Flow Launcher and Everything

It always amazes me how some of the best pieces of software come from independent developers working on passion projects. Flow Launcher is a community driven, open source project that compiles the hard work of over 150 independent contributers on GitHub. The tool takes the versatility of Mac Spotlight Search (or Alfred if you have taste) and combines it with the clever indexing tactics used by the voidtools team.

Mac Spotlight Search and its big brother Alfred have always cast a shadow over the dumpster fire that is Windows search. Flow Launcher scratches the long awaited itch for a Windows counterpart of these tools… and it works better than I ever could have hoped. My most used features on Alfred are the calculator for quick calculations, searching my hard drive (which we’ll get to later), and launching apps. Off the bat, Flow Launcher ticks all of these boxes without any 3rd party integrations. But 3rd party integrations is where it heats up.

The Plugin Ecosystem

Flow Launcher has a booming plugin ecosystem ranging from system tools like managing your PATH environment environment to managing your clipboard history (a staple Alfred feature) to full control of your Notion pages, all from the same text box. You can execute shell commands with the prefix >, you can drag and drop files and folders from the search results into unfocused apps, and even open bluetooth settings with the settings prefix: s bluetooth. This last one has saved me countless seconds of browsing the app tray for the bluetooth icon.

Everything, Everywhere, All at Once

Now over to Everything. By itself, Everything is a great replacement to the inconsistent Windows search. Its key feature is by far its speed, quickly indexing the whole system with very little RAM usage. The addition or removal of files is instantly updated in the UI and search rankings are based on filename matched to your search, instead of whatever Windows thinks you’re looking for.

This is a fantastic app on its own, but it’s real power comes in when it is combined with Flow Launcher. In addition to its ability to install plugins, Flow Launcher also allows its default search engine to be changed from the Windows Index to Everything. Now, searching for files in Flow Launcher queries the Everything index, leading to not only faster, but also more accurate searching of your system files.

I have been using Flow Launcher and Everything for about a week now and still feel like I have only scratched the surface or what these tools can do. If you love finding new productivity apps or are a longtime Spotlight Search or Alfred user like I am, I would highly reccomend giving Flow Launcher and Everything a try.

You can see updates about Flow Launcher development on their GitHub page and as well as a link to give it a try on your own system. Everything is developed by voidtools and can be installed from their product page.