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· Dec 15, 2024 2m read

ISCLauncher - Get immediate access to InterSystems knowledge and support records!

For 15 over years I have been playing with ways to speed up the way I use InterSystems systems and technology via AutoHotkey scripting.  As a power keyboard user (I avoid my mouse when possible) I found it very helpful to set up hotkeys to get to my most frequently accessed systems and research utilities as quickly as possible.  While I have used this approach for many years, this is the first time that I am introducing my approach and a customer-facing hotkey script to the D.C. and OEx...

ISCLauncher is a hotkey program based on AutoHotKey (Windows scripting language) which provides quick access a number of useful InterSystems resources and online systems (Windows OS only). Use it to quickly access the following InterSystems resources:

To try it out for yourself, use the "Download' button on the ISCLauncher Open Exchange listing, which will pull down a Zip file from which you can extract the contents.  Run the ISCLauncher.exe and you will see the following in your Windows SysTray:

To pull up the Help screen so you can see all of the things that it can do, once you are running ISCLauncher, press [Ctrl]+[Windows]+[?]:

 

The power of ISCLauncher is that it can turn plain text into a hyperlink.  E.g. If you have an ID from a WRC, iService or CCR record in an email, chat or notes, simply highlighting the record ID and using the appropriate hotkey will allow you to just directly to that record.  See a demo for a CCR lookup below ([Ctrl]+[Windows]+[c]):

To access a record even faster, use ISC Uber-Key ( [Ctrl]+[Windows]+[Space] ) to try to automatically determine the record type and navigate immediately there (credit to @Chad Severtson for the original ISC Uber-Key code from years ago!).

In addition to WRC, iService and CCR records - do quick searches against things like InterSystems Documentation ([Ctrl]+[Windows]+[b]
) or the Developer Community ([Ctrl]+[Windows]+[d]):

Make this tool even more powerful by adding your own hotkeys for things that you frequently type or open on your desktop.  For some inspiration, here is my personal launcher which I have tuned over the years:

Have ideas how to make this more powerful?  Add comments below.  Also, once this is in GitHub you can feel free to create PRs with your suggestions.  

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