Command Line Panel
The command line panel provides you with all of the functions of the run command, and then some. You can start programs, search the web, search for an eBay item, look up a movie, a word's definition, or create your own command line function.
To use the Command Line Panel enter the text to search for in the text field and either hit Enter or click the "Go" button to the right of the text field. You can specify the type of search to make by entering a prefix to your search terms. These prefixes will be mentioned later.
To change the Command Line Panel's options follow these instructions:
- Right mouse click on the panel and select Panel Properties.
- Select the default type of search that will be done trough the panel.
- The Display "Go" button option enables/disables the display of the button to the right of the text line.
Right mouse clicking on the Command Line Panel displays a menu of commands for the panel:
Each of the commands will display the where the search will be made and its prefix. You may use these prefixes to perform the specified search at a later times by entering the prefix, a single space, followed by your search term.
- Run will open the folder directory or run the program entered. This is a default action, therefore there is no prefix.
- Browse will open a browse window for you to navigate to the program that you wish to run. When the program is selected it will be automatically entered in the text field.
- Calc (=) will open a details window in which calculations can be made.
- Google (?)
- Google - I'm Feeling Lucky (!)
- Search the Web SubMenu
- AltaVista (av)
- Ask Jeeves (ask)
- Dogpile (dog)
- Excite (ex)
- Google Newsgroups (gn)
- Google Images (gi)
- Lycos (ly)
- MSN (msn)
- Yahoo! (yh)
- Other SubMenu
- Microsoft Developer Network (msdn)
- Amazon (am)
- eBay (e)
- Microsoft Knowledge Base (mskb)
- Entertainment SubMenu
- All Music Guide - Artist (amgb)
- All Music Guide - Song (amgs)
- All Music Guide - Album (amga)
- All Movie Guide (amg)
- Internet Movie Database (imdb)
- Reference SubMenu
- Cambridge Dictionarys Online (cdo)
- Dictionary.com (dic)
- Thesaurus.com (ths)
- Enclyclopedia.com (enc)
- Merriam-Webster Dictionary (mwd)
- Merriam-Webster Thesaurus (mwt)
This menu has additional web search engines that can be used through the Command Line Panel.
This menu has various searches that didn't fit into the other categories.
This menu has searches for things related to Music and Movies.
This menu has searches to reference items such as Dictionarys, Thesauruses, and Enclycopedias.
As mentioned earlier it is possible to add your own personal Command Line search. To see other customizations that others have created, or to share your own visit the Command Line Customizations forum topic thread. Below is an example describing how the Microsoft Knowledge Base was added to the included searches.
- Open the file basicpanels.dsplugin from the Desktop Sidebar installation directory with Notepad and find the section <searchengines>
- Paste following code there:
<engine prefix="mskb" description="Microsoft Knowledge Base" path="Other/Microsoft Knowledge Base" link="http://support.microsoft.com/" >
<forms>
<form name="gASrform"
action="http://support.microsoft.com/search/default.aspx"
method="get"
key="Query" >
<input type="hidden" name="Query" />
<input type="hidden" name="InCC_hdn" value="true"/>
<input type="hidden" name="Product" value="msall"/>
<input type="hidden" name="KeywordType" value="ALL"/>
<input type="hidden" name="maxResults" value="25"/>
<input type="hidden" name="Titles" value="false"/>
<input type="hidden" name="InCC" value="on"/>
</form>
</forms>
</engine> - Close Notepad
- Restart your Sidebar and then type: mskb setwindowtext in Command Line Panel and hit Enter. Internet Explorer should appear with the results of your search.
Note: To activate the text field at any time type Win+Q