worked OK on XP though.
Chris Hudson on July 19th, 2007 at 8:17 am
Have been looking for something like this for ages, but I wouldn’t pay for it. Yet another reason why I prefer OSX over Windows. If this carries on (Unable to find the right software) I will write one myself.
Lime on July 19th, 2007 at 6:08 pm
haha pay? for something with the fraction of the power of quicksilver. That can sod off
Launchy is terrible, just launches apps and is very flaky with opening and maintaining focus.
Colibri is ok but again just launches and its recognition is flaky “Notepad” should not bring up anything other than notepad yet it brought up one of those “Add and change blah blah settings for this and that” shortcuts
That humanized one is terrible, makes closing an app a chore and charges a stupid price tag.
steve on July 20th, 2007 at 8:42 am
i find myself pushing alt space a lot at work and being really frustrated.
Robert on July 21st, 2007 at 4:14 pm
Give Keybreeze a try. It can do everything Dash does and more, and it’s also free.
Jason on July 22nd, 2007 at 10:24 pm
To be fair, Quicksilver has been out for several years now. Dash is just at pre-release.
Also, I got a glance at the SDK documentation directly from the developers and on paper it looks more powerful than Quicksilver in terms of architecture. Dash is not limited to a 3-pane system like QS is. They are calling it a Lexical User Interface (whatever that means).
We’ll just have to wait and see.
Mark on July 27th, 2007 at 1:15 pm
There is also Enso which is a different take on the Quicksilver for windows bit. Its a sorta just-in-time command line. It’s not as powerful yet as Quicksilver (it was launched just a bit ago) but if you watch the movie on the front page, it could definetly become just as (if not more) powerful. It is also nice to not see just another Quicksilver clone, but something actually new.
Tobin on July 31st, 2007 at 7:53 pm
Yeah I agree I like the different approach of Dash and Enso. Natural language structure is the future.
Dominick on November 11th, 2007 at 7:06 pm
DOMercury is fast becoming the Windows equivalent for quicksilver, it is free, skinnable, updated frequently, and supports plugins. Not only can it launch programs, but it can also find currently running programs and perform actions on that, as well as file management and a host of other features.
PBarrick on October 9th, 2008 at 8:58 pm
Well after trying Enso, Dash and Domercury I have to say I am sold on Dash. I am really into free stuff but Dash is money well spent in my opinion (in some respects it is even better than Quicksilver, and that’s saying something). If you can’t afford it try Launchy, it’s not spectacular but not horrible.
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