“System Commands” on the left-hand side of the window. This
displays the various commands you can run. The commands
are very straightforward, such as “Shutdown” and “Sleep.” The
“Restart Wox” command may come in handy if you want to install
more plugins.5
ENABLE ADDITIONAL PLUGINS
If you followed the instructions in the previous step, you
may have seen that there’s a number of additional plugins
listed besides Web Searches. Click the “Browse more Plugins”
button from the “Plugins” tab to view the database from the Wox
website. Each plugin page displays the code you need to enter in
the Wox search bar to install the relevant plugin—for example,
wpm install Python Calculator. Wox then asks you to confirm
the install. Click “Yes” to proceed. Wox needs to restart to
activate the plugin.
>> If you install the Calculator plugin [Image B], you can carry
out calculations in the navigation bar itself. The Shell plugin
allows you to type “Shell” commands in the search bar, and you
can even replace Win-R. If none of the plugins are to your liking,
you can code your own. Wox supports C#, Python, Node.js, and
Golang, among others.6
TWEAK WOX SETTINGS
You can access the Wox settings either by the system
tray as outlined above, or by typing “Settings” into the
Wox search bar. Under the ‘“General” tab, you can toggle some
of Wox’s default options, such as “Start Wox on system startup”
and “Auto Update” [Image C]. The Wox search bar superimposes
itself over other windows upon launch, so you may want to enable
“Hide Wox on startup.” Alternatively, click “Hide Wox when focus
is lost” to automatically dismiss the Wox search bar if you start
doing something else, such as entering text on a webpage.
If you want to move the Wox search bar permanently to a less
prominent location, such as the top-left of your screen, choose
“Remember last launch location” to store the bar’s position
between launches.7
THEMES
By default, Wox uses a rather drab “Dark” theme. You
can change this from the “Themes” tab [Image D]. There
are seven pre-installed alternate themes. You can also choose
to “Browse for more themes” on the Wox default. If you see a
theme you like, click “Download,” then “Save.” Restart Wox and
open the “Settings” menu. You can now select your new theme
from the “Themes” tab. You can also change the font type andCstyle of not only your Wox search query, but also the
search results. The “Query” box and search result font
automatically use Microsoft Sans Serif with regular
typeface. You can change either of these at any time. The
font for both has to be same, but you can set a different
typeface if you wish.DThe Wox search bar can also be accessed via a number
of keyboard shortcuts. Some of these are built-in—for
instance, you can launch Wox automatically by holding
down Alt-Space. You can also configure new hotkeys to
launch your favorite programs and files. To do this, first
enter “Settings” in the Wox search bar, then press Enter.
Click the “Hotkeys” tab. By default, the only assigned
hotkey combination is the one that launches Wox. Click to
highlight this with your mouse, then choose an alternate
hotkey if you wish.
Click the “Add” button to start creating a new hotkey.
This opens a new window. First, click the “Hotkey” box, then
hold down your desired key combination—for example,
Ctrl-Alt-K. Next, type the name of your chosen file, folder,
or application, such as “Color Management,” in the box
below. Finally, click “Done” to save your new hotkey. If you
no longer require a particular hotkey combo, simply revisit
the “Hotkey” tab, highlight the redundant command with
your mouse, and press the “Delete” button.WOX HOTKEYS
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