Most of our day happens in a terminal, an editor and a browser. The slowest part was everything in between: digging through the Start menu, clicking into File Explorer to find a config file, opening a browser tab just to search GitHub.
We fixed most of that with one tool: Flow Launcher. It is a free, MIT licensed launcher for Windows 10 and 11. You press a hotkey, type, and press Enter. This is how we set it up for development work, and the habits that stuck.
Install it in one line
If you already use a package manager, pick one:
winget install Flow-Launcher.Flow-Launcher
scoop install Flow-Launcher
choco install Flow-Launcher
The project README also lists winget install "Flow Launcher". We prefer the full package ID because it is exact and works well in setup scripts.
There is a normal installer and a portable zip on the GitHub releases page too. Only download from there or flowlauncher.com. Windows may show a SmartScreen warning on first install, and the README mentions this. If you got the file from the official repo, it is fine to continue.
Once installed, press Alt+Space. That is the default hotkey, and you can change it in Settings (Ctrl+I from the search window). We also turned on "start with Windows" straight away.
The built-in keywords worth learning
Flow is plugin based. Most core plugins answer with no prefix at all, so you can just type an app name. A few use an action keyword, and those are the ones that make it feel like a dev tool.
Run shell commands with >
> git status
> code .
> wsl --list --verbose
> ipconfig /flushdns
Press Enter to run. Press Ctrl+Shift+Enter to run it as administrator, which saves opening an elevated terminal for one command. You can choose which shell it uses (cmd or PowerShell) in the Shell plugin settings.
Search the web by keyword
The Web Searches plugin ships with keywords for common sites. These are the ones we use every day:
github flow launcher plugin
stackoverflow powershell splatting
gist dotfiles
wiki utf-8
Plain text with no keyword falls back to Google by default, which you can change. You can also add your own searches. We added one for MDN and one for our internal docs by giving each a URL with {q} in it.
Find files and file contents
The Explorer plugin handles files and folders. Typing a path like C:\dev\ lets you browse into folders from the search box. doc: searches inside file contents instead of file names:
doc: connectionString
Small things that add up
b react docs # browser bookmarks
s environment # Windows settings, e.g. "Edit environment variables"
kill node # end a stuck process
128*1024 # calculator, Enter copies the result
? # list every plugin's action keyword
kill node alone has saved us a lot of trips to Task Manager when a dev server will not let go of a port.
Make file search fast with Everything
Out of the box, file search uses the Windows Search index. It works, but it skips folders and it is slow on big repos. Flow can use Everything from voidtools instead, which indexes every file name on NTFS drives and returns results almost instantly.
winget install voidtools.Everything
Then open Settings, go to the Explorer plugin and switch the search engine to Everything. If Everything is not running, Flow shows a warning result in file searches, and selecting it can install Everything for you.
After switching, searching for appsettings.Development.json across a dozen repos takes no time at all.
Install plugins from the search box
This is the part we like most. The plugin manager is a plugin itself, with the keyword pm:
pm install github
pm install window walker
pm update
pm uninstall <name>
There is also a visual Plugin Store in Settings if you want to browse first. Plugins can be written in C#, F#, Python or JavaScript. If something you need is missing, writing your own is a real option.
Some community plugins listed in the official README that fit dev work:
- GitHub: search repos, issues and pull requests.
- Window Walker: switch between open windows by typing their title. This is great with many terminal and editor windows open.
- Clipboard+: clipboard history inside Flow.
- Colors: preview and convert color codes.
We keep the list short. Every plugin adds results, and too many makes the top result less predictable.
Shortcuts we use without thinking
| Keys | What it does |
|---|---|
| Alt+Space | Open Flow |
| Enter | Run the top result |
| Ctrl+Enter | Open the containing folder |
| Ctrl+Shift+Enter | Run as administrator |
| Ctrl+Shift+C | Copy the file or folder path |
| F1 | Toggle the preview panel |
| Ctrl+I | Open settings |
| Ctrl+F12 | Toggle Game Mode (pauses the hotkey) |
The preview panel is underrated. Press F1 on a markdown or text file and you get a highlighted preview, so you can check it is the right README.md before opening it.
Tips we actually use
-
Pin your projects folder. Typing
C:\dev\and then the repo name, then Ctrl+Enter, opens the folder in Explorer. A> code C:\dev\repocommand opens it in VS Code. - Lean on fuzzy matching. You rarely need to type a full app name; a few letters or an acronym is usually enough.
- Use Dialog Jump. In an Open or Save As dialog, Alt+G jumps to the folder that is open in your file manager. No more navigating the dialog by hand.
- Set plugin priority. If Bookmarks keeps beating Programs for a name, raise the priority of the plugin you want in Settings.
-
Know where your settings live. Type
flow user datato open the settings folder (%APPDATA%\FlowLauncherfor a normal install). Back it up with your dotfiles.
What we would change
Flow is not perfect. The first run feels busy until you trim plugins, and the default Windows Search index makes file search seem worse than it is. Five minutes in Settings fixes both. Alt+Space can also clash with the window menu in some apps, so pick another hotkey if that bothers you.
Over to you
What is the one launcher keyword or plugin you use every day? If you run Flow, PowerToys Run or something else, we would love to hear what your setup looks like in the comments.
We first wrote about Flow Launcher on Windows Mode.
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