Settings Help

General

Program settings

Start on Windows startup.

Should Executor start automatically when Windows starts?

Add to Windows 'Send To' menu.

If enabled, you can add keywords by right-clicking a file/shortcut and selecting "Send to" > "Executor".

Hotkey

The global keyboard shortcut used to activate Executor.

Windows key override.

With this you can have the Windows key do something different then just open the Start menu. For example a single Win press will open Executor, and pressing twice will still open the Start menu. Works best if run as admin (but not required), see Docs for more details.

Hotkey also hides Executor when it is in focus.

If enabled, pressing the global hotkey while Executor is already focused will hide the Executor window.

Don't wait for launch result.

When launching, Executor normally waits for success/failure feedback. Enabling this ignores the feedback, preventing potential stalls if the launched process is slow to respond.

Don't try to resolve network paths.

Prevents Executor from trying to access network paths (starting with \\) to get icons/titles/files. Enable this if accessing slow or unavailable network shares causes Executor to hang.

Darker UI themes.

Choose from several colored themes for the Keyword Editor and Settings.

Window settings

Auto center window:

Centers the Executor window on the screen each time it appears. Choose between several options.

Auto-hide (after launching and when no focus).

Hides Executor after a command is executed or if the window loses focus.

Move window to mouse position.

If enabled, the Executor window appears next to the mouse cursor when activated. Only works if "Center" and "Lock" options are disabled. It's also advised to turn off "Hotkey also hides Executor" with this feature.

Lock window position and size.

Prevents the Executor window from being moved or resized.

Force window on top (may cause glitches).

Keeps the Executor window above all other windows. Combine with disabling "Auto-hide" to keep Executor always visible. It's not really recommended using this setting unless you have other apps blocking Executor from getting focus somehow. It may cause glitches like dialog/popup windows etc. appearing behind Executor.

Show icon in the system tray when hidden.

Displays a clickable icon in the system tray (notification area) when Executor is hidden.

Always show icon in the system tray.

Keeps the Executor icon visible in the system tray at all times.

Hide from Alt-Tab (requires restart).

Prevents Executor from appearing in the Windows Alt+Tab application switcher.

History

Save history.

Should the command history be saved when Executor closes?

Max history entries

The maximum number of commands to store in the history.

Clear

Button to clear all saved history entries.

Input, Typing & Autocompletion

Input and typing settings

Autocomplete and order.

Select which item types (Keywords, History, etc.) should be used for autocompletion and define their priority order.

Clear last input when in focus.

Clears the text in the input field whenever Executor gains focus.

Open URLs maximized.

When entering a URL directly, forces it to open in a maximized browser window.

Add space after keyword if it supports parameter.

Automatically adds a space after autocompleting a keyword if Executor detects that the keyword supports parameters.

Auto-expand input when space runs out.

This will auto-expand and move focus to the expanded input while typing, if running out of space in the input field.

Dim main input when expanded.

Will dim the input field text when focus is on the expanded input (more pleasing on the eyes). There's hidden settings "dimamount" and "diminput" as well, taking this further (see hidden settings).

Only autocomplete when cursor is at end of text, or at start of suggestion.

Makes autocompletion less aggressive, preventing suggestions while editing the middle of the input text.

Input keys

Tab = Move delimiter, Ctrl+Tab = autocomplete.

If disabled it will reverse the behavior, so Tab will autocomplete and Ctrl+Tab will move delimiter.

Pressing F4 expands input instead of focusing list.

If disabled pressing F4 will more the focus to the list. Regardless you can also focus list with arrow down and alt+arrow down.

Suggestios (short form detection, fuzzy search)

Suggestions.

If enabled, tries to detect acronyms or abbreviations (e.g., ffox suggests firefox).

No suggestions in input field (only in list).

If enabled, suggestions appear only in the list and not in the input field (if "Suggestions" is enabled in general).

Always add suggesion items to list and replace indexed items...

If checked, suggestions always appear. If unchecked, they only appear if no other items match.

List

List settings

Enabled types and order.

Select which item types appear in the list and define their display order.

Search type.

Determines list filtering: "Text starts with" matches items beginning with the input text, "Contains text" matches items including the input text anywhere.

Max visible items at a time.

The maximum number of items shown in the list without scrolling.

Maximum number of items.

The total maximum number of items the list can hold.

Quick launch items.

If enabled, selecting an item from the list executes it immediately. If disabled, selection places the item text into the input field.

Show type headers.

Displays headers (History, Keywords, etc.) separating different item types in the list.

Detect and hide duplicates.

Prevents the same item from appearing multiple times if it exists in different sources (e.g., History and Keywords).

Show list (recommended).

Automatically opens the list (without focusing it) when matching items are found for the current input.

Show and update list delay

Adds a delay (in milliseconds) before the list automatically opens when typing. Requires "Auto open when items" to be enabled.

Hide list when input field is empty.

If enabled, the list behaves more like a dropdown, closing when the input field is empty. Can interfere with other uses of the list besides search results.

Shrink list height to match list results (legacy).

Automatically adjusts the list's height to fit the content if there are fewer items than the maximum visible.

Show icons in list.

Displays icons next to items in the list. Disabling might improve performance.

Show title in list.

Displays the title/description for each item in the list. Disabling might improve performance.

Write items in bold.

Displays list items using a bold font style for easier reading.

Don't display scrollbar*.

Hides the scrollbar in the list, using small arrows to indicate more items above or below.

Run list appearance wizard

Opens a wizard to configure list appearance (row size, font, font size).

Show numbers in list (1-9).

Displays numbers (1-9) next to the first nine list items as a visual aid for the numeric key launch feature.

Launched list items by pressing Alt+[1-9].

Allows executing the first nine list items by pressing Alt+[1-9].

Launched list items by pressing its number using numeric keys.

Allows executing the first nine list items by pressing the corresponding number key on the numeric keypad.

Allow numeric keys when editing parameter text.

If you have the "Launch list items using numeric keys" feature enabled, then with this setting you still allow the exception to use numeric keys for entering numbers while editing the parameter text of the input field.

Pin an image in the lower right corner.

Will pin an image in the lower right corner of the list.

Pin image

The file path of the image to pin (if any).

Visual / skin

Visual settings

Display style.

Selects the overall look: Mini, Small, Medium, Alpha or Scale (scale is the most modern).

Text

Sets the color of the item name in the input field and in the list.

Background

Sets the background color of the input field.

Border

Sets the color of the window border of the main window.

Title

Sets the color of the description of the current item displayed in the input field.

List title

Sets the color of the list items description.

List Border

Sets the color of the window border of the list window.

Button arrow

Sets the color of the arrow inside the list button (if "Show open list button" is enabled).

Button fill

Sets the background color of the list button (if "Show open list button" is enabled).

Button outline

Sets the border color of the list button (if "Show open list button" is enabled).

Font

Button to change the font name, size, and style for the input field.

ClearType font.

Enables ClearType font smoothing for the input field, even if not enabled system-wide in Windows.

Skin

Specifies the skin file (.skn) to use. Supports $D$ variable and relative paths (e.g., skins\my_skin.skn). If empty no skin is used.

Input assist (ctrl+space) font size.

Set the font size of the input assist feature (ctrl+space), the default size is 10.

Transparency when active.

Make the whole window transparent when Executor is active. Does not work with all skins.

Transparency when inactive.

Make the whole window transparent when Executor is inactive. Does not work with all skins.

Auto show hint (title of item).

Automatically displays a hint/tooltip with information about the selected/entered item. Hints can also be manually shown with Ctrl+T.

Show icon for input (if available).

Should an icon be displayed next to the input field?

Show open list button.

Should the list button be displayed in the input field? (usually to the right of the input field). Makes most sense for users that want to hide the list window per default.

Save visual settings as skin

Button to save the current visual settings (colors, font, style) as a new skin file.

Indexing, scanning & cache

Indexing

Scan start-menu and control panel.

Enables indexing of Start Menu, Control Panel, Desktop, Quick Launch, and other system items.

Auto index

Dropdown setting controlling when indexing occurs: "Never", "Only on startup", "Only on focus", "On startup and on focus", "Only on 15 minutes of idle", "On startup and on 15 minutes of idle".

Index now

Button to manually trigger indexing of enabled sources (Start Menu, additional paths).

Cache and performance

Build cache of all index item icons.

Caches icons for indexed items to potentially speed up list display, but uses more memory (3-15MB) and slightly slows down initial indexing.

Build cache of keywords and history icons.

Caches icons for keywords and history items to speed up display, at the cost of increased memory usage.

Build index cache (for quick start).

Saves the index to a file on closing and loads it on startup for faster initial availability before the new index completes. Not recommended if using Executor portably across different computers.

Additional index paths

Path to index

The folder path to be indexed.

Extensions

File extensions to include in the index (e.g., exe;lnk;txt). Use \ to index folders.

Index depth

Maximum subfolder depth to index (0 = index only the specified path, no subfolders).

Index misc. settings

Also try index UWP Apps.

Attempts to index UWP (Windows Store) Apps. Requires Executor bitness to match OS bitness (e.g., 64-bit Win + 64-bit Executor) and Windows 10+. May fail due to security restrictions.

Display full path in main window.

Shows the full file path of indexed items in the input window when selected.

Display full path in list.

Shows the full file path of indexed items in the list view.

Include hidden folders.

If enabled, hidden folders will be included during indexing.

Don't add history.

If enabled, launching indexed items will not add them to the history.

Browser

Internal browser Settings

Preload internal browser before use (first open faster).

If enabled Executor will load the internal browser on startup in a empty state (no URL), so it will open faster when used for the first time.

Show a green dot when active browser in background.

If enabled, a green dot will be shown if the internal browser is active in the background (if the browser is active but empty the dot will not be shown).

Hide internal browser when empty.

If enabled and the internal browser is visible, Executor will hide the internal browser if the main text input field is empty.

End browser when dismissed (no background running).

When disabled, the internal browser instance is still active when dismissed (in case you want to see again later using $BROWSERTOGGLE$ or the F2 hotkey). If enabling this the internal browser will always be removed when dismissed. If disabled you can still end the browser by using $BROWSEREND$.

Add Executor to default user agent of internal browser.

When visiting a webpage the page will be able to tell it's Executor opening the page, allowing the page to potentially make the page more compatible with Executor. For privacy if you don't want pages to know it's viewed via Executor you can disable this.

Preserve browser focus.

If focus is removed from Executor and the internal browser had the focus, then the internal browser will be refocused once Executor has focus again..

Default connect permission security level.

If a keyword opens internal browser and connects with it using the $BCONNNECT$ or use $BCLICK$ to simulate clicks, then you can set how much the connection is allowed by setting the permission level.

Connect keywords

A list of your keywords that are allowed to connect to the webpage via $BCONNECT$. You can click the keywords in the list to open them in the keyword editor.

Permission granted keywords.

A list of your keywords that you granted access above default access level (at that time). You can click the keywords in the list to open them in the keyword editor.

User agent (leave blank to use default).

Allows you to use another user agent then the default used by the internal browser web-view. The setting "Add Executor to default user agent of internal browser" will have no effect if you enter a user agent.

Flush all internal browser data

Button to reset the Notes window to its default position if it gets lost off-screen.

Start page

URL, a keyword using a URL or leave empty.

The URL of the start page (can also be an offline resource). Or use a keyword that also are also using a URL. Leave empty to have no start page.

Pressing F1 opens start page instead of Help.

If enabled, you can still press Shift+F1 to open help.

Auto-show start page when regaining focus and idle.

Show the start page when Executor regains focus and idle (there's no active elements, like the internal browser, expanded input, half finished input text etc.).

Reload start page every time it's shown.

Will reload the start page every time it is displayed.

Notes

Notes Settings

Text color

Sets the text color within the Notes editor window.

Text background

Sets the background color of the Notes editor window.

Remember size and position.

If enabled, the Notes window will remember its last size and position.

When adding to notes add to the bottom instead of the top.

Quick notes added via commands (e.g., -n remember milk) will be appended to the end instead of the beginning.

Reset window position

Button to reset the Notes window to its default position if it gets lost off-screen.

Location

Use default location (notes.txt in Executor data folder).

Button to reset the Notes file location to the default (notes.txt in the AppData folder).

Custom txt file location path.

Allows specifying a custom path for the notes.txt file (e.g., for cloud sync). Options provided to move, replace, or merge notes when changing.

Monitor for external changes to Notes file.

Automatically reloads the Notes content if the file is modified by an external application.

Sound

Sound settings

Enable sound

Should Executor play sounds for events?

Success sound.

Path to the sound file (.wav,.mp3,.wma) played when a command executes successfully.

Fail sound.

Path to the sound file (.wav,.mp3,.wma) played when a command fails.

Other sounds

Alarm/timer sound.

Path to the sound file (.wav,.mp3,.wma) used for the alarm and timer keywords.

Miscellaneous

Miscellaneous settings

If pressing enter and input is not something valid then

Action to take when Enter is pressed on invalid input: "Do nothing", "Launch first item in list", or "Open text in browser" (uses default search keyword defined by fastsearch in INI).

Auto sort keyword editor when closed.

Automatically sorts the keyword list alphabetically when the keyword editor is closed.

Open keyword editor maximized.

If enabled, the keyword editor window always opens maximized.

Use clipboard sniffer (keyword "clipboard" will list clipboard entries).

Enables Executor to capture clipboard text history (viewable with the clipboard keyword).

Save Clipboard on disk for X hours (0=never).

Persists clipboard history to disk for the specified number of hours, so it's available after restarting Executor (Note: saved data is obfuscated, not encrypted).

Do automatic backup.

Creates automatic backups (executor.ini.bak) of the main settings file.

Startup these keywords...

Field to list keywords, commands, etc., to be executed automatically when Executor starts.

Optional browser.

Force Executor to use a specific browser (provide full path to .exe) instead of the system default.

Optional file explorer.

Use a custom file explorer instead of Windows Explorer (provide full path to .exe). Path will be appended.

Auto import keywords from this internet url on startup...

Specify a URL to an Executor export file (.exc) for automatic keyword import on startup (useful for sharing keywords). See "Adding Keywords" section for details.

Exclude list.

Define paths or items to hide from history, indexed items, and recent documents. Indexing will also skip these paths.

Exclude list dropdown

Controls whether the exclude list applies only to the list or also affects input autocompletion.

Also exclude from filesystem autocomplete

Should file/folder path autocompletion also respect the exclude list?

Calculator

Calculator result will appear..

Determines how calculator results are displayed (e.g., in input field, in list).

Add calculation to history.

If enabled calculations and results will be added to history and can be found in the list.

Show info

Show info when regaining focus.

Displays custom information when Executor gains focus (cleared on key press). Further customization available via hidden settings.