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Quick Start Guide

New to Flow Launcher? This page gets you productive in 5 minutes.

Flow Launcher is a keyboard-driven launcher for Windows. Press a hotkey, type something, press Enter. That's the core loop — but there's a lot of power underneath once you know where to look.

Step 1 — Open Flow

By default, Flow is triggered with Alt + Space. You can change this under Settings → Hotkeys → Open Flow Launcher.

Tip: If Flow doesn't open, check your system tray — look for the Flow icon. Right-click it to access Settings.

Step 2 — Search for anything

Just start typing. Flow searches across:

  • Applications — type chr to search for Chrome, vs for Visual Studio Code, etc.
  • Files and folders — type part of a filename and Flow finds it
  • Calculator — type 14 * 3 and see the result immediately
  • Web searches — type cats and select the Google result to search Google for "cats"
  • System commands — type shutdown, lock, restart, or sleep

Step 3 — Understand action keywords

Some plugins only activate when you type a specific action keyword first. This keeps results focused and prevents clutter.

For example:

  • wiki <query> → Wikipedia search
  • > <command> → run a shell command
  • doc: <text> → search inside file contents

To see all currently active keywords, type ? in the search bar. Refine by typing the first letter or two of the keyword you're looking for.

Global vs. dedicated keywords: Plugins set to the * keyword respond to every query. Plugins with a dedicated keyword (like wiki) only respond when you type that prefix. You can customise keywords per-plugin in Settings → Plugins.

Step 4 — Use the context menu

Every result has a context menu with additional actions specific to that plugin.

To open it:

  • Press → (right arrow) on a highlighted result, or
  • Right-click a result with your mouse

For example, a file result might offer: Open containing folder, Copy path, Run as administrator.

Step 5 — Customise your settings

Open Settings by:

  • Typing settings in Flow, or
  • Pressing Ctrl + I while Flow is open, or
  • Right-clicking the Flow icon in the system tray and choosing Settings

Key things to configure early:

Setting Where to find it
Change the hotkey Hotkeys → Open Flow Launcher
Change the theme Appearance → Theme
Add or remove plugins Plugin Store tab
Set a plugin's action keyword Plugins → [plugin name] → Action Keyword
Prioritise a plugin's results Plugins → [plugin name] → Priority

Next steps