ALTRun

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A lightweight, open-source launcher for Windows, modeled on Alfred for macOS
Press Alt+Space, type a few letters, press Enter: apps, files, web search, calculations, clipboard and system commands, all from one window

Website · Why ALTRun · Getting started · Features · Shortcuts · Documentation (Wiki) · Changelog

• Tiny: under 1 MB to download and about 2 MB unpacked: one ALTRun.exe plus a few resource files, with no .NET, Electron or other runtime to install.
• Fast: results appear from the first character you type. With Everything running, it searches every file on your disks in milliseconds; without it, a built-in index is used.
• Smart ranking: learns from what you pick; matches word initials (vsc → Visual Studio Code) and pinyin initials (wx → 微信), and highlights the matched characters.
• Beyond launching: Quick Switch jumps an Open / Save dialog to a folder you already have open in Total Commander or Explorer; select text, files or a URL in any program and press Ctrl+Alt+\ to act on it; type ;keyword anywhere to expand a snippet.
• All in one: calculator and unit conversion, web search, browser bookmarks, clipboard history, text snippets, system commands and a terminal, so you don't need a handful of separate little tools.
• Keyboard first: → opens the action panel, a status bar shows what Enter does, F3 edits in place, Ctrl+1–Ctrl+9 open a result directly.
• Portable and private: no installer, no registry entries, no admin rights, no background service or driver; all data stays in the Data\ folder. No telemetry: it only goes online to check for and download updates (plus one exchange-rate download a day if currency conversion is turned on, and a site's icon only when you click "Download Site Icon").
• Automatic updates: new versions are announced in the search window; press Enter to install (SHA256 verified, settings kept). Scoop is supported too.
• Customizable: English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese and Japanese interface; 20 built-in themes (pick one from thumbnails in Preferences), or follow the Windows light / dark mode; themes and settings are plain JSON files.
• Free and open source: GPL-3.0; more than 7,000 tests run automatically on Windows for every pull request.

1. Download the latest release, unzip it to any folder and run ALTRun.exe (no installation, no AutoHotkey needed). If Windows SmartScreen says "Windows protected your PC", click More info → Run anyway; if your antivirus complains, see the FAQ.
2. Press Alt+Space (or Alt+R) to open the search window, type a name and press Enter. In Preferences you can switch to a double tap of Ctrl / Shift instead.
3. Type ? to see every syntax and shortcut; press Ctrl+, to open Preferences.

With AutoHotkey v2 installed, you can also run ALTRun.ahk from the source code directly.

Install with Scoop (creates a Start menu shortcut and keeps your settings across upgrades):

scoop bucket add altrun https://github.com/zhugecaomao/ALTRun
scoop install altrun
scoop update altrun    # upgrade (quit ALTRun first)

The winget manifest has been submitted; once it is accepted you can install with winget install zhugecaomao.ALTRun.

Upgrading: when a new version is available, the search window shows "Update Available"; press Enter to install it, and your settings are kept. Upgrading from an older version or from 2.x: see Installation and upgrades.

Search

• Search window: results update as you type, with a title and path for each; the window grows with the results, can be dragged and remembers its position, and opens on the screen with the mouse pointer when you have several monitors.
• Apps: Start menu, desktop and Microsoft Store apps are indexed automatically; press Ctrl+Del to hide apps or built-in commands you don't want, and restore them in Preferences.
• Match highlighting: the parts of a title that match what you typed (consecutive characters, word initials, pinyin initials) are highlighted.
• Files and folders: in an empty search box, press Space first and then type a name (or use 'report or open report). With Everything running it searches all disks, otherwise the built-in index; type a path such as D:\Projects\ to browse folder by folder.
• Custom commands: files, folders, programs (with arguments) and web addresses, each with an optional keyword. Add them from Explorer with right-click → Send to → ALTRun (several at once works too), and check for commands whose path no longer exists.
• Learned ranking: remembers which result you picked for each query and moves frequent picks up.
• Pinned and recent items: before you type anything, the window lists your pinned items and recently opened ones.
• Usage statistics: counts per day and per feature (only counts are recorded).
• Calculator: type an expression directly; supports unit conversion (10 km in mi), number bases (255 in hex), date arithmetic (today + 30 days) and optional currency conversion (100 usd to sgd).
• Web search: g keywords (Google), bd keywords (Baidu) and more; search engines are customizable, and web search is offered when nothing else matches.
• Browser bookmarks: searches Chrome, Edge, Brave and Vivaldi bookmarks; bm keywords searches bookmarks only.
• Window switcher: type a window title or program name to switch to an open window; w keywords searches windows only, w lists them all.
• System commands: lock, sleep, shut down, empty the Recycle Bin, volume and media control, Windows tools, more than 40 Windows Settings pages (Display, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and so on), and text conversions (case, sorting, Simplified / Traditional Chinese and more).

Productivity

• Action panel: select a result and press → (or right-click) to list what you can do with it, such as run as administrator, open file location, copy path, open a terminal here or show properties.
• Actions on selected content: select text, files or a URL in any program and press Ctrl+Alt+\ for actions such as web search, save as a snippet, or convert and replace the original text.
• Edit in place: press F3 to edit a command, snippet or search engine; apps and files can be turned into custom commands in one step.
• Clipboard history: press Ctrl+Alt+C or type clip. Records text, files and images; pin the ones you use often, paste as plain text, and ignore anything copied from password managers.
• Text snippets: search by name, keyword or content; placeholders such as {date}, {clipboard} and {cursor}; type ;keyword in any program to expand a snippet.
• Terminal: type >ipconfig /all to run it in a terminal.
• Large type: press Ctrl+L to show a result in full-screen large type, handy for phone numbers or calculation results.

Extensions

• Quick Switch: in an Open / Save dialog, press Ctrl+G to jump to the current Total Commander folder or Ctrl+E for the current Explorer folder; a folder panel next to the dialog lists every open and recently used folder.
• Date stamp: while renaming a file, press Ctrl+D to add or update a date before the extension (Report.docx → Report - 28.09.2026.docx).
• Custom hotkeys: assign a hotkey to any system command, optionally only inside specific programs.
• Scripts: put .ahk, .ps1, .bat or .py scripts into the Scripts\ folder and run them from the search window, with an argument, in the background or with their output shown.

For structural engineers

• Structural calculations (off by default): the calculator can add beam main bars and rebar area below its result.
• PT Tools: rebar / BRC mesh area calculations and SPF2M post-tensioning tendon profiles, with results you can copy to Excel.

Search window	Action panel (→)
File search (Space + name)	Search by file type (doc + name)
Calculator	Pinyin initials (jsb finds 记事本, Notepad)
Clipboard history (clip)	Pinned and recent items (empty search box)
Browse folders (type a path)	Web search (g + keywords)
Quick Switch (folder panel below an Open / Save dialog)	Themes (Preferences → Appearance)
Preferences	Custom commands
Snippets	Scripts

Built-in themes (20 in total, click to expand)

Dark	Classic	Midnight
Frost	Graphite	Ocean
Paper	DarkCompact	LightCompact
TokyoNight	Dracula	CatppuccinMocha
GruvboxDark	SolarizedLight	MidnightCompact
DarkModern	LightModern	Monokai
OneDark

The screenshots are generated automatically by Tests/Screenshots on a Windows runner in GitHub Actions.

For the full syntax ('file, >command, clip, snip, web search keywords and more), see Search and shortcuts in the wiki.

The full documentation is in the wiki:

• Report a problem: open an issue (please include your Windows version and the steps to reproduce)
• Ideas and discussion: Discussions
• Code contributions: please read CONTRIBUTING.md first; the Development guide covers the project structure, running the tests and adding a search feature

Issues and pull requests are welcome in English or Chinese. If ALTRun is useful to you, a star ⭐ is much appreciated.

Free code signing provided by SignPath.io, certificate by SignPath Foundation.

• Only ALTRun.exe built from this repository's source by the Release workflow is signed.
• Committers and reviewers: zhugecaomao
• Approvers: zhugecaomao
• Privacy policy: SECURITY.md

ALTRun is open source under the GPL-3.0 license © zhugecaomao

Thanks to these projects for the inspiration:

• ALTRun (etworker, Delphi): the name and the original design
• RunZ (goreliu, AutoHotkey): the idea of writing a launcher in AutoHotkey
• Alfred: the interaction model
• Listary: its Quick Switch is the model for ALTRun's