May 08, 2011

Applescript to remove and add login items

The login items for your user account in system preference is where you set applications to launch anytime you login to your computer, including restarts. My recent switch back to Quicksilver prompted the compilation of this script, which shows code that will remove other launchers from startup status and ensure that QS is set.

-- Script to remove other launchers from login items and add Quicksilver

tell application "Finder" to set QSpath to POSIX path of (application file id "com.blacktree.Quicksilver" as string)

tell application "System Events"
if login item "LaunchBar" exists then delete login item "LaunchBar"
if login item "Alfred" exists then delete login item "Alfred"
if (login item "Quicksilver" exists) is false then make new login item at end of login items with properties {path:QSpath, hidden:true, kind:application, name:"Quicksilver"}
end tell

May 04, 2011

I Do Love Me Some Quicksilver

One of the most exciting things to happen to the Mac in quite some time is that a fresh team of developers has taken on the mantle of rejuvenating Quicksilver, the outstanding launcher and quick operation task master for Mac. You can find several references to Quicksilver on the MacBiblioblog and the Accordance actions were originally written for QS.
QS went abandoned for quite some time, and I spent some weeks trying out LaunchBar and the newer, underpowered AlfredApp. I sorta settle on LB, but the result was that I spent as much time clicking in the Spotlight window as I did invoking LB. Well this has changed with the release of the new stable version of QS. Updates are coming regular. Quicksilver has a new home at QSApp.com and they maintain a blog that keeps up a fantastic pace of tips and tutorial at LoveQuicksilver. If I sound giddy, it's because I am.