Let me tell you about my new best friend… HoeKey.  ADHERER

Yes, it has a funny name and it’s the epitome of no-frills, but it’s an extremely useful app.  Essentially it allows you to configure hot-key combinations to do lots of useful things, the most useful of which I have found is opening a command shell in the current directory.

I cannot tell you how useful this is.  And it’s extremely intuitive.  Many times I just need to run a command in the current folder that I am browsing.  There are many tools and toys out there to facilitate this, but HoeKey allows me a simple key combination to open that window, already pointed to the current folder.

And it works on more than just Explorer windows.  Much more.  If I am editing a document, HoeKey somehow knows that and opens the command window on the folder where that document resides.  How cool is that?  And if there is no document in the active window, then it opens the command window on the Program Files folder where that application lives.

As the hillbilly said when he saw that his TiVo recommended “Maury”… “How do it know?”

HoeKey can do a multitude of interesting and useful things, from running applications to gathering input, showing dialog boxes, hiding apps, making windows transparent, moving windows around the screen, killing processes, setting system volume, and about a hundred other things that are very useful.

So if you have any need for keyboard shortcuts to useful functions, go and give HoeKey a look-see.  Just Google it to find download sites.