AS AppBox

AS AppBox is an application manager that helps you organize and quickly launch your favorite programs. Built with AutoHotkey v2, it offers a modern and user-friendly interface.

Features

• Add and remove applications from your list
• Run selected applications with one click
• Filter applications by file name or full path with real-time search
• Manage multiple application lists: open, save, and save as separate .txt files
• Restore the last-used list on startup
• Drag and drop support for adding apps
• Context menu for quick actions
• Multiple view modes (list/icon with small and large icons)
• Open file locations in Explorer
• Copy the full path(s) of selected applications
• Column sorting (click column headers to sort, remembers preference)
• Responsive icon loading: generic icons appear first, while application-specific icons are resolved in the background
• Fallback icons for missing files and broken shortcuts
• Reload the active list from disk and discard unsaved changes after confirmation
• Quick access to the project’s GitHub repository from the Help menu
• Window title shows the active list name and marks unsaved changes with *
• Window position, size, view mode, sort order, and active list remembered across sessions
• Toolbar buttons with custom icons (via IconButton class)
• Compilable to standalone EXE (Ahk2Exe directives included)
• Automatic legacy encoding migration (ANSI → UTF-8)
• Atomic file saving (write to .tmp, then rename) for data safety
• Multi-item removal confirmation dialog
• Modal confirmation dialogs that block the main window until a response is given
• Keyboard shortcuts help dialog

Files

File	Description
src/AppBox.ahk	Main application script
src/IconButton.ahk	Icon button class: custom buttons with icon support, grayscale on disabled, DPI-aware
src/Lists/applist.txt	Default application list (created automatically)
src/settings.ini	User preferences, including window state, view/sort settings, and last-used list (created automatically)
src/icons/	Toolbar icon files (.ico) used by the source script

Installation & Run

Option 1: Run the compiled EXE (recommended)

1. Go to the Releases page.
2. Download the latest AppBox.exe file.
3. Double-click AppBox.exe to run. No installation or dependencies required.

Note: The EXE is a standalone portable application. All icon files are embedded in the executable, so no additional files are needed.

Option 2: Run from source (AHK script)

1. Install AutoHotkey v2.
2. Download the project and keep the src/ folder structure intact, including AppBox.ahk, IconButton.ahk, and the icons/ folder.
3. Double-click src/AppBox.ahk to run.

Usage

• Add: Add new applications to your list (files or folders).
• Remove: Remove selected applications.
• Run: Launch selected applications.
• Save: Save your application list.
• Open list / Save list as: Open another list or save the current list to a separate .txt file from the File menu.
• Reload from disk: Discard unsaved changes and reload the active list from its file. The application asks for confirmation first and enables this command only when there are unsaved changes.
• Switch view: Cycle through four view modes: list with small icons, list with large icons, icon view with small icons, icon view with large icons.
• GitHub repository: Open the project repository from the Help menu.
• Exit: Exit the application.
• Clear filter (×): The small button next to the filter box clears the current filter text.
• The window title shows the active list file name. An asterisk (*) indicates unsaved changes.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Anywhere

Key	Action
Ctrl+F	Go to the filter box
Ctrl+O	Open a list
Ctrl+Shift+S	Save list as
Insert	Add applications
Ctrl+S	Save list
Drag & drop	Add files or folders

Filter Box

Key	Action
Esc	Clear the filter
Down	Move to the list

List

Key	Action
Enter / Numpad Enter	Run selected
Del	Remove selected
Ctrl+A	Select all
Esc	Deselect all
Click column header	Sort the list

History

• v1.4 : 2026-10-26

  • Added a Reload from Disk command to restore the active list and discard unsaved changes after confirmation
  • Added a Help menu shortcut to open the GitHub repository
  • Improved icon loading with caching, generic fallback icons, and background resolution of application-specific icons
  • Added fallback handling for missing files and broken shortcuts to avoid blocking list loading

• v1.3 : 2026-10-22

  • Made remove, clear, open-list, and exit confirmation dialogs modal to the main window
  • Removed the timeout from the Clear List confirmation so it remains open until the user responds

• v1.2 : 2026-10-21

  • Added support for multiple named application lists, with Open List and Save List As commands
  • Added Ctrl+O to open a list and Ctrl+Shift+S to save the current list under a new name
  • Saves the active list path in settings.ini and restores that list on startup
  • Moved the default list to the Lists/ directory and added migration from the previous root-level applist.txt
  • Added a separate file-name column and filtering by file name or full path
  • Added a * marker for unsaved changes to the active list in the window title
  • Added list read error handling and a shared atomic writer for Save and Save As
  • Centralized adding files from the picker and drag-and-drop, with duplicate counts in the status bar
  • Added a trailing slash to drive-root working directories when launching applications

• v1.1 : 2026-10-13

  • Added IconButton.ahk: custom button class with icon support, grayscale-on-disabled, and DPI awareness
  • Toolbar buttons now display custom icons (.ico files) instead of Segoe MDL2 Assets font characters
  • Added Ahk2Exe compiler directives for building standalone EXE
  • Replaced manual ImageList icon loading with Windows system icon list (SHGetFileInfoW with SHGFI_SYSICONINDEX) for faster, lower-memory icon display
  • Intelligent icon caching: per-extension cache for common file types, per-path cache for unique types (exe, lnk, ico, etc.)
  • Added settings.ini support: window position/size, view mode, and sort preferences are now saved and restored across sessions
  • Added column header click sorting with ascending/descending toggle
  • Added Keyboard Shortcuts dialog in Help menu
  • Added Ctrl+F shortcut to focus the filter box
  • Added cue banner (placeholder text) in the filter input
  • Filter box keyboard navigation: Esc clears filter, Down moves focus to the list
  • Added Enter / Numpad Enter hotkeys to run selected applications from the list
  • Debounced filter input (100 ms delay) for smoother typing experience
  • Context-sensitive hotkeys: Del, Ctrl+A, Esc, Enter only active when list is focused; Insert disabled while filter is focused
  • Atomic file saving: writes to .tmp file first, then renames for data safety
  • File saving and loading now use UTF-8 encoding
  • Automatic legacy encoding migration: detects ANSI-encoded list files and converts to UTF-8
  • Multi-item removal now shows a confirmation dialog
  • Close dialog now includes a Cancel option (in addition to Yes/No)
  • Save on close verifies success before exiting
  • Run now uses working directory parameter instead of RunWait
  • Duplicate checking uses Map (O(1) lookup) instead of linear array search
  • StatusBar shows filtered count (e.g., "5 of 12 app(s)")
  • StatusBar divided into parts for better information display
  • File selection dialog now allows selecting folders as well (M35 flag)
  • Changed default font to Segoe UI
  • Improved minimum window size (540×570)
  • Window state saved on close (position, size)
  • Various code refactoring and improvements

• v1.0 : 2025-04-25

  • First version

Credits

• IconButton: AHK v2 button class with icon support, grayscale on disabled, and DPI awareness. By Mesut Akcan.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! If you'd like to add features, fix bugs, or improve the code, feel free to open a pull request.

Developer

Mesut Akcan

• mesutakcan.blogspot.com
• youtube.com/mesutakcan
• github.com/mesutakcan